All language subtitles for Watergate.S01E06.Endgame.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES_track3_[eng]

- In these folders are more

than 1,200 pages
of transcripts...

- Maybe, just maybe,
if I give them

a little bit of it,
that that'll be enough.

- Verifying the authenticity
of the tape itself is crucial,

and that can only be done
by having the President comply

with the House Judiciary
Committee's subpoena in full.

- President Nixon
could be confronted

with an adverse decision
from the Supreme Court

just as the House
of Representatives

prepares to vote
on impeachment.

- Former Nixon aide
Frederick LaRue

pleaded guilty of conspiring
to obstruct justice.

Donald Segretti,
the dirty trick specialist,

pleaded guilty.
- John Dean, a key figure

in the Watergate case,
pleaded guilty today.

- Jeb Stuart Magruder,
went to court today

to plead guilty
to conspiracy charges.

- For the first time
in American history,

a former Attorney General
of the United States,

Richard Kleindienst, pleaded
guilty today to a crime.

male narrator:
Despite a parade

of confessions and looming
impeachment proceedings,

President Richard Nixon
continued to fight.

but now, Watergate
Special Prosecutor

Leon Jaworski was asking
the Supreme Court

to force Nixon
to surrender 64 tapes

for use in prosecuting
Nixon's former inner circle.

- Jaworski, who could have
gone in the side--

which is the way
you really go in--

goes up those stairs
with a couple

of young guys around him,
and there are crowds chanting.

And I imagine that Jaworski
must have been in tears inside.

- Well, it says
"Equal justice under law,"

so we ought to win, Phil.

Although filming
of Supreme Court arguments

is prohibited,
an audio recording was made.

Nixon's lawyer,
James St. Clair,

argued that presidential
executive privilege

was total and absolute,
even for evidence of a crime.

Ostensibly, the prosecutors
just wanted the tapes

to prosecute
Nixon's former aides,

but everyone realized
that this was also about

the potential impeachment
of Richard Nixon.

And finally,
everyone also realized

that this wasn't just about
Richard Nixon, either.

It was about something
much, much larger.

In part because three
Supreme Court Justices

were Nixon appointees,

the White House
was optimistic.

- There is a thing
called executive privilege,

and it is recognized,

and it does have
standing in law,

and I did think that
there was a real chance

that people would say
the inner-most conversations

of the President
in the Oval Office

certainly are--are, are immune

from, uh, the courts.

- Nixon has seen,
in his own career,

Harry Truman
and Dwight Eisenhower

make that argument successfully
and feels confident.

It's part of the reason
he doesn't destroy the tapes

in the first place.

Two weeks went by.

Then, on July 22,

with Supreme Court's decision
still unknown,

the House Judiciary Committee
announced that its debate

over impeachment
would start in two days,

at 8:00 PM on July 24.

And for the first time
in history,

a Congressional debate
would be televised live.

- The House of Representatives
doesn't easily change

its rules and traditions,
but today it gave

the impeachment inquiry
the right to open its debate

to television.
- The very next day,

July 23, the Supreme Court
suddenly announced

it would hold
a special session

the following morning.
- Good morning.

The Supreme Court
has just ruled

on the tapes controversy,
and here's Carl Stern

who has that ruling.

- It is a unanimous
decision, Doug, 8-0--

Justice Rehnquist took
no part in the decision--

uh, ordering the President
of the United States

to turn over the tapes.

- It's an 8-0
unanimous opinion

that President Nixon must obey
the subpoenas issued

by special Watergate prosecutor
Leon Jaworski, and turn over

64 disputed White House tapes
to Mr. Jaworski.

What we do not know yet
is whether or not

the President
will obey that order.

- No man is above the law.

The Supreme Court
unanimously ruled

in favor of our right

to compel the President
to produce this evidence.

The rest is history.

With Congressional
debate on impeachment starting

later the same day,
the obvious question

was whether Congress
would get the tapes, too,

but Jaworski wouldn't say.

- Do you expect
the House Judiciary Committee

to make an application with
Judge Sirica for those tapes?

- I really have not
the slightest idea.

- Would you oppose
an application by

the House Judiciary Committee
for those tapes?

Even after
the Special Prosecutor's

victory at the Supreme Court,
Nixon continued to defy

Congressional subpoenas,
but pressure was mounting.

- Unless the President wishes
to plead the 5th Amendment--

privilege against
self-incrimination--

I think, now, as a result
of this decision,

he should voluntarily
turn these tapes over

to the House Committee.

- I think the decision goes
a long way to vindicate, uh,

the subpoena issued by
the House Judiciary Committee

and to establish
the proposition

that, uh, non-compliance
with the House subpoena

was itself a cause
for impeachment.

- Attorney James St. Clair
has let it be known his office

has at least researched
the possibility

of non-compliance.

There is, of course,
also the option

the President will comply
with the court's decision.

St. Clair has said
it could take up to two months

to prepare the tape material
for Sirica's court.

- He's standing on the beach
in San Clemente,

and they tell him
that he's lost

the Supreme Court decision.

And a message goes back to,
uh, Washington--

"What would happen
if we defy the court?"

And Al Haig replies,

"Instant, um--
uh, instant impeachment."

Just one hour
before the impeachment debate

was scheduled to begin,
James St. Clair announced

Nixon's decision.

- I have reviewed the decision
of the Supreme Court

with the President.

He's given me this statement,
which he's asked me

to read to you, and this is
the President's statement

as he gave it to me.

"While I am, of course,
disappointed in the result,

"I respect and accept
the Court's decision.

"and I have instructed
Mr. St. Clair to take

"whatever measures
are necessary

to comply with that decision
in all respects."

- One hour later,
on live national television,

Peter Rodino opened
public debate

on the impeachment
of Richard Nixon.

- The Committee
will come to order.

Throughout all of
the painstaking proceedings,

I, as the chairman,

have been guided
by a simple principle:

the principle that the law

must deal fairly
with every man.

Now, the American people
and the whole history

of our republic demand

that we make up our minds.

- News Secretary Ronald Ziegler
indicated to us

that the President
had no intention of, uh,

watching the hearings.

Uh, note, I suppose
we should say that, uh,

during the Watergate hearings,
we were told much

the very same thing
at that time--

that the President seldom
if ever watched them.

We learned later
in the transcripts

that he indeed watched
a good deal of them.

The debate
immediately revealed

Elizabeth Holtzman
as a new political rock star.

Holtzman was the daughter of
Eastern European immigrants,

a graduate
of Harvard Law School,

newly elected to Congress,
32 years old.

- And how many of us
have not quarreled

with Presidents in the past?

Democrats or Republicans
over agricultural policy

or environmental policy
or foreign policy or whatever.

Does that give any President--
President the license

to burglarize our home?

To wire tap our phones?

To open our mail?

I submit that if it does,
we have gone down

the long road to tyranny,

and that the blessings
of liberty that we formed

this Constitution
200 years ago to preserve

will vanish very quickly.

And I would like
to remind my colleagues

that under the Constitution
of the United States,

we in the House
of Representatives,

through the power
of impeachment,

have been given the duty

to preserve this Constitution.

- This Committee
has heard evidence

of governmental corruption
unequalled in the history

of the United States.

The cover-up of crimes,

obstructing the prosecution
of criminals,

tax violations
and personal enrichment

at public expense.

Bribery and blackmail,
flagrant misuse

of the FBI, the CIA,
and the IRS.

Most Republicans, however,

continued to defend Nixon.

- John Dean
did something wrong,

in my opinion.

And Ehrlichman
did something wrong.

One of them requested

that the CIA
provide bail money

for these defendants.

And they were
promptly rebuffed,

of course, by the CIA,
but that was a wrongful act.

There's not a word--

not a word, ladies
and gentlemen,

of presidential knowledge
or awareness or involvement

in that wrongful act.

After two hours,
the debate was interrupted

by a bomb threat.

- It's necessary
that we do recess

for a period of time.

- There has been
a bomb threat,

and, uh, the Committee
has recessed,

and the room
is being cleared.

I don't know many details
except to say that

it was a telephone bomb threat.

It reached the Committee
just moments ago.

When debate resumed
the following day,

America discovered
another rising star:

Barbara Jordan of Texas.

- The fact is that
on yesterday,

the American people waited
with great anxiety

for eight hours

not knowing whether
their President

would obey an order
of the Supreme Court

of the United States.

Earlier today, we heard

the beginning of the preamble
to the Constitution

of the United States.

"We, the people..."

It's a very eloquent beginning.

But when that document
was completed

on the 17th of September
in 1787,

I was not included
in that "We, the people."

I felt somehow for many years
that George Washington

and Alexander Hamilton
just left me out by mistake.

But through the process
of amendment, interpretation,

and court decision,

I have finally been included

in "We, the people."

Today, I am an inquisitor

and hyperbole
would not be fictional

and would not overstate
the solemness that I feel

right now.

My faith in the Constitution
is whole, it is complete,

it is total,

and I am not going to sit here
and be an idle spectator

to the diminution,

the subversion,

the destruction

of the Constitution.

- It isn't the Presidency
that is in jeopardy from us.

We would strive
to strengthen

and protect the Presidency,

but if there be
no accountability,

another President
will feel free

to do as he chooses.

But the--but the next time,

there may be no watchmen
in the night.

Republicans David
Dennis and Trent Lott

gave the strongest speeches
opposing impeachment.

- The March 21 payment
to Hunt was the last

in a long series
of such payments

engineered by Mitchell,
Haldeman, Dean,

and Kalmbach,
and later on LaRue,

and all, so far as appears,

without the President's
knowledge or complicity.

- We are faced with
impeaching the President.

The line must be drawn
directly to the President,

clearly to the President.

This has not been done.

But they
hadn't reckoned

with Elizabeth Holtzman.

- The President
discussed the matter

of paying Hunt
ten separate times

in a conversation
on March 21st

with Dean and Haldeman.

And the last time
the President discussed it,

he said, and I quote,
"That's why,

"for your immediate thing,
you've got no choice

"with Hunt but the 120
or whatever it is, right?

"Would you agree that
that's a buy-time thing?

"You'd better damn well
get that done, but fast.

Well, for Christ's sake,
get it."

Perhaps some people
find ambiguities

in that conversation.

I don't.

I became district attorney
many years later

of Brooklyn, New Yor..

And I had the opportunity
to listen to wire taps

of mafiosi and other
criminals conspiring,

and I remember thinking,
"This is what I heard

in the White House
of the United States."

And I was very
saddened by that.

Nowhere in the thousands
of pages of evidence

presented to this committee

does the President ask,

"What does the
Constitution say?

"What are the limits
of my power?

"What does my oath
of office require of me?

What is the right thing to do?"

Meanwhile, even after

the Supreme Court decision,

the special prosecutors were
still fighting for the tapes.

- Before Judge John Sirica,

Jaworski's soft drawl
did not quite mask his anger.

"I must say, in all candor,
that our experience so far

has been very poor,
very disappointing."

Reference to missing tapes,
gaps, and buzzes

was unmistakable.

The President's lawyer
tried to argue,

James St. Clair saying
legal work might delay

delivery of the tapes,
but Judge Sirica,

brandishing his Supreme Court
ruling, interrupted.

"You're making this thing

more complicated
than it should be."

Sirica sent St. Clair
and Jaworski into a side room

treated them
to a pot of coffee,

and told them to come out
with an agreement

or he'd impose one.

It was a no-lose
proposition for Jaworski,

who came out with
a White House guarantee

that he'll have the first
tapes by next Tuesday.

After three days of debate

and just before the first
vote on impeachment,

Vice President Ford
gave a speech.

- And it's my judgment
that the evidence

is overwhelming that he had
nothing to do with

the so-called cover-up.

So the President,
in my judgment,

is innocent,
and will be exonerated.

But even
among Republicans,

the tide had begun to turn.

One of the first was
a conservative from Chicago.

- The only materials

which we have received
have been--have come from

the grand jury and from
the special prosecutor.

It seems to me the
President's failure to comply

threatens the integrity
of our impress--

the impeachment process itself.

His action is
a direct challenge

to the Congress,
and the exercise

of its solemn
Constitutional duty.

- What sealed Nixon's doom

was when four young
Republican congressmen

came out and voted
for the first article

of impeachment.

Hamilton Fish of New York...

- I am a Republican.

In these proceedings,
I have attempted

to discipline myself
in partisan neutrality.

- Caldwell Butler
of Virginia...

- A power appears
to have corrupted.

It is a sad chapter
in American history,

but I cannot condone
what I have heard.

I cannot excuse it,
and I cannot, and will not,

stand still for it.

- Tom Railsback of Illinois...

- We are considering
impeaching a man,

Richard Nixon, who has been
in my district twice

campaigning for me,

that I regard as a friend.

- Bill Cohen of Maine.

- It's been said that
an impeachment proceeding

will tear this country apart.

And to say that it will
tear the country apart

to abide by the Constitution
is a proposition

that I cannot accept.

I think what would
tear the country apart

would be to turn
our backs on the facts

and our responsibilities
to ascertain them.

- That's what put Nixon down,

'cause it had to be
bipartisan

if the Judiciary Committee
was going to impeach.

- Those votes were
symbolically

outsized and huge.

Had they all been
Democratic votes alone,

who knows what the outcome
might have been.

- Mr. Butler.
- Aye.

- Mr. Cohen.
- Aye.

- Mr. Lott.
- No.

- Mr. Froehlich.
- Aye.

- Mr. Moorhead.
- No.

- Mr. Maraziti.
- No.

- Mr. Latta.
- No.

- Mr. Rodino.

- Aye.

- 27 members have voted "aye."

11 members have voted "no."

- And pursuant
to the resolution,

Article I,
that resolution is adopted

and will be reported
to the House.

- And Nixon refused to resign,

thought that he would
fight this thing in, uh--

in the Senate
of the United States.

He knew he would be impeached
by the full House,

but that he could prevail
in a--in a trial in the Senate,

uh, where you need, uh,
two-thirds of the votes

of the senators to convict.

Congress began
preparing

for an impeachment vote

by the full House
of Representatives

and a subsequent Senate trial.

But then, only
a few days later,

there was yet
another surprise.

- President Nixon stunned
the country today

by admitting that
he held back evidence

from the House
Judiciary Committee.

- The President made public
three new transcripts

of meetings with
his former chief aide,

H. R. "Bob" Haldeman,

all June 23, 1972.

- Well, now, on the Democratic
break-in, um,

we're back in the problem area,

because the FBI
is not under control

because Gray doesn't exactly
know how to control them.

John Dean concurs now
with Mitchell's recommendation

that the only way
to solve this

is to have Walters
call Gray and, um--

and just say, "Stay the hell
out of this."

We don't want you to go
any further on it."

And that's not unusual.

- Fine. Fine.

- They say the only way
to do that

is from White House
instructions.

The proposal would be that
Ehrlichman and I call him.

- Good.
Play it tough.

That's the way they play it,

that's the way
we're gonna play it.

- Okay, then we'll do that.

- They should call the FBI in

and say that
for the country,

don't go any further
in to this one, period.

Tell them, "Lay off."

- Yeah, that's--
that's the basis we do it on.

- I don't want them
to get any ideas

that we're doing it because
our concern is...

political.

- They had asked
for some tapes.

Nixon had called
to review them in April.

One of them was the tape
of June 23rd.

He had heard the tape and felt
he couldn't survive it,

and that's why he didn't
turn the tapes over.

And we were all called
up to Camp David

early in August, Sunday,

and I had felt
Nixon couldn't survive.

And I said, "We don't
recommend Nixon resign,"

but we take this
problematic tape

and we simply drop it
on the public.

The revelation of the tape
will be the thing

that convinces Nixon's people,
his strong supporters,

that they can't even
support him anymore.

Then he has to resign.

- The tapes were not
turned over to Judge Sirica

but rather immediately
released to the public.

Why did that happen?

When a lawyer feels
that his client

has caused him to make
a misrepresentation

to a tribunal,

under the lawyer's
rules of ethics,

that's a serious problem.

- James St. Clair,
the President's lawyer,

threatened to resign
unless Mr. Nixon

released the transcripts,
and stated that Mr. St. Clair

had no knowledge
of the untruths

in the President's
earlier defense.

- Are you going to quit
because the President

didn't tell you
the whole truth?

- Interfering with
an FBI investigation

can be obstruction of justice,

a felony,
but almost as damaging

are other disclosures
in that June 23rd conversation

revealing a pattern
of lies and distortions

by Mr. Nixon and his men
about Watergate.

- I knew that
the Justice Department

and the FBI were conducting
intensive investigations,

as I had insisted
that they should.

The White House Counsel,
John Dean, was assigned

to monitor these
investigations,

and particularly to check

into any possible
White House involvement.

- But the transcripts show
that six months before,

H. R. Haldeman
told the President

that Dean was in
on the cover-up.

- It was clear that
Nixon had orchestrated

the cover-up just about
from the minute

after the break-in,
and so at that point

there was nothing for the
Republicans to fall back on.

- The fact that
there have been so many

of these bombshells--

this is the story,
and then this is the story

and then this is
the story and, um--

I just think that
when you add it all up,

uh, we have reached
a point of no return.

- And I shall support...

those portions

of Article I
of the bill of impeachment.

- What I thought I knew
about Richard Nixon was,

"This person is not
going to resign."

He will, in a Texas phrase,

"Fight it till
the last dog dies."

Because he will always be
able to convince himself,

I can win it.

- And you have
the defense secretary,

James Schlesinger,

warning the Joint Chiefs
of Staff that any orders,

any last minute,
crazy orders that come out

of the White House
are going to be vetted by

the civilian leadership
and the military

before, you know,
it's instituted.

Basically, if the President
orders the Marines

to come out of the barracks
and surround the White House,

to pr--you know,
and announces a coup,

you know, don't obey
that presidential order.

This is bordering on--

on treason, but this is
the point that they were at

and the fears that they had.

- I always said that
we would be in trouble

if General Haig
put on his uniform

when he went
to work that day.

- If the President, clearly,

makes the decision to resign,

I am not going to feel that
it was the wrong decision,

but I do feel
I am not going

to suggest to him
that he resign.

- Perhaps the toughest
assessment came

from Senator Robert Dole,
the former chairman

of the Republican Party.

Dole said that
for Republicans

who are trying
to get reelected

in November, as he is...

- The Republicans wanted
him out of office.

Just look at the timetable.

If the impeachment
had gone forward,

there would have had
to been a House vote

then there would have
to be a trial in the Senate.

That would be
September/October.

In November, there are
going to be elections

for the House and Senate.

If that trial had taken place--

an impeachment trial of Nixon--
how many Republicans

do you think
would have been elected

to the House and Senate?

And so Congressional
Republicans mounted

an all-out
emergency campaign

to persuade Nixon to resign.

- Senators Scott
and Goldwater arrived

at the White House first.
They were followed

a few moments later
by House Minority Leader

John Rhodes.
- Barry Goldwater,

the great conservative,
led a delegation

of Congressional
Republican leaders

to the White House
to meet with Nixon.

And Nixon said,
"Barry, how many votes

do I have in the Senate

for acquittal?"

Fully expecting that
Goldwater would tell him,

you know, "'X' number
and growing."

Goldwater looked at him
and he said, "Maybe four,

right now, Mr. President,
and you don't have my vote."

- We, uh, had a good,
thorough discussion,

and I think I speak for

my two colleagues
when I say that

we were extremely impressed.

- That was a defining moment,

because he had
relied on those

in this tight inner circle.

And you know, one thing we
politicians are very good at

is kidding ourselves,
particularly as far

as our popularity
is concerned.

- We have told him that
the situation is very gloomy

on Capitol Hill...

and, uh...

that it is a...

very distressing situation.

And we gave him
further evaluations

which I think ought
to remain, uh,

between ourselves.

But getting Nixon
to resign wouldn't be easy,

in part because Nixon feared
what might come afterwards.

- It seems inconceivable
that he will not resign.

He says, firmly,
that he will not.

What he may be doing
is a kind of plea-bargaining.

Once he becomes
a private citizen,

it is--it is easy to see years

of $100,000-a-month
legal fees ahead of him

even if he never
went to jail.

He hasn't got that kind
of money left.

- If President Nixon resigns,
what are the possibilities

of his being indicted
and facing trial on charges?

- What do you suppose
Congressional reaction would be

if the President issued
a pardon for himself

or for any of his assistants
faced with jail or prosecution?

- I just could--can't imagine
that kind of a thing

being done by him.

Uh, I think he'd leave
under, uh,

a much greater cloud
than he is now.

During this time,

Haldeman and
other former Nixon aides

desperately begged
Nixon for pardons.

Nixon refused,
but his own resignation

now seemed inevitable.

- All week, uh,
people have begun

to just sort of gather
outside the White House.

This, uh applause you hear--

what has happened
is that a moving van

has just pulled up
over at the White House.

It may just be
that the van is going

down Pennsylvania Avenue,
but at any rate, uh,

it pulled up here,
and, uh, some of the people

in this crowd, uh,
began to, uh--

to applaud when it did.

- I am aware
of the intense interest

of the American people

and of you in this room

concerning developments today
and over the last few days.

This has, of course,
has not been a--

has been a difficult time.

The President
of the United States

will meet various members
of the bipartisan leadership

of Congress here
at the White House

early this evening.

Tonight at 9:00,
Eastern Daylight Time,

the President
of the United States

will address the nation

on radio and television
from his Oval Office.

- And we were in the office

that night, and--
and I remember

Katharine came downstairs

and--and she said,
"No gloating."

This was before Nixon
went on air to--

And--and let me tell you,
there was no chance

that we were gonna gloat.

And Woodward and I
went off to a little room

and watched it by ourselves.

- What was Watergate?

The five wars of Watergate:

First against
the anti-war movement,

then against the news media,

the war against the Democrats,

the war against justice,

and then the war
against history.

- Olly--

No, only the CBS crew now

is to be in this room
during this.

Only the crew.

- No, there--
no, there will be no picture.

Good evening.

This is the 37th time

I have spoken to you
from this office.

Throughout the long
and difficult period

of Watergate,

I have felt it was
my duty to persevere.

To make every possible effort
to complete the term of office

to which you elected me.

In the past few days,
however, it has become

evident to me

that I no longer have

a strong enough
political base in the Congress

to justify continuing
that effort.

I have never been a quitter.

To leave office before
my term is completed

is abhorrent
to every instinct

in my body.

But as President,

I must put the interests
of America first.

Therefore...

I shall resign the Presidency
effective at noon tomorrow.

Vice President Ford...

will be sworn in as President

at that hour, in this office.

- My feeling,
and I think Bob's, too,

was of absolute awe.

Awe that, one,
the system had worked--

yes, that we had
had a part in it--

but that this thing
was gonna end

the way it ought to end.

And that, uh...

You know, awe that
it had come to this.

The next morning,

using his last hour
as President

to address his cabinet
and staff,

Richard Nixon gave
the best speech of his life.

- This office,
great as it is,

can only be as great
as the men and women

who work for and with
the President.

This house, for example.

I was thinking of it
as we walked down this hall.

This isn't the finest house.

Many in Europe,
particularly,

and in China,

Asia,

have paintings of...

great, great value.

Things that we just
don't have here

and probably will never have

until we are
a thousand years old,

or older.

But this is the best house.

It's the best house

because it has something

far more important
than numbers of rooms

or how big it is.

Far more important
than numbers of

magnificent pieces of art.

This house has a great heart,

and that heart comes
from those who serve.

And then Nixon concluded

with a recommendation that,

as he must have realized,
applied to him above all.

- Always remember

others may hate you,

but those who hate you

don't win unless
you hate them,

and then you destroy yourself.

- Nixon, as he leaves
the White House here

to board the helicopter

for the flight to California.

And there's the President
waving goodbye.

You hear the applause.

- Preserve, protect,
and defend...

- Preserve, protect,
and defend...

- The Constitution
of the United States...

- The Constitution
of the United States...

- So help me, God.
- So help me, God.

- Congratulations,
Mr. President.

But Watergate
was far from over.

One remaining question
was whether to put

Richard Nixon in jail.

- After he resigned
in August,

we said, "Let's amend
the indictment

"and add him as a defendant.

He is now a private citizen."

When people commit crimes,
they should pay the price.

Leon said, "The publicity
would ruin the trial.

You couldn't go to trial
for a very long time."

And we all said,
"No problem.

"We all will come back.

"We'll go on
to our other lives,

"but we will come back
to try the case

whenever it is appropriate."

And Leon said, "No."

And while we were having
this internal argument

in the office,
the pardon came down.

- I, Gerald R. Ford,

President of
the United States,

do grant a full,

free, and absolute pardon

unto Richard Nixon.

- I heard it on the radio
and I called Woodward.

And, uh, I woke him up

and I said, "You're not
gonna believe what happened."

And he said,
"What happened?"

And I said,
"The son of a bitch

pardoned the son of a bitch."

- Uh, President Ford

did, uh, infinite injury

to a fun--the fundamental
principle

of good government embodied
in the, uh, phrase:

"Equal justice under law."

- Members of the original
Watergate grand jury

are extremely upset by
President Ford's decision.

Some of them feel
their indictments

of other Nixon aides
are totally unfair

if the same justice system
is not applied to Nixon.

- When the top guy
has gotten away

and is going off to live
on the beach in California,

how--how zealous
do we feel now about,

you know, trying
to put the people

who worked for him in jail?

- I was against it,
and so was about 99%

of the United States
of America,

but it was the right decision.

The country had spent
too much time on Watergate,

and the idea of spending
another year or two

on Richard Nixon
wasn't worth it.

- I'll never change
my opinion about that.

I think it was wrong
from the get-go,

and I think it's wrong now,
and I think the idea

that we have
unaccountable Presidents

has harmed the country.

The pardon set up
a dual system of justice.

The pardon set up
a system where

President of the United States

was not going
to be held accountable

under the criminal laws.

It also turned out
that the pardon was part

of a larger deal that
eventually gave Nixon

control over the tapes.

- The final deal,
as it turned out,

was negotiated
between Nixon's lawyers

and the White House,
not just the arrangements

for the pardon, but also the
giving of the tapes to Nixon.

- There were very suspicious
things about the pardon.

Ford was gonna give Nixon all
of the White House documents.

Uh, which would have
perpetuated a cover-up forever.

Uh, Congress had to undo that.

Richard Nixon
wasn't done yet,

as Benton Becker,
the White House official

who handled the pardon,
soon found out.

- Within 48 hours after
Richard Nixon's plane landed

in California, Richard Nixon
picked up the telephone

and told General Haig,

"There are almost
a thousand boxes

"in the Executive
Office Building.

"Put those boxes in a, um...

"a--a truck, and send them
to Andrews Air Force Base,

and send them out here
to San Clemente."

One afternoon,

I noticed a truck
packing boxes.

When I asked
the, uh, Colonel

who was supervising
the, uh, packing of the boxes

he told me that he had
gotten his orders

from the Chief of Staff, uh,
Alexander Haig.

I reported all this
to the President

and the President
brought in Mr. Haig.

And Mr. Haig
told the President

that it was a mistake.

He didn't issue that order,

and the boxes were not sent.

Public anger over
the pardon and the tapes deal

forced President Ford to meet

with the House
Judiciary Committee.

Most of the Committee
was deferential,

but not Elizabeth Holtzman.

- There was no deal, period,

under no circumstances.

- Well, Mr. President, I know
that the people want

to understand how
you can explain

having pardoned Richard Nixon
without specifying any

of the crimes for which
he was pardoned.

And how can you explain
pardoning Richard Nixon

without obtaining
any acknowledgment

of guilt from him?

How can this
extraordinary haste

in which the pardon
was decided on,

and the secrecy with which

it was carried out,
be explained?

And how can you explain
the fact that the pardon

of Richard Nixon
was accompanied

by an agreement
with respect to the tapes

which in essence,
in the public mind,

hampered the
special prosecutor's

access to these materials?

- Those tapes, according
to the attorney general,

and I might add, according
to past President--precedent,

belong to President Nixon.

Uh, those tapes

are in our control.

They are under an agreement

which protects them
totally, fully.

But the original
deal only protected the tapes

for five years,
and popular outrage

forced Ford to retreat.

Congress quickly
passed a bill

making the tapes
government property,

and the vote
was so overwhelming

that Ford had to sign it.

A few months later,
when Haldeman,

Ehrlichman, and Mitchell
went to trial,

they denied everything,
but the special prosecutors

played the tapes for the jury,
and it worked.

- Good evening.
The men who were closest

to Richard Nixon
in the White House

and in politics
today were sentenced

to prison for their role
in the Watergate cover-up.

- 2 1/2 to 8 years.

2 1/2 to 8 years.

2 1/2 to 8 years.

Just a few months
later, another piece

of Richard Nixon's
legacy died too.

In April, 1975,
South Vietnam collapsed,

and the Communist
North Vietnamese

marched into Saigon
to assume power,

catching the United States
totally unprepared.

- The people here
were herded into groups.

50 at a time, they took off
for the carriers waiting

in the South China Sea.

- The South Vietnamese
helicopters came in

to the U.S. ships.

There was no room for them,
so the Navy men

ordered the pilots
to ditch the helicopters

in the ocean.

Time after time, the pilots
hovered over the water

and jumped out, praying
the helicopters wouldn't

fall on top of them.

As risky as this was,
the pilots decided

it was better than flying
back to Vietnam.

Another half-million
South Vietnamese fled later,

becoming the refugees known
as "the boat people."

We want Carter!

We want Carter!

In 1976 Jimmy
Carter defeated Gerald Ford.

On Carter's second day
in office, he pardoned

over 200,000
Vietnam draft violators.

In 1978, Carter
signed into law

the Ethics
in Government Act,

which guaranteed
the independence

of special prosecutors.

It was allowed
to expire in 1999.

41 people were convicted
in relation to Watergate.

A few years later,
Pete McCloskey went

to visit John Ehrlichman
in prison.

- John and I had been friends,
our wives had been friends,

I flew to Tucson
and drove over

to the Safford Penitentiary,
which is out in the desert

near Fort Huachuca.

There's no fence around it,
just desert.

I said, "John...

"how in the hell
did this ever happen?

"You were an honorable lawyer,

a good father,
good Christian scientist."

He looked out
across the desert

at least thirty seconds
and he said, "Pete...

"it took us
three-and-a-half years

"to be corrupted by the power
of the White House,

"but we came to believe
that the reelection of Nixon

was essential
to the national security."

And I asked him
one more question,

I said, "John,
tell me about Nixon."

He shook his head and said,

"I never really got
to know him."

- My presence here

is one additional bit
of evidence

that the American dream

need not forever be deferred.

- Hallelujah

- We were due to go see
"Butch Cassidy" that night

in--in Harvard Square.

I saw the advanced copy

of the Sunday
"New York Times."

I think came in
around midnight

at the Harvard Square kiosk.

That was how I learned.

I was very happy.
Very happy.

- This is a, uh--

original art from a--
an issue

of "The Incredible Hulk"
detailing the time

when June Volper
and Ben Vincent

rooted out the aliens

who were occupying
the Oval Office

and returned America
to peace and prosperity.

- That's the one thing

President is not off-limits.

- I was no longer
an endangered species.

I was an extinct species.

Liberal Republican.

- I was at CBS News
for 44 years.

I do, um, hard news
investigative reporting

and documentaries.

- That was Kissinger.

Lying son of a bitch--
pardon me.

- Uh, I'm a
climate change skeptic.

What, they call
carbon dioxide a pollutant.

Isn't that the food
of plants and trees

that Reagan referred to?

- So I have both been fired
and resigned for the same job.

- Which do you prefer, sir?
- Well, it depends

on what audience
I'm talking to.

- Woodward would sometimes

go straight to it
and say, uh,

"Why was your finger
in the cookie jar, there?"

And I would never do that.

I would say, "You--

You like coconut macaroons?"

- I mean, come on...

- It's just...

- Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs

worked closely with the
Justice Department in my days.

- You had a role
in increasing

the criminalization
of marijuana possession.

- Uh, not really.

Uh...

Well, that's another--
a whole other area to get into.

- It is.

- All right, cut.
- All right.

- Get out of here,
you rascals.