NARRATOR: The President of the United States,
the most powerful human being in the world.
No one could have foreseen the seismic shocks
America would suffer in the 20th century.
The assassination of its youngest-ever leader,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
and the disgrace of its most successful election-winner, Richard Milhous Nixon.
One man destined to die, the other never to be forgiven.
This is a dramatic reconstruction of events as they happened
on two days that shook the world.
It is the 22nd of November, 1963,
in central Asia, Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova
is the first woman to be launched into space.
In England, the hunt is still on for the perpetrators of the Great Train Robbery.
In Washington DC, Martin Luther King
addresses the Million Man March in front of the Lincoln Memorial
And in Dallas, Texas, preparations are underway for a presidential visit
Dallas, Texas. Thursday, November 22nd, 1963
it's a mild morning, but there are ominous grey clouds in the distance
threatening an overcast day with a chance of rain.
In the Oak Cliff suburb of Dallas, the Newman family are looking forward
to this weekend's Thanksgiving celebrations.
But today, they have made plans for a family day out
Hey, you watch that TV, all right?
What's the matter, little buddy? You aren't ready yet?
NARRATOR: It's 7 a.m., and the Newmans are having breakfast
Bill and Gayle Newman were high school sweethearts and now, both aged 22,
they have a young family.
Four-year-old Billy Newman loves cartoons.
Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd are his favourites.
Two-year-old Clayton doesn't care what's on TV,
He's too excited to eat breakfast, either.
Billy, Billy! Come in here and eat!
No, I'm watching TV.
Gayle Newman is having her usual breakfast A bottle of Dr Pepper.
Where was that Indian at? You remember?
Her husband Bill has taken the day off.
But he's still thinking about work.
He recently took a professional electricians' exam
and is waiting for the results.
Across town, Dr Malcolm Perry is also having his breakfast
The 34-year-old surgeon has a routine day ahead of him, lecturing,
and doing his patient rounds at Parkland Memorial Hospital in central Dallas.
Perry trained as a doctor in Dallas,
and served in the US Air Force in Washington before returning to Texas
five years ago, to work as a surgeon at Parkland Hospital
The President of the United States.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, 30 miles away in Fort Worth, Texas,
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States,
is addressing a breakfast conference.
Two years ago, I introduced myself in Paris by saying
that I was the man who had accompanied Mrs Kennedy to Paris.
I'm getting somewhat that same sensation as I travel around Texas.
Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I wear.
NARRATOR: John Kennedy married fashion icon
34-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier 10 years ago.
They now have two young children.
Caroline, aged five, and John-john, aged two.
Jackie Kennedy is looking forward to celebrating the children's birthdays
next week, well away from the hassle of this political trip.
20,000 feet up in the Texas skies, Air Force One, the president's plane,
is making the short flight from Fort Worth to Love Field, Dallas.
On board with John and Jackie Kennedy,
35-year-old Malcolm Kilduff is anxious.
His boss is away in Japan, 50 as Assistant Press Secretary to JFK,
it has been Kilduff's responsibility to organise
the President's tour of Texas, shortly arriving at Dallas.
KILDUFF: The forces of the Republican Party were starting to pick up in '63,
prior to running against Kennedy in '64.
There were a few negative signs.
NARRATOR: Last month, America's United Nations' Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson,
was physically attacked during a visit to Dallas.
The political climate remains tense.
Kilduff is daydreaming about his plans to set up his own PR agency,
well away from the stress and strain of the political world.
The Newman family set off to see the President arrive at Love Field.
-Come on, BILL -Coming, honey.
NARRATOR: Yesterday, Bill bought a new roll of film for his 8mm cine camera,
but in all the excitement, he leaves the camera at home.
As Air Force One comes into land at Love Field,
Malcolm Kilduff is steeling himself for the worst.
Texas is a traditional Republican stronghold.
Kennedy's progressive approach to domestic issues like civil rights
is unsettling the Republican hardcore.
What's more, his international ambition to act as peacemaker to the world
has angered local right-wingers,
who believe that America is too heavily influenced by the United Nations.
Kilduff anticipates a hostile reception. But so far, so good.
(MARCH PLAYING)
As the 46-year-old President and First Lady descend from the aircraft,
the Newman children find it hard to see anything through the mass of people.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
the youngest and the first Catholic President of the United States.
Over the past three years, he has overseen the strongest economic upturn
in American history, and has energised the country.
Ask not what your country can do for you,
ask what you can do for your country.
(BAND PLAYING THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER)
NARRATOR: The future appears to be Kennedy's to command.
He is the dynamic force behind the Civil Rights Bill of 1963.
The man who has made racial segregation illegal
One hundred years of delay have passed
since President Lincoln freed the slaves,
yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free.
They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice.
They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression.
And this nation, for all its hopes, and all its boasts,
will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.
NARRATOR: Malcolm Kilduff steps into the press car,
three cars behind the President's Lincoln,
part of a motorcade that will travel the five miles
through the city to the Dallas Trade Mart.
Kilduff has helped plan the route.
This morning, the President ordered the removal
of the protective bubble on his car,
in order to be closer and more visible to the crowds.
The journey will take approximately 35 minutes through downtown Dallas.
Crowds swarm to the pavements along the main streets of Kennedy's route.
Bill and Gayle Newman leave the airport with Billy and Clayton
to get to Elm Street as quickly as possible ahead of the presidential show.
Bill was too young to vote for Kennedy in 1966,
but he's desperate to see the President, any president.
John F. Kennedy is ending the near of a tough tour of Texas.
San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas and finally, Austin this evening.
Texas is a difficult state.
Very right-wing, very Republican, very vocal
But the President is a political fighter
well used to facing down his critics.
Two weeks from today, you have to make your decision
of what you want this country to be.
What you want Illinois to be.
How ready you are to move this country forward.
That is the question which separates Mr Nixon and myself.
JFK narrowly beats Republican Vice-President Richard Nixon
to the Presidency in 1960
To all Americans, I say that
the next four years are going to be difficult
and challenging years for us all
NARRATOR: But despite his popularity,
he does not yet have total support across America.
In April 1961,
Kennedy unsuccessfully attempted to oust the socialist liberator of Cuba,
Fidel Castro.
Then, last year,
the Soviet Union sent an arsenal of nuclear weapons to Cuba.
Kennedy ordered a blockade of the island and forced the USSR to back down.
The President's foreign policy is dividing supporters within America.
Okay, if we increase pressure here, and here...
NARRATOR: Noon in Dallas. Assistant Professor of Surgery Malcolm Perry
delivers his last lecture of the morning at the Southwestern Medical School
Perry is keen to finish on time.
He has a lunch appointment with a friend over at Parkland Hospital
Meanwhile, Malcolm Kilduff is following the President
Lemon Avenue, Turtle Creek Boulevard, Cedar Springs Road,
right onto Main, round Dealey Plaza and onto Stemmons Freeway North.
Kilduff knows the route well
And so he should, since he helped plan it
The crowds are out in force. Press interest in the Kennedy family
is as intense in Dallas as it is across America.
A thousand days into his presidency, John F. Kennedy is a celebrity.
Camelot, as the White House is now nicknamed,
enjoys a constant influx of glamorous intellectuals.
After the old-world flavour of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower,
JFK is the herald of a new age.
Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.
The Newmans arrive at Dealey Plaza,
only five minutes from JFK's destination, the Dallas Trade Mart.
They find a prime position near the corner of Houston Street and Elm Street,
on a grass bank, only four yards back from the road.
The crowd has thinned out on the Plaza next to the underpass.
Bill Newman is reminded that he left his own camera at home.
Shocking when Babe died before the record.
He never got to see it be broke.
NARRATOR: Malcolm Perry is having lunch with Dr Jones
at Parkland Memorial Hospital,
before his afternoon surgical rounds begin at one o'clock.
The Dallas Trade Mart is awaiting the arrival of the President.
As part of his speech, in an hour's time,
he plans to talk about international strength and security.
Reassuring his audience that the United States is a peaceful nation.
But right-wing Republicans have already made JFK uncomfortable in Texas.
Even a front-page welcome in today's newspaper
is actually a list of challenges to the young president.
The Kennedy motorcade moves through central Dallas,
Main Street, onto Dealey Plaza towards Houston Street.
The crowds on the main part of the route are surprisingly large
and enthusiastic and the weather has stayed bright
The motorcade begins the drive around the Plaza's north corner,
by the old School Book Depository.
The President is relieved at the positive reaction to his visit
As the motorcade turns into Elm Street, Billy Newman glimpses the President.
Misreading the sign behind him, Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff asks,
"what the hell is a book repository?"
(GUNSHOTS)
Three shots have been fired.
After the first, Bill and Gall think someone is letting off firecrackers.
(GUNSHOT)
Billy Newman sees a spurt of blood across the car.
(GUNSHOT)
The third and final shot brings a spray of blood from the President's head.
Billy ls pulled to the ground beneath his father,
who is now terrified of further random shooting.
"Some son of a bitch just shot the President," he screams,
pounding the ground with his fists.
Billy hears Jackie shout, "Oh no,"
as the crowd panics and her husband slumps into her lap.
Immediately, an agent jumps onto the Kennedy car
to protect the President and First Lady.
Special Agent William Greer, driving the Kennedy car, accelerates.
Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff is uncertain what's happened,
or where the motorcade is heading.
Nearby, a 24-year-old man called Lee Harvey Oswald
is seen running away from the Book Depository.
In Dealey Plaza, there is chaos and confusion.
People rush towards the prone Newman family.
Some even take pictures, wondering why they have hit the ground,
or if they have been caught in the cross-fire.
(GUNSHOT)
Kilduff is confused.
KILDUFF: The motorcade pulled off fast
but none of us thought that was unusual
because, in any sort of emergency, we knew that the conditioned reflex
was to get out of there if there was trouble.
NARRATOR: There is no communication with the press car,
only 25 metres behind the President's car,
as they speed through the streets.
In the Parkland's café, Dr Perry hears a pager message
for the head of emergency services, Dr Tom Shires.
Perry knows his boss is away in Galveston,
so he responds to the emergency call
journalists begin filing stories
as soon as they realise the firecrackers were actually gunshots.
But still they have no idea what's really happened.
KILDUFF: There was nothing in those bulletins that will indicate
that anyone had the slightest idea that the President had been shot
until after we got to Parkland Hospital
NARRATOR: Immediately pursued by TV journalists following the shooting,
the Newman family are quickly picked up by police officers
and taken to the sheriff's office to make a witness statement.
They are shocked and very scared.
Dr Perry discovers the emergency patient is the President.
- Talk to me. - WOMAN: Get the blood pressure...
NARRATOR: He rushes into Trauma Room 1,
where has been JFK has been taken, case number 24740.
PERRY: I did not detect a heartbeat,
and was told there was no blood pressure obtainable.
MAN: What's the EKG look like?
The President's clothing is removed as part of emergency procedure.
The trauma team notice an amateur bandage
around President Kennedy's thigh.
They have no idea to this day what it was for.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
You mean to tell me that in a service area the size of Dallas
I can't get at least 12 phones? Lady, I have an emergency...
NARRATOR: Now operating on autopilot,
Malcolm Kilduff is on the phone to Southern Bell,
ordering more phone lines for the press and government agents.
Southern Bell are quickly onto the case.
Kennedy's body is making what doctor's call
ineffective spasmodic respiratory efforts. He is trying to breathe.
Dr Perry makes a quick diagnosis.
PERRY: I noted the presence of lacerated brain tissue.
In the lower part of the neck, below the Adam's apple,
was a small, roughly circular wound from which blood was exuding slowly.
NARRATOR: Malcolm Perry attempts to ease the President's breathing.
He quickly performs an emergency tracheotomy
by inserting a tube through the wound in Kennedy's neck.
Meanwhile, the neurosurgeons prepare
to take readings of electrical activity in the President's brain.
Kilduff waits for news in the corridor.
He already fears the worst
There is a five-inch hole in the back of Kennedy's skull
From his vantage point of the President's head,
Dr McClellen sees that half the right side of his brain has been destroyed.
Fearing a coup d'etat, the security services decided it's too dangerous
to allow Vice President Johnson to remain so close.
He is moved away from Parkland Hospital
Dr Malcolm Perry already fears it is a hopeless situation.
PERRY: The President's eyes were dim and dilated and he was unresponsive.
We were breathing for him.
I had begun external cardiac massage.
We had been unable to detect a heartbeat, blood pressure, or a pulse.
(TELEPHONES RINGING)
NARRATOR: Kilduff has set up an emergency press office
in a nearby classroom to cope with the growing media interest
News of the shooting is starting to hit the airwaves.
ANNOUNCER: Here is a bulletin from CBS News.
In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade
in downtown Dallas.
The first reports say that
President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.
Stay tuned to CBS News for further details.
As quickly as possible, I need you down there to find as many witnesses...
NARRATOR: Malcolm Kilduff realises that Kennedy's spattered Lincoln
is now vulnerable to prying eyes, and immediately orders agents
to replace the bubble fixture previously removed from the car.
At some point before one o'clock, the Lincoln is also thoroughly cleaned
of all forensic material,
apparently on orders from the FBI
At 12:58, Dr Perry leaves Trauma Room 1 to wash up.
There is nothing more he can do.
Perry remembers he has left his jacket behind,
and slips back into the trauma room to retrieve it.
1:00 p.m., 30 minutes after the shooting,
John F. Kennedy is pronounced dead.
He is the youngest president ever elected. And the youngest to die.
Exactly 100 years to the week since the Battle of Gettysburg,
Abraham Lincoln's finest moment.
(GUNSHOTS)
Only Dr McClellen remains as Father Oscar Huber arrives
to administer the last rites to America's first Catholic President.
If thou livest...
His first words are "If thou livest".
In accordance with strict Catholic protocol,
he is only able to grant conditional salvation to a dead man.
soul, body and...
ANNOUNCER: Late information just in:
Acting White House Secretary Malcolm Kilduff
was asked whether the President was dead, and he said "I have no word now".
The President...
NARRATOR: In the temporary press centre at Parkland Hospital,
Malcolm Kilduff has been asked to wait
until Vice President Johnson is back on board Air Force One
before he formally announces the President's death.
Jackie Kennedy enters the trauma room.
Her husband has been dead for just over 10 minutes.
The last remaining doctor watches at a distance
as she removes her wedding ring and places it next to her husband's.
Only three months ago, Jackie gave birth to their fourth child, Patrick.
The boy died after only three days.
The trauma now brings nothing but silence.
The Vice President boards Air Force One and Malcolm Kilduff
is finally allowed to make the most important press statement of his life.
KILDUFF: President John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1 p.m.
Central Standard Time here in Dallas.
He died from a gunshot wound to the brain.
I have no further details at this time.
NARRATOR: The American public are stunned by the announcement.
No one is left unaffected by the shock news.
From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official,
President Kennedy died at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time,
2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.
Vice President Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas,
but we do not know to where he has proceeded.
NARRATOR: Former teacher and Texas senator Lyndon Baines Johnson
has served under Kennedy as Vice President for almost three years.
Now, in tragic circumstances,
the 55-year-old will succeed JFK as President
Ten miles away, 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald
is arrested in a cinema following the shooting of a police officer.
He is later charged with the murder of President Kennedy.
As Malcolm Kilduff reaches Air Force One,
Vice President Johnson phones the Attorney General
and is instructed to take the oath of office immediately.
He reluctantly calls the only local judge available, Sarah Hughes.
Johnson vetoed her appointment to the federal bench,
but now he must ask her to swear him in as president.
Johnson personally phones three lawyers in Dallas.
No one has the text of the Presidential oath to hand.
There are also no sound and motion cameras to record the moment.
One of Kilduff's press agents
finds a Dictaphone with one spare recording belt
A professional stills camera is also brought on board.
Two very basic machines will immortalise
one of the most important events in American history.
Finally, the Attorney General dictates
the words of the ceremony over the telephone from Washington.
President Kennedy's body is loaded onto Air Force One as Judge Hughes arrives.
Five minutes later,
Lyndon Johnson begins the ceremony that will make him President
Malcolm Kilduff, crouched at Johnson's feet, operates the Dictaphone.
Still, silent, and in shock,
Jackie Kennedy acts as witness to the event.
HUGHES: I do solemnly swear...
JOHNSON: I do solemnly swear...
that I will faithfully execute...
the office of President of the United States...
and will, to the best of my abilities...
NARRATOR: With the new President Johnson on board,
Air Force One takes off from Love Field, Dallas.
Two and a half hours later,
the plane lands at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington,
where President Kennedy took off for Texas yesterday morning.
The casket is removed from the plane
and Jackie rides with it into Washington.
She is still wearing the pink, blood-soaked dress and stockings,
caked in her husband's blood.
At 6:15 p.m., President Lyndon Johnson addresses the world for the first time.
JOHNSON: This is a sad time for all people.
We have suffered a loss that cannot be waived.
For me, it is a deep, personal tragedy.
I know that the world shares the sorrow
that Mrs Kennedy and her family bear.
I will do my best, that is all I can do.
NARRATOR: On Monday, next week,
John Kennedy Junior will mark his third birthday
and, on Wednesday, his sister Caroline will be six.
Deeply shaken by their experiences of the day,
the Newman brothers will sleep on the floor of their parents' room
for days afterwards.
The family will never return to Dealey Plaza.
Dr Malcolm Perry will later move to Washington DC as Professor of Surgery.
He returned to Southwestern Medical School in 1996.
Two years after President Kennedy's death,
Malcolm Kilduff left the White House to set up his own news agency.
He later edited a local newspaper, and died in March, 2003.
Two days after Kennedy's death, the accused assassin,
Lee Harvey Oswald, is himself gunned down in a Dallas city jail
He dies the day before JFK's funeral
KENNEDY: If a beachhead of cooperation
may push back the jungle of suspicion,
let both sides join in creating a new endeavour,
where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.
All this will not be finished in the first 100 days,
nor in the life of this administration,
nor even, perhaps, in our lifetime on this planet.
But let us begin.
NARRATOR: It ls the 8th of August, 1974.
At the Geneva Peace Conference,
negotiations continue on the future of Cyprus.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland, vehicles are set alight in protest
at the British Government's internment policy.
In Buenos Aires, Eva Peron is sworn in as interim leader of Argentina.
And in Washington DC President Richard Nixon
is to be impeached following his role in the Watergate break-in.
10:45 a.m. The White House, Washington.
51-year-old Ollie Atkins loads his cameras
with two rolls of black-and-white film.
Ollie has been ordered to get over to the Oval Office as quickly as possible.
A meeting will take place at 11:00 between the Vice President
and the President, Richard Milhous Nixon.
Thirty seventh President of the United States.
Ollie is the White House chief photographer.
Today will be the biggest day of his career.
This morning, the White House ls under siege.
Political aids and party workers face a major crisis.
The press are camped out everywhere.
Yesterday it was announced that President Nixon is to be impeached.
He will be tried by the US Senate for high crimes and misdemeanours
The charges stem from his involvement in a political scandal known as Watergate.
At stake, the presidency itself,
his political career and even his freedom.
Ollie gets to the Oval Office early and arranges for a White House assistant
to turn the lights up on a signal from him
when the Vice President arrives.
"These will be the most historic photographs
"you will ever take", he has been told.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the White House,
in the Nixon family residence, Manolo Sanchez is emptying drawers.
He has been valet to Richard Nixon for 13 years.
His wife, Fina, is the personal maid to First Lady Pat Nixon.
Vice President Gerald Ford arrives
and Ollie waits with him outside the Oval Office.
He follows him in a minute later and the President turns to him.
"How do you want us, Ollie?" he asks. The President is smiling.
Ollie asks him to be more serious.
Nixon and Ford discuss how to respond to the current impeachment crisis.
The President's career has been something of a roller coaster ride,
but, right now, his prospects look bleak.
Richard Nixon launched his bid for the presidency way back in 1960,
But he lost a close-run race to the emerging John F. Kennedy.
He then proclaimed the end of his political ambitions,
when he lost the election for Governor of California, two years later.
I leave you gentlemen now,
and you will now write it You will interpret it. That's your right
But as I leave you, I want you to know,
just think how much you're gonna be missing.
You don't have Nixon to kick around any more.
NARRATOR: But, ever the political opportunist,
Nixon bounced back in 1968
when he won the presidency on the pledge of ending the war in Vietnam.
The greatest honour history can bestow
is the title of peacemaker.
This honour now beckons America.
NARRATOR: 11:30 a.m. And Nixon continues his meeting with Ford.
The President still believes he can salvage his reputation
despite his pending impeachment
Others disagree, including some of his oldest friends
and political allies who now begin to publicly desert him.
I am prepared to conclude
that the magnificent public career of Richard Nixon
must be terminated involuntarily.
NARRATOR: It seems Nixon's luck has run out.
He has been a President
with the knack of being in the right place at the right time.
In his first term,
he welcomed home America's first men on the moon,
though it had been Presidents Kennedy and Johnson who had put them there.
But Nixon was also the architect
of significant milestones in Cold War diplomacy.
In 1972, he was the first American president
to ever visit China and Moscow.
At the very moment Nixon was enjoying his greatest political achievement,
the seeds of his eventual downfall were being sown.
Reports were emerging
of a seemingly insignificant break-in at the Watergate building in Washington.
On June the 17th, 1972, five men were caught installing bugging devices
in the offices of the Democratic Party in the Watergate complex.
Two of the men had CIA connections.
Another was James McCord, Nixon's Republican security chief.
Justice will be pursued fairly,
fully and impartially,
no matter who is involved.
NARRATOR: 77:45 a.m., and Vice President Ford leaves the Oval Office.
He has a momentous day ahead of him.
If Nixon is forced out of power, then Ford will assume the presidency.
But Richard Nixon has proved his ability
to fight his way back when the political odds seem stacked against him.
Twenty two years ago,
he fought a charge of embezzlement while standing for election.
I don't believe that I ought to quit Because I'm not a quitter.
NARRATOR: £ncouraged by intense coverage by The Washington Post,
the FBI began to investigate following the Watergate burglary in 1972.
But Nixon, himself, seemed untouched by it
He was re-elected the same year with the biggest landslide in US history.
Just days after Nixon celebrated his re-election,
the five Watergate burglars and two accomplices
went to trial and to prison in January, 1973,
Nixon was still at a safe distance,
the hero of the hour for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam.
12:15 p.m., Ollie Atkins races ahead of the President,
to the Executive Office Building.
Nixon walks across five minutes later.
He's due to meet with his personal lawyer to discuss his options.
The crowd's are building up outside the White House.
Following yesterday's impeachment announcement,
the media are campaigning for, and anticipating, Nixon's resignation.
The political climate remains tense.
Last October, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned over charges of tax evasion.
His was not the only resignation of 1973.
Domestic affairs assistant John Erlichman,
resigned pending trial for obstruction of justice.
And most damaging of all, the Attorney General John Mitchell,
apparently the ring leader of the Watergate bugging team,
was forced to quit
We have faced other crises in our history and
we have become stronger by rejecting the easy way out
and taking the right way in meeting our challenges.
Our greatness as a nation has been our capacity to do what has to be done
when we knew our course was right.
NARRATOR: Newspaper investigations have revealed trails of dirty money
and espionage linking the Watergate burglars to the White House.
Nixon himself has been implicated. The noose is tightening.
Ollie waits outside the President's office.
He's not invited in.
The President is meeting his personal lawyer.
For two years, Nixon has claimed there had been no attempt
to prevent the FBI's investigation of the Watergate break-in.
NIXON: We must maintain the integrity of the white House.
And that integrity must be real, not transparent.
There can be no whitewash at the White House.
NARRATOR: But a taped conversation has revealed that there was a whitewash.
Only a week after the break in,
Nixon and Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman
colluded to block the FBI investigation of Watergate.
This taped conversation is the smoking gun
that finally proves Nixon's direct involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
Richard Nixon is now considering his position.
The President leaves the Executive Building.
Already facing impeachment and the threat of legal action,
Richard Nixon has decided to resign.
He will be the first American President to resign from office.
White House staff are briefed in the White House Theatre
by the Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
The President walks through the corridors of the White House.
NIXON: The West Wing was strangely quiet
Desks that had never been uncluttered were cleared.
Only the steady ringing of the phones
gave the place a sense of purpose, of life.
Everything else seemed frozen.
NARRATOR: Manolo Sanchez is preparing the President's lunch.
He takes a special pride in it today.
Cottage cheese and pineapple and a glass of milk.
He insists on taking it across to the President personally.
The President is taking a nap. He skips Manolo's lunch.
Ollie takes a snap of it,
feeling that every moment, every detail, is now historic.
Richard Nixon's last White House meal
Ollie shares a club sandwich with Manolo at lunchtime.
The valet makes his anguish clear.
Richard Nixon had endorsed the Sanchez couple's naturalization
in 1968 down in Florida.
They are still proud to serve the President.
OLLIE: When he gets worked up, he keeps lapsing into Spanish
and nobody knows what he's talking about
And he kept on going in a marathon English-Spanish talking jag.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
NARRATOR: Nixon spends the afternoon locked away, writing his speech,
the resignation speech.
He will broadcast live to the nation at nine this evening.
Raymond K. Price Junior is also working on the President's speech.
He's been on the staff for seven years
and wrote Nixon's inaugural speech in 1969.
Tonight's address will be typed in large-print letters
so the President can read it on television without glasses.
Nixon takes a walk in the white House Rose Garden.
He did the same thing yesterday afternoon with his daughter, Tricia.
She had been married here, three years ago.
Today Nixon has instructed the Press Secretary
to keep everyone away from him.
Snappers grab illicit photographs anyway.
Nixon shaves and takes a shower as Manolo lays out his suit
It's the same one he wore in Moscow in 1972,
when speaking on Russian television.
Slate blue with light texture.
Cooler, he thinks, for wearing under hot TV lights.
The full significance of this choice is only revealed later.
Nixon leaves Manolo and the White House family quarters.
Outside the nearby gates, the public throng has grown.
Most are angry at the President.
Some are apparently singing America, in support of him.
He walks on to the Executive Building without acknowledging anyone.
The countdown to the speech has begun.
An hour and a half to go.
Official business. Nixon meets the five congressional leaders to inform them
that he has decided to resign.
NIXON: I took a look around the office.
My eyes ran over the familiar elephants, the gavels, the framed cartoons,
and the pictures of Pat and Tricia and Julie.
I walked out and closed the door behind me.
I knew that I would not be back there again.
NARRATOR: Half an hour later, an hour until airtime,
Nixon meets 46 friends and supporters in the Cabinet Room.
Nixon mentions that he will fly home to California tomorrow,
and will have the black briefcase
with the Presidential nuclear launch codes with him
until Air Force One lands in California.
The President is unaware that Defense Secretary James R Schlesinger,
a so-called supporter, will have removed the briefcase from the aircraft.
He has also instructed the Joint Chiefs of Staff
that any order for military movement from the White House
must be counter-signed by him.
The Schlesinger protectorate
is intended to impede any last-minute military coup by President Nixon.
Ollie Atkins is preparing to photograph the President's speech.
Two rolls, colour and black and white.
He is standing in the corridor as Nixon leaves the Cabinet Room,
"saying to his friends, I just hope I haven't let you down"
Outside the white House gates,
the public are anticipating the President's address.
Inside the white House, the staff gather around television sets,
as they await the President's speech.
The President is taken to a room adjacent to the Oval Office for make-up
prior to the broadcast at 9:00.
He remembers refusing make-up for the Presidential Candidate's Debate
with Kennedy back in '60.
He looked terrible.
Some still say that is why he lost that year.
We know what peace demands.
We will keep America the strongest nation in the world.
And we will couple that strength with firm diplomacy.
NARRATOR: The President knows he has destroyed himself.
He installed the secret White House taping system
that revealed his complicity in the Watergate cover-up.
He had recorded himself planning it with his Chief of Staff
a week after the 1972 break-in.
(HALDEMAN ON TAPE)
(NIXON ON TAPE)
NARRATOR: The President was forced to release the tape of this conversation
only two weeks ago.
It's evidence that he led and it could yet send him to prison.
Those acts cannot be defended.
Those who are guilty of abuses must be punished.
NARRATOR: Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman
resigned last autumn over Watergate
and now stands to go to jail for obstruction of justice and perjury.
Nixon could face the same fate
at the hands of special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.
"Some of the best writing has been done in jail"
Nixon quips to his lawyer,
masking a real fear of prison.
To most of us, Watergate has come
to mean not just a burglary and a bugging of party headquarters,
but a whole series of acts that either represent or appear to represent
an abuse of trust.
NARRATOR: Nixon is overwrought,
and the make-up girl is asked to leave while he regains his composure.
8:58 p.m.
The President sits down behind the desk in the Oval Office.
Ollie usually takes snaps before or after a speech,
but wants it real and live this time.
The President reluctantly agrees.
As the shutter clicks repeatedly,
Nixon is very nervous and makes jokes and comments which no one reacts to.
Without realising it, he is wearing the same suit and tie that he was wearing
when the Watergate burglary took place in June, 1972.
Manolo is in the kitchen with the staff watching television.
All over the White House, staff gather around television sets
to witness the President's historic address.
At exactly 9:01 p.m.,
President Nixon addresses the nation for the last time.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life,
I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.
NARRATOR: 110 million people across America are watching.
Forty million are listening to the radio.
NIXON: Throughout the speech I looked down at the pages of the text,
but I did not really read it
That speech was truly in my heart.
I have never been a quitter.
To leave office before my term is completed
is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.
NARRATOR: Ollie shifts onto the porch
and photographs the President through the window in the middle of the speech.
Nixon does not acknowledge any guilt over Watergate,
but says he would be too distracted by the scandal to be an effective leader.
Therefore, I shall resign the presidency,
effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford shall be sworn in as President..
NARRATOR: 9:76 p.m. Nixon finishes the speech without breaking down.
He is sweating profusely, so much so that his suit is wringing wet
He jokes with the TV crew who stand respectfully silent around him.
The President hands out old election souvenirs to the camera operators.
"Well, that's what's left, boys", he says.
The President makes his way over to the Family Residence to be with his family.
There were pictures yesterday evening of a similar emotional gathering.
Tonight Ollie has not been invited.
Outside, the crowd chants, all to the Chief...
The family departs,
and Manolo brings the President bacon and eggs in the Lincoln Sitting Room.
He leaves the room, but hovers near in case the President needs him.
Nixon starts making phone calls.
Meanwhile, two of the Watergate prosecution team
are preparing a formal recommendation for Nixon's arrest
following his departure tomorrow.
NIXON: In any organisation,
the man at the top must bear the responsibility.
That responsibility, therefore, belongs here, in this office.
I accept it.
NARRATOR: Nixon awakes, thinking H's 4:30.
Two hours early, he gets up anyway to fix himself a snack.
He is surprised to find Manolo already up,
and the two men quickly discover that the President's watch
must have stopped during the night
Time is still ticking for Richard Nixon.
Nixon is working on the morning address to the White House staff.
Chief of Staff, General Al Haig
enters the Lincoln Room with the President's resignation letter.
Surrounded with the memoirs of past presidents, Nixon signs his name.
He has been President for just over 2,000 days.
While Nixon completes his final duties,
his fate is about to be determined.
Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski receives a memo detailing the reasons
to prosecute the President.
"To preserve the integrity of the criminal justice system,"
"a person should not be permitted to trade-in the abused office"
in return for immunity.”
Mr Nixon's aides are to be prosecuted for the same of fences.
Leon Jaworski agrees to consider prosecuting Nixon.
Manolo fights back the tears as the First Family arrive in the lift
by the East Room where the President will speak.
When the Marine band strikes up with Oklahoma in the Grand Hall,
Pat Nixon is upset to learn that TV cameras are present.
Her husband says he authorised it
Manolo remains at the back of the room.
Ollie Atkins and his team
photograph the President's farewell remarks to the White House staff.
NIXON: The emotion in the room was overpowering.
For several minutes, I could not quiet the applause.
After I started to talk, I began to look around.
I think the record should show that this is one of those spontaneous things
that we always arrange whenever the President comes in to speak.
NIXON: By now, I was fighting back a flood tide of emotions.
Last night had been the formal speech for history.
But now I had the chance to speak personally and intimately
to these people who had worked so hard for me,
and whom I had let down so badly.
NARRATOR: There is no mention of Watergate.
For the first time, Nixon wears his glasses in front of the public.
He quotes his hero, Theodore Roosevelt, directly from the page.
"She was beautiful in face..."
NARRATOR: Nixon uses the example of Roosevelt's resilience
after losing his wife as an encouragement to his own followers.
This was in his diary. He said,
"And when my heart's dearest died,"
"the light went from my life forever."
Always remember, others may hate you.
But those who hate you don't win, until you hate them.
And then you destroy yourself.
I want to say for each and every one of you,
not only will we always remember you,
not only will we always be grateful to you,
but always you will be in our hearts
and you will be in our prayers. Thank you very much.
MAN: Everybody else was fighting back tears
and trying to keep from breaking down.
But at the end of it? When he made the thumbs-up signal,
he looked remarkably like he did when he was on the campaign trail
NARRATOR: Ollie hurries to where the helicopter
is waiting in front of the crowds.
When he takes off with the President,
his staff will take pictures on the ground.
Richard and Pat Nixon are escorted to the Presidential helicopter, Marine One,
by Gerald and Betty Ford.
NIXON: The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film,
forever frozen at that moment.
The red carpet, the green lawn, the white House,
the leaden sky, the starched uniforms
and polished shoes of the Honor Guard.
NARRATOR: Nixon gives his characteristic victory salute to the press and staff
and the helicopter takes them to Andrews Air Force Base,
where the President boards Air Force One for the last time.
The one-line resignation letter is presented to Henry Kissinger,
who formally counter-signs it
Noon. Nixon is in Air Force One, sipping a martini.
His resignation is now effective. He is no longer president
Back in Washington, his chair is removed from the Oval Office
as all traces of Richard Nixon are erased.
The office is prepared for the new President
Exactly three minutes later,
Gerald Ford takes the oath in the White House
and becomes the 38th President of the United States.
Simultaneously, Air Force One loses its Presidential name
and officially becomes simply Spirit of '76.
Congratulations, Mr President.
Richard Nixon's plane heads for California and exile.
Awaiting him is a roomful of flowers sent by well-wishers.
Ollie Atkins takes a picture,
his last as official photographer to Richard Nixon.
Almost immediately, Gerald Ford replaced Ollie Atkins with his own photographer.
Ollie left the White House a few weeks later,
to become vice president of a publishing company.
Manolo Sanchez remained with the Nixons
until they left California in 1980, Soon after, he returned to Spain.
In February, 1975, Bob Haldeman went to prison.
In total, almost 30 people were imprisoned in connection with Watergate.
Richard Nixon remained in California with his family.
Jaworski did not act on the prosecution memo,
but many still demanded that Nixon should be jailed.
In September 1974,
President Ford used his position to publicly pardon the former President
for all of fences against the United States.
In accepting his pardon, Nixon finally accepted his guilt.
NIXON: To have served in this office, is to have felt a very personal sense
of kinship with each and every American.
And leaving it, I do so with this prayer.
May God's grace be with you
in all the days ahead.