All language subtitles for DAVID FROST - VS - 4 - Documentary[2025]

MAN: David,
starting with camera two in four...

..three, two...

Cue David. And...

I spent a long time being

and thinking about David
and getting to know him.

This was the biggest
moment of his career,

this massive risk
under so much pressure.

It never lost its intensity
or its drama.

MAN: Four, three, two...

Tonight in this room,

former President Richard Nixon
will be speaking publicly

about his years of power

for the first time
since he resigned from office.

REPORTER: The biggest White House
scandal in a century.

He isn't above the law,
no one should be.

They should lock him up,
as far as I'm concerned.

He'll be confronting the whole of his
controversial presidential past,

from Vietnam... to Watergate.

BOB: It was a journalistic,

cultural, political coup.

This was not getting some TV anchor
to interview him for a half hour.

Twenty-eight hours of taping
over a period of a month.

BOB: This was going
to be a real knockdown,

drag out cross examination.

It's YOUR recollection of a meeting.
Isn't it better to let people judge?

MICHAEL: Frost's entire career after
this depends on how this goes,

and the gatekeepers of journalism
were saying he wouldn't be up to it.

When I resigned, people didn't think

it was enough to admit mistakes,
fine.

WILFRIED: He had to get Nixon
to admit wrong-doing.

If they want me to get down,
grovel on the floor...

No. Never.

Hello. Good evening, and welcome.

We wanna involve both world leaders
and world entertainers.

And what I've tried
to talk with them about

are things
that are not usually asked.

Every time a Black man's lynched,
I'm lynched.

(DRAMATIC THEME MUSIC)

We're not living
in ivory towers in Hollywood.

Am I paranoid?

The answer is, at times, yes.

I had betrayed a myth, an image.

I've never really known
how to communicate

with people on a one-to-one basis.

(UPBEAT TV THEME MUSIC)

REPORTER: David Frost took
American television by a storm

with a syndicated talk show
in the early '70s.

Mr James Brown.

Miss Barbra Streisand.
Mr Richard Burton. Mr Ray Charles.

But Frost's American rocket
fizzled quickly.

He went from having eight nights
a week in London and New York

to having no real interview platform
on either side of the Atlantic.

Newsweek magazine said David Frost's
American career had waned

after his talk show
was dropped in 1972. Accurate?

Er... Well I wouldn't have said so

because it depends how you define
a career, of course.

I would have said that my career was
exploding at that particular point.

MAN: Five, four...

Welcome back, and we're on the verge
now of a gastronomic summit...

breaking three speed-eating records.

William's made a good start there
with those revolting-looking whelks,

down the end there...

I met him at a dinner party.

I got the impression
that he was a very busy man.

Ladies and gentlemen,
we're on a verge of a world record...

He did the Guinness
Book of World Records...

(LAUGHS) ..the sword swallower.

He was paid to speak
to this dental convention.

Truth was,
he was struggling at that time...

..and I think quite a few people

were saying,
"Well, Frost is yesterday business."

Deep down, he was quite worried

about what was gonna happen
with the future.

He was kinda out of options,

and he was desperate to get
back to the big time.

I love new challenges.

If people tell me something's
impossible,

then I'll find it irresistible
to do it.

When they say it can't be done,
I find that irresistible.

CAROLINE: The idea was always to
achieve the impossible interview

and after Watergate,
that was Richard Nixon.

(CROWD CHEERS)

REPORTER: President Nixon appears
to have won re-election

by the largest absolute majority
ever in American history.

That was my first election that
I was going to be able to vote in.

I voted for Nixon, mostly because
I believed he was capable

of getting us out of Vietnam,
and I was draft age.

So, when the Watergate
scandal struck,

it was a shock.

The Senate tonight
voted 77 to nothing

to establish
a select committee to investigate

alleged political espionage
in last year's election campaign.

That includes
the Watergate bugging case

What did the President know,
and when did he know it?

BOB: Carl Bernstein and I did
the original stories on Watergate.

REPORTER: Bob,
when did you first begin suspect

that this was a really big story

and not simply a bit of burglary?
Well, I think the day after,

when it was established that
one of the five men arrested

in the Democrats headquarters
was the campaign security chief

for the president's
re-election committee.

The break
in was to plant microphones

so they could eavesdrop
on the political opposition.

REPORTER: The biggest White House
scandal in a century,

the Watergate scandal,
broke wide open today.

REPORTER 2: Charges of a high-level
campaign a political sabotage

unparallelled in American history.

I just don't believe anything that
Mr Nixon is saying right now.

I don't think the American people
should stand for it any longer.

I think we need a new president.

REPORTER:
We are cancelling the remainder

of our regular programme
scheduled for this evening

in order to bring
you the following special report...

I have never been a quitter.

I was on the road
promoting Happy Days.

and literally on the TV
was Nixon resigning.

Because of the Watergate matter,

I might not have the
support of the Congress

that I would consider necessary to
carry out the duties of this office.

Therefore,

I shall resign the presidency
effective at noon tomorrow.

RON: It was pretty shattering.

May God's grace be with you
in all the days ahead.

I, Gerald R. Ford,

president of the United States,

do grant a full, free and absolute
pardon unto Richard Nixon

for all offences
against the United States.

Ford decided, for the unity of the
country, that he'd pardon Nixon...

CROWD: (CHANTING):
Justice! Justice! Justice! Justice!

..but certain people
thought that Nixon should be

prosecuted
to the full extent of the law.

The American public won't find
out what really went on.

Just getting off scot-free.

I had been hired in 1973

as one of the first members of the
Watergate Prosecution Task Force.

We were terribly upset.

We would have liked
to have indicted him...

so that he would have to plead to
something and acknowledge his guilt.

REPORTER: Richard Nixon
is in San Clemente tonight.

The challenge that faces him
now is the toughest one of all:

how to begin to put back
together a shattered life.

The day he resigned,

Nixon asked me to go out
on Air Force One to California.

We were a very small band
of brothers and sisters

isolated
in the house in San Clemente.

We were loyalists,

and some of us
were blind loyalists, I think.

The jackals were out to get him.

The whole establishment
wanted Nixon's throat.

They got the resignation,
they got him kicked out of office,

they took away his income.

He was broke.

He said, "Look, Ken,

to tell my story,

I have to tell it on television...

and I can reach millions and
millions and millions of people."

Then came Mr Frost with an offer.

REPORTER: The former president
has agreed to record

a series of interviews
with David Frost.

REPORTER 2: The contract
was signed at San Clemente

on the first anniversary
of Mr Nixon's resignation.

I sense that he is ready to start
reflecting on his achievements

and his mistakes. No subject,

including Watergate,

has been barred.

Nixon had other offers
from the networks,

but Dad had outbid them.

Where was the money
going to come from?

At that point, we just didn't know.

(VIA PHONE):
I'm sorry it sounds strange,

but as so often,
I'm in the car at the moment.

I'm off on Saturday,
and I'm obviously going to be based

in California
for the next two months.

People said, "Oh, this is a
ridiculous idea. You must be mad."

But he genuinely believed
that this opportunity

was going to take him to another
stage... to the next level.

In the area of saying
we were trying to keep them

to what they'd already agreed, or we
were trying to get new concessions.

How do you think
he'll respond to that?

REPORTER: Frost has had a team of
researchers working for months

trying to prepare him for anything
Mr Nixon might throw at him.

He is hardly going to confess
on the air anything about Watergate.

Some people were very sceptical.

They thought, "That Englishman is
not gonna get him to say anything."

Why would he give it to you?

It was kind of amazing to me
that it was David Frost.

I mean, I knew who David Frost was.

He got a lot of great guests.

But the feeling was,

"Should he be in a position
to interview a president?"

If you feel
that he IS stonewalling...

..what do you do?I don't
think that the Stonewall approach

will be the one he'll take.
I hope the approach he would take

will be the one of...
a cascade of candour.

"A cascade of candour"
from Richard Nixon.

Is this what you expect?
No.

It was just a phrase
that I thought would appeal to you.

A cascade of candour...

because he's
making fun of Mike Wallace there.

I just thought it was a phrase
that might appeal to you.

People who consider themselves the
real gatekeepers of journalism

and going,
"Wha... Who do you think you are?"

I mean, he's just charm personified

but underneath is this steel.

The stakes couldn't have been higher
because this was the first time

that Nixon was going to be seen
publicly since he'd resigned.

It was the big news.
I mean Nixon was finally talking.

And what were people looking for?
They were looking for confession.

If Nixon could kinda skate through
the interviews,

that would be doing
a huge disservice to the nation,

and that's where the drama was

and ultimately putting
this figure's feet to the fire.

The house that they
set up for the interviews,

it was a one-story,
tiny ranch house.

We were all squashed in,

and we had a monitor.

So we could see what was going on.

Everybody was on pins and needles.
They didn't know

what was gonna happen.
Nobody knew what would happen.

Got a hair out of place?

I must apologise by the way that
I am giving your staff extra work

because I am now starting to get
letters addressed to me

at San Clemente.You're much better
off if you just burns them.

And then you don't
have to answer them.(LAUGHS)

They are set.And then you can say,
"Well, I never got it."Yes.

Well, we were all pretty excited.

The sort of buzz in the air.

President Nixon had appointed me
to oversee the research.

I told him they were out for blood.

Excuse me one second.
Well, now I can't move.

What is it?
Can you just pull the collar?

The collar has just...
What is it?

I said, "Look, David has
a reputation at stake..."

That's perfect.

"and if he's not going
to go for your throat,

then something's wrong.

He's going to be one tough bastard.

So don't expect a
walk in the park."

MAN: Eight, seven, six...

..three, two...

We weren't sure what the first
thing out of the box would be.

Mr President, we're going to be
covering a lot of subjects

in a great deal of detail
in the course of the next six hours.

But I must begin
completely out of context

by asking you one question that,
more than any other,

almost every American and people all
over the world want me to ask.

Why didn't you burn the tapes?

Good evening.
There was a surprise witness

at the Watergate hearings today,
and he made a dramatic disclosure.

President Nixon ordered secret
electronic listening devices

installed in his offices
and on his telephone.

Nixon never imagined that the
existence would be made public,

much less that the tapes themselves
or any of them would be released.

The special prosecutor's office
immediately subpoenaed them.

The country tonight
is in the midst of what may be

the most serious constitutional
crisis in its history.

The president announced
that he would not obey a court order

to surrender the Watergate tapes.

REPORTER: Do you think
he should give up the tapes?

Yes.
Yes, definitely yes.

It took a Supreme Court order

to make them public
and put them on the record.

GEORGE: The tapes
became the central evidence

around the whole Watergate scandal.

Without the tapes,
he would have remained in office.

Everybody says,

why didn't you burn the tapes?

And in a word,
I wondered what your answer was?

Well, Mr Frost, as you know,

we agreed that we would cover
the Watergate aspects

of these various programmes,

the White House years
and the early life as well

in our last taping session.

It was an understanding
that in the first taping

that no questions that were
related to Watergate would be asked.

Right out of the box,

a question had been asked that had
been agreed would not be asked,

at least in that order.

But er,

since you have that
as a major concern

among your listeners and viewers,

why there's no reason I at least
can't briefly respond to it now.

David made a big strategic error.

It disrupted the whole
beginning of the interview.

First it takes
a little bit more than a word

because you have to understand
why they were put in.Right.

When I arrived in the White House

and saw the Oval Office...

The filibuster began with,
"Let me start talking about

the background
of how the tapes got in

and all this blah, blah, blah..."

I also learned that there was
a what was called a taping system.

I didn't learn then how extensive it
was but I understood that it was...

The president went on
and on and on and on and on...

President Johnson was always...
..eating up time, and I could see

David was just squirming
and going crazy.

But anyway, to come quickly,

more quickly to the direct answer
as to why we didn't burn them.

It was pretty funny, actually.

I must admit, in all candour,

I don't
believe they were going to come out.

Well, now, let me say, Mr President,

that as the tape continues rolling,

so this won't be used,

may I just suggest that...

And that was just intended,
and it worked marvellously,

as a thing to just get us talking in
this very, very, very relaxed way.

And in fact,
we've been talking for 20 minutes,

as you can see,
in that very relaxed way.

I guess a couple of uh...

The first interview did
not go well.

Even David himself
was slightly worried.

It's rare to see Dad not in control,

and on the first day, he wasn't.

After that first round, we thought
David had flubbed a little bit.

We were high fiving.

Now the two titans,

the mini titan and the real titan,

we're gonna find out what
they were made of.

(UPBEAT THEME MUSIC)

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Tonight, my guest is a former
president of your country,

now completely pardoned
by his former vice president

for any crimes might have committed
while in office.

Wow. Saturday Night Live. That's
quite... If you're gonna have

a sort of backhanded compliment,
that's it, isn't it?

May I perhaps begin these 20 hours
of talks between you and me first

by asking you about your childhood.

Do you have any particularly
strong childhood memories?

Well...

(CHUCKLES) ..of course
I do have some childhood memories

that come back to me now and again.

I remember one particular
morning in April of 1921.

I remember coming down
to the kitchen

where my mother was preparing
the meal that we called breakfast.

I changed the pot water,
and you can always tell

because there were two spigots on
either side of the fire...

I remember my father had a
little round...Well,

while the ex-president
is talking and so on,

let me just remind you there'll be
another 19 hours of these talks...

That was his friend, Eric Idle,

weeks before broadcast,
taking the piss out of Dad

and showing that people didn't
believe he was gonna succeed.

I was thinking, "How on earth
is David going to do this?"

I can remember David telling me
not to worry

and his confidence that
everything would be OK.

Dad was always
incredibly optimistic.

When it
was pouring with rain on holiday,

the sun WAS just about to come out.
Always.

Well, we've only just begun,

but so far, after one session,

all the omens are good.

MAN: One minute.
MAN 2: One minute.

MAN 3: Counting.
We are ready.We are ready.

Four, three...

One of the big luxuries
of having 28 hours

was the scope it offered
to build a relationship.

Mr President, the whole area of
foreign policy is such a vast one.

Days two to six were
meant to focus on foreign policy,

an area that Nixon cared
passionately about.

Whose idea was the initiative
to China? Was it yours?

David was beginning
to size up his subject.

He said, "Yes, Mao is a colossus,

but he is a colossus facing death."

CAROLINE: And Nixon was, I think,

too arrogant to really realise
what David was up to.

Castro intervenes in Angola.

Japanese are difficult
to negotiate with.

For three hours until past midnight,

Brezhnev hammered me
on the Mid-East.

Nixon was rambling,

but now David let him ramble on.

That's a great political example,

great political example.

The quality of what you had to say
was absolutely outstanding.

I said, "Remember Lot's wife...

..never look back."

So, the thing to do,
just tell him privately.

"Look, you son of a bitch. Either do
it or we'll kick you in the ass."

That's not pressure(!)
(LAUGHS)

But of course, no one really cared

about what he had to say
about foreign policy.

Dad HAD to get Nixon
to admit wrongdoing.

Without that,
the rest was irrelevant.

When we would drive back
after each session,

David would be on the phone all
the time to different companies

selling the idea that
Nixon would confess.

After he outbid them,

the three networks decided,
"We're not touching this programme."

And Dad had to start piecing
together over 100 local TV stations

just to try and reach all
of the corners of America.

And to recoup what he'd
committed to spend.

REPORTER:
Frost has lined up 138 stations.

He gives them the programmes.

In return, they give him the right
to sell six one-minute commercials

in each of the four broadcasts,

and he keeps that money.

Rarely is the star

also the entrepreneur,

dancing between trying
to sell advertising

and actually execute this socially
politically significant interview.

The advertising started slowly

and then has picked up
very well since.

At this point,
we've sold half the time.

He says about half. I don't think
he was anywhere near half.

He's saying he was halfway there.
I mean, he's under massive pressure.

Weed Eater.
I don't know what Weed Eater is,

but they have bought one spot,
two spots?

Weed Eater. Well, I don't think any
of us knew what the Weed Eater was.

Weed Eater is a product that you're
going to come to know and love.

Let's be clear about this,
we are seeking here advertisers

who realise this is history,
but it's controversial history,

so we are seeking advertisers
with courage,

and these people have courage.

Weed Eater has courage?
Weed Eater has courage.

Our new Weed Eater weighs only eight
pounds and it costs only $69.95.

Blue chip companies didn't
want to be associated with it.

You know, if the interviews didn't
work out, Dad would be seen

as the guy that financed a disgraced
president's retirement

and let him walk all over him.

MAN: Mr President,
won't you give me a pat?

OK. Try to clear it up.
Thank you. Thank you very much.

He's trying to make me look good.

Five, four, three, two...
And succeeding.

Let's turn now, if we could,

to the subject of the Huston Plan.

A White House aide named Tom Charles
Huston came up with an interesting

but somewhat illegal plan for
authorising wire taps,

break-ins and interception of mail
to combat domestic unrest.

President Nixon approved
the plan then withdrew...

The people that government
was surveilling

and burglar-ing
were left-wing political opponents

he considers to be dangerous
to the country, i.e. to him.

The notion of undermining enemies
was something

that he had made part of his kitbag,

even before Watergate.

In the Huston Plan,

it's stated very clearly,

"Use of this technique
is clearly illegal.

It amounts to burglary."

Why did you approve a plan that
included an element like that

that was clearly illegal?

Yes, "burglary" is the word.

But another way to put it is, you
get the information that you need.

There are some actions that have
to be covert.

By "covert"...

Let me put it this way-
Or in this case, illegal.

Well... let me say that...

..it is legal, in my view...

So what, in a sense, you're saying
is that there are certain situations,

and the Huston Plan or that part of
it was one of them,

where the president can decide that
it's in the best interest

of the nation or something
and do something illegal.

Or when the president does it,
that means that it is not illegal.

By definition.
Exactly.

If the president does it,
it's legal by definition?

It was not legal,

and Nixon only escaped
full accountability

because he was pardoned.

Yeah, no,
but where do we draw the line?

Why shouldn't the same presidential
power apply to somebody who

the president feels in the national
interest should murder a dissenter?

Now Frost is in his zone,

guiding him without making him shut
down. Leading him through the maze.

There are nuances.

I do not mean to suggest
the president is above the law.

What I am suggesting,
that a president does have,

under the Constitution,
extraordinary powers

and must exert them.

It's amazing.

That's one
of the best authentic revelations

of Nixon's way of thinking,

"I have a lot of power,

I'm doing something that I can make
legal even though it's illegal."

Simple as that.

For the first time, in seven days,

Nixon had said something
that would be a headline.

But Dad had to get him to a place

where he was willing
to open up about Watergate.

KEN: From the outset,

we were going back and forth
with the president

on how we were gonna deal
with Watergate.

He didn't have an answer
yet in his own mind.

Your perspiring is done mainly
in the forehead rather than the...

Yes. Yes.
You don't do it on the lip?No. No.

I said to the president,

"Frost is going to want you to say
you committed a crime.

He's going to want to get what
nobody else has gotten from you,

that you lied to the American public

and that you committed
an impeachable offence."

MAN: Four, three, two...

That's the crown jewel
of his interview.

David was working all the time.

He was not sleeping very well.

He worked most of the night.

He'd get up,
have a big breakfast,

and then they'd start researching.

He knew it
was on his shoulders to deliver.

MAN: Four, three, two...

Mr President,
reviewing now your conduct

over the whole
of the Watergate period,

do you feel
that you ever obstructed justice

or were part of a conspiracy
to obstruct justice?

Well, in answer to that question,

I think that the best procedure
would be for us to do exactly

what you're going
to do in this programme,

to go through the whole record.

I know what I did do.

And perhaps even more important,
from my standpoint,

I know what I did not do.
Well, I think that-

And I'd like the opportunity,
finally,

to lay to rest the false
charges that have been made.

Five men
were arrested early Saturday

while trying to install
eavesdropping equipment

at
the Democratic National Committee.

And it turns out that one of them
has an office in the headquarters

of the committee for the re-election
of the president.

REPORTER: The White House denied
and continues to deny involvement

in any wrongdoing.

I first learned from news reports...

..of the Watergate break in.

I was appalled at this
senseless, illegal action.

At one point, I asked him,

"If you had known about it,
would you have approved it?"

And he said, "No, absolutely not."

And then he said, "Not because it
was wrong but because it was stupid.

You don't you don't bug the party
headquarter, bug the candidate."

The Democratic national chairman
calls

for a full-scale FBI investigation

to find out
who was behind the incident.

REPORTER: Mr Nixon said the affair
will not be covered up.

In fact,
the tapes make it pretty clear

that the president,
right at the beginning,

had tried to put the kibosh
on this whole investigation.

It was using the power of presidency

to tell the FBI that they
ought to stay away from this.

And it was his voice.

In the evidence that we have to hand,

you said, "Tell them, 'Don't go any
further into this case, period.'

Get them to stop.
They don't need to pursue it.

They've already got their case.
Five suspects had been arrested.

This should be sufficient." So that
is obstruction of justice. Period.

That's your conclusion...

It is.
..but now let's look at the facts.

The fact is, it didn't have any
such effect whatever.

You have to judge an individual by
his actions as well as by the words.

You can pick a few words
out of a tape.

Let's face it, I was
president of the United States.

I could hire, fire the head of the
CIA or the FBI or anybody else.

I could've put a lot of pressure on,
but I didn't.

But there's one very clear,
self-contained quote,

and I read the whole of this
conversation,

which I don't think's
ever been published,

that I thought was-
It hasn't been published, you say?

No, I think it's available
to anybody who consults the records.

Oh, I see.But people
don't consult all the records.

Just wondering if we'd seen it.
(LAUGHS)Well, I'm sure you have,

yes, but...
Where the President says this ...

"When I'm speaking about Watergate,

this tremendous investigation rests.

Unless one of the seven
begins to talk.

That's the problem."

REPORTER: Good evening,

the Watergate bugging case
tops the news tonight.

Seven people were indicted today,

the five who were caught
by the police,

along with two others,
a former White House aide

and a former consultant
for the White House.

That was the link to the White House
that made this more

than a third-rate burglary as the
White House tried to describe it.

REPORTER: E. Howard Hunt, a former
employee of the White House,

pleaded guilty
to charges of conspiracy,

burglary and eavesdropping.

REPORTER: Mr Hunt,
If you testify before a grand jury,

will your testimony implicate higher
ups or indicate a wider conspiracy?

What do we mean by one of the seven
beginning to talk?

I certainly could believe that
a man like Howard Hunt,

under the pressures of the moment,

could have started putting
out all sorts of stories

to embarrass the administration.
I still just think, though,

that one has to go contrary

to the normal usage of language

of almost 10,000 gangster movies.

To interpret "unless
one of the seven begins to talk"

as anything other than
some sort of conspiracy

to stop him talking about
something damaging.

You can you can state your
conclusion. And I've stated my view.

That's fair.
So now we go on with the rest of it.

The tapes show repeatedly
Nixon saying,

"How do we keep people
from talking?"

Wouldn't you say that record
in the meeting does show that you...

endorsed what was going on,
with regard to the payment to Hunt?

When one reads, reading
the whole conversation...

one,
"You could get a million dollars,

and you could get it in cash.
I know where it could be gotten."

Two, "Your major
guy to keep under control is Hunt."

Three, "Don't you have to handle
Hunt's financial situation?"

Four, "Let me put it frankly,

I wonder if
that doesn't have to be continued."

Five, "Get the million bucks.

It would seem to me
that would be worthwhile."

Money is the way
you're buying silence.

There is no ambiguity.

Eleven, "The money can be provided.

Mitchell could provide the way
to deliver it.

That could be done. See what I mean?"
Twelve,

"But let's come back to the money."
They were off on something else here,

desperate to get away from money,
bored with references to money.

"A million dollars
and so forth and so on.

Let me say that
I think you could get that in cash."

Fourteen, "Would you agree that this
is a buy-time thing?

You better damn well get that done.
But fast."

Sixteen, "We have no choice."
And so on.

Now, reading, as you've requested,
the whole context-Alright, fine.

Let me just stop you right there.
Right there.

David was very aggressive, and I had
preached this from the beginning.

I said that he was a cold,
ambitious bastard. (LAUGHS)

He was gonna go for the throat.

You're doing something here,
which I am not doing.

You are reading
there out of context,

out of order,

because I have read this and
I know it really better than you do.

And I should know it better
because I was there.

It's no reflection on you. You know
better than anybody else I know,

incidentally,
and you're doing it very well.

But I am not going to sit here
and read the thing back to you.

I could have notes here.
As you know,

I participated
on all of these broadcasts

without a note in front of me.

I've done it all from recollection.
I may have made some mistakes.

Let me quote to you then.

I've been through the record.
I want to be totally fair.

But the last thing in the transcripts
I can find about this subject

was you talking on April the 20th,

and you were recollecting
this meeting,

and you said that you said,
"Christ, turn over any cash we got."

That's YOUR recollection
of the meeting.

It really is the bull
and the matador.

He pushes Nixon to raise the
emotion,

I guess instinctively feeling that's
not gonna make Nixon shut down

but actually make Nixon kind
of take the bait, which he does.

I did consider it.

I've told you that I considered it.

I considered it for reasons that
I thought were very good ones.

Uh, I would not consider it
for the other reasons,

which would have been,
in my view, bad ones.

Surely those would've
been the ones...

We never got a chance
to go to trial.

But this is sort of the more
public show business version.

My point is that without...

I mean, you see
a witness is just collapsing.

I didn't endorse or ratify it.
Why didn't you stop it?

I had no knowledge of the fact
that it WAS going to be paid.

(CHUCKLES) They ask why
he didn't burn the tapes.

You also sort of wonder,
"Why did he do the interview?"

It's possible it's a mistake that
I didn't stop.You said to him...

We all acknowledge
that it was just a...

It was a bad day. I said,
"You know, you were cornered."

And he said, Well,
Ken, Watergate is all corners."

We've gone over time.
We've gone over time.

But I think
it's been a marvellous morning.

It was clearly a terrible day
for Nixon.

This was a rare glimpse

of David Frost the prosecutor,
but he needed more.

Thank you very much indeed.

And going into the final day,

Dad decided to change tactic.

This office is a sacred trust,

and I am determined to be
worthy of that trust.

I had no prior
knowledge of the Watergate break in.

I neither took part in

nor knew about any of the subsequent
cover up activities.

I have never obstructed justice.

After a couple of years
in which Nixon had continued

to stonewall any
acknowledgment of culpability...

I welcome this kind of examination
because people have gotta know

whether or not their president's a
crook. Well, I'm not a crook.

..just to acknowledge his guilt was
very, very important historically.

This was the one opportunity
the public might ever have.

MAN: Four, three, two...

Welcome back to Monarch Bay.

Um... (LOW BUZZING) Is that
noise that we're just hearing...

Since we haven't started...
I wouldn't ask about it normally.

Is that... What is it?
It's a plane. A plane.

(PLANE ENGINE RUMBLES)
It's coming so low,

it looks as though it's actually...

attacking. Attacking. Yes.

Alright.
It's CBS.Yes. (LAUGHS)

Right, OK.

MAN: Alright, we're clear now.

Nixon had been thinking overnight,

"I got to get this finished,
I gotta get it done.

There's got to be
some pathway out of this."

MAN: Ten seconds, stand by.

Throughout the process,
Frost's trying to find his way.

"How am I going to get this
guy to be more human?"

Mr President,

er...

cos this is...

a difficult programme for you
and a difficult programme for me...

er...

You've talked about the mistakes...

Er... (SIGHS)

We're at an extraordinary moment,
in a way.

Would you...

do...

..what...

the American
people yearn to hear,

not cos they yearn to hear it
but just to...

tell all, level and so on?

Would you go further than "mistakes"?

In the Nixon camp,

there were differences of opinion
of what he should or could say.

There was a hardcore belief
among some that he owed nothing

and that if he gave an inch,
a mile would be taken.

And then there were others
who felt that it was important

that he acknowledge what a lot of
people felt,

that he had put the nation through
two years of hell.

Those were the two poles.

You've explained how you got
caught up in this thing.

You've explained your motives.

I don't want to quibble
about any of that.

But just coming to the sheer
substance...

..would you go further
than "mistakes"? The word...

..that seems not
enough for people to understand.

What word would you express?

My goodness, that's a...

I would say-I-No.
Let me say, let me say, let me say.

I-
No, no, no, no. Let me try and say.

Cos I have qualified the mistakes.
Yes.I've tried to say...

Let me say-..how bad they were.
Well, let me say.

I'm basically trying to forget...

I've tried to forget the difference
between a mistake and a crime.

The drama of throwing
the clipboard away.

He knows this is a big moment.

Let me say
that my concern is now not to,

which is why
I chucked the clipboard away,

is not to be legalistic...

Mm-hm. That's good...or anything
about obstructions of justice

and so on and things
we've discussed so far and so on.

I think that there are three things,

since you asked me
that heart stopping question,

I would like to hear you say,

I think the American people
would like to hear you say.

One is...

.."There was probably
more than...mistakes.

There was...

wrongdoing,
whether it was a crime or not.

Yes, it may have been a crime too."

Secondly...

"I did abuse the power
I had as president."

And thirdly...

.."I put the American people through
two years of needless agony,

and I apologise for that."
Mm-hm.

And I know how difficult it is
for anyone and most of all you.

But I think...

that people need to hear it.

And I think unless you say it...
Mm.

..you're going to be haunted
for the rest of your life. Mm.

KEN: He can't respond right
out of the box.

Let me say...

if I intended to cover up,
believe me, I'd have done it.

That's a preamble.

You know I could've done it.
So easily.

And as he's done the thousands and
thousands of times in his life...

..whether it
was negotiating with Brezhnev,

whether it was sitting with Mao...

he was formulating something.

Let me answer
it in my own way about,

how do
I feel about the American people?

That forces me to...

rationalise now

and give you a carefully prepared
and cropped statement.

I didn't expect this question,
frankly, though,

so I'm not going to give you that.
But I can tell you this.

Nor did I.

I can tell you this.

I think I said it all...

in one of those moments that...

that you're not thinking,

sometimes you say the things
that are really in your heart.

I had a lot of difficult meetings
those last days before I resigned,

and...

And the most difficult one

and the only one where...

(CLICKS TONGUE)

..I... I broke into tears...

At the very end after saying, "Well,

thank you for all your support
during these tough years,"

I must say,
I sort of cracked up...

..started crying,
pushed my chair back...

..and then I blurted it out.

And I said...

.."I'm sorry.
I just hope I haven't let you down."

Well, when I said, "I just hope
I haven't let you down,"...

..that said it all. I had.

I let down my friends.

I let down...

..the country.

I let down our system of government

and the dreams
of all those young people

that ought to get into government

but'll think it's all too corrupt
and the rest.

Yep, I-I...

I let the American people down.

And I have to carry that burden
with me for the rest of my life.

My political life is over.

I will never yet

and never again...

have an opportunity to serve
in any official position.

And so, I can only say that while...

technically
I did not commit a crime...

an impeachable offence...

..these are legalisms.

As far as the handling
of this matter here is concerned...

..it was so botched up.

I made so many bad judgements.

The worst ones, mistakes
of the heart rather than the head.

But let me say,

a man in that top job,

he's gotta have a heart.

But his head must always
rule his heart.

I think you've said it all, really.
The...

you're saying if I understand it
right, Mr President, you said...

..it's a burden that...

you've gotta carry with you
for the rest of your life.

I think it might be a little
lighter after what you've said.

I doubt it.

Frost has done it.

I don't think Nixon
could ever have anticipated

that he would have been taken
to where he got taken.

I'm sure it was torture for Nixon.

And maybe that's as much
justice as we can hope for.

I mean,
that was his punishment, finally.

Mr President, this is...

This has been more-
Been tough for you?

(LAUGHS)Well, no,
but I was going to say that, er...

I feel we've...
Covered a lot of ground.

..been through a life almost
rather than an interview.

And we thank you.

Alright. Have a good lunch.

Well, let's get out of here.

(INHALES SHARPLY)

Thank you.
We'll say it again later,

but thank you again, everybody.

It's that old Aesop's fable.

The wind and the sun
are having a competition

to get someone's coat off,

and the wind huffs and puffs,

and the man just draws his coat
close around him,

and then the sun just shines warmly,
and the man takes his coat off.

And really, you've, in a sense,

got to create a context in which
people feel like taking the coat off.

REPORTER: Last night,
Richard Nixon broke the silence

of his three-year exile
in San Clemente.

...90 minutes of questions between

the disgraced former president
and British showman David Frost.

Nixon was humbled,
his defences shattered.

"I let down my friends
I let down my country."

He, in his own mind, gave a lot,

by saying that it hurt.
I think he really felt it.

Seemed like something
out of a Greek tragedy

or something because he really
seemed to react himself

as a human being to what he'd done
as a politician,

and he was sorry for it.

It really affected me.
My wife and I had tears in our eyes.

Did Nixon cry?I don't know
where the dividing line is

between a glisten and a tear.

45 million viewers, the biggest
audience for a political interview.

"An audience on a par,
in terms of size,

with ABC's Happy Days sitcom."
(LAUGHS)

REPORTER: The former president
barely acknowledged reporters

as he arrived
to play an afternoon round of golf.

His spokesman said it
will be the ex-president's policy

not to comment on any of the Frost
television interviews.

REPORTER: David Frost's
finest journalistic hour

is now Hollywood legend.

The real-life drama of
American politics

and the ambition of one young
British journalist,

now an elderly knight of the realm.

Frost is television.

He understands what people
react to on that side of the lens

but also what people
respond to in front of it,

and you can't imagine anyone
else being able to do it.

Basically, you want to find
out what makes them tick.

How do you do that
as a great interviewer?

(LAUGHS)

That's my secret.

(DRAMATIC THEME MUSIC)

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