It seems unlikely that Nixon had any real say in how his presidency
ended. The Establishment just told him that enough is enough, and they
brokered the deals needed to end the Hubris of the Nixon White House.
Gerald Ford was acceptable to everyone because it was clear he had no
further ambitions than finishing President Nixon's term.
Rich Rijnders wrote:
But wouldn't Ford have become President, anyway, since he was VP? Or are you
saying that the agreement may have been made before he (Ford) was nominated
and confirmed and that the pardon may have been part of the nomination deal?
I guess that if no one had been nominated and confirmed prior to Nixon's
resignation, Carl Albert would have become acting President which would have
been weird since he would have been voting on the impeachment, too.
On 11/30/07 1:16 PM, "Terry Richardson" <terry-sssc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
No prob- I remember the Watergate mess clearly. My mom thought (still
thinks) Sam Ervin was one of the finest men ever. I was just a kid at
the time, but I watched hours of the hearings.
I think the pardon was done for many reasons. Ford said it was to begin
to heal the country, although at the time it sure looked suspicious.
Did Nixon resign and give Ford the presidency and the pardon was just a
quid pro quo? We'll never know for sure.
