Nixon & Watergate

On 8 August 1974, US President Richard Nixon announced his intention to resign from office. This signaled the end of a scandal-plagued period in office. The release of the so-called “smoking gun” audio recording had implicated Nixon in attempts to cover-up his surrogate’s illegal break-in at the DNC national headquarters two years earlier.

But why did Nixon do what he did? What was the role, if any of the FBI and CIA in the crime or the cover-up? Were Nixon’s “dirty tricks” anything unusual in US politics? And, what is the legacy of Watergate?

In this episode, I discuss these topics with Professor Bruce Schulman the William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University. He is the author of three books and editor of six others: From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1991); Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994); and The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Politics, and Society (N.Y.: Free Press, 2001).

Audio:
Nixon resignation, Nixon speech & watergate audio. Public domain.
Music from Pixabay