In 1996, Nixon's speechwriter, Ray Price, revealed a draft speech he wrote for Nixon in the event that Nixon chose to fight on rather than resign. He said the speech was never shown to Nixon.
Posts published in “Resignation”
Photograph of President Richard Nixon's resignation letter, delivered to Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger and initialled at 11.35am.
On the morning of his resignation as president, Richard Nixon addressed some final remarks to the White House staff.
Listen to extracts of Nixon’s remarks (1m):
Nixon’s speech, as issued by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in 2014 (29m):
Text and image of a memorandum for Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski on the pros and cons of prosecuting Richard Nixon. The memorandum was sent by Carl Feldbaum and Peter Kreindler on the day Nixon resigned the presidency.
In 1983, Richard Nixon recalled his last full day in the White House.
He recounted his memories of delivering his resignation speech, remarks by Dr Henry Kissinger and the reaction of his staff and colleagues.
Nixon also recalled a conversation with Vice-President Gerald Ford.
Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation at 9pm on August 8, 1974, to announce that he would resign the presidency at noon the following day.
Nixon became the only president ever to resign the office.
The video shows Nixon’s preparations for his televised resignation announcement. The official speech begins at the 7 minute mark:
Listen to Nixon’s resignation speech (16m)
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.