On the 25th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, Nixon aide Patrick J. Buchanan insisted that the removal of the President was a coup d’etat.
Yes, Watergate Was A Coup D’Etat
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Until I saw an unctuous individual babbling on about how our terrified city feared a coup d’etat by Richard Nixon in 1974, I had decided not to write on the 25th anniversary of Watergate. But that did it. Watergate was indeed a coup. It was the overthrow of an elected president by a media and political elite he had routed in a 49-state landslide the like of which America had never seen.
In taking Nixon down, that elite was not motivated by any love of law or the Constitution. It was driven by hatred.
Following Nixon’s resignation, the Republicans suffered heavy losses in the 1974 mid-term congressional elections.
In 1975, the little known Democratic Governor of Georgia, James Earl Carter, announced that he was running for president.
Carter’s insurgent outsider’s campaign propelled him to victory at the 1976 presidential election, defeating Gerald Ford.
Listen to Carter (15m)
President James Earl (“Jimmy”) Carter’s Inaugural Address
January 20, 1977
For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.
In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: “We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.”
As Nixon’s resignation drew near, in Australia the columnist Creighton Burns wondered whether Watergate was possible in that country.
Burns was a journalist and academic. He was editor-in-chief of The Age newspaper in Melbourne from 1981 to 1989. He died in 2008, aged 82.