the assassination of richard nixon
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november 24, 1963 - richard m. nixon interviewed following president john f. kennedy' s assassination
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actor will janowitz attends a reception for a special screening of' the assassination of richard nixon' on december 6, 2004 in new york city .
actors will janowitz and oksana lada attend a reception for a special screening of' the assassination of richard nixon' on december 6, 2004 in new york city .
actor ethan hawke and producer alfonso cuaron attend a reception for a special screening of' the assassination of richard nixon' on december 6, 2004 in new york city .
actor aaron stanford and director niels mueller attend a reception for a special screening of' the assassination of richard nixon' on december 6, 2004 in new york city .
vice president nixon: i, richard m. nixon do solemnly swear - -
think film' s mark urman and director mary harron attend a reception for a special screening of' the assassination of richard nixon' on december 6, 2004 in new york city .
producer alfonso cuaron, think film' s mark urman and director niels mueller attend a reception for a special screening of' the assassination of richard nixon' on december 6, 2004 in new york city .
narrator: richard nixon was one of the most important american presidents of the second half of the 20th century - - and also the most controversial .
man: - - that vice president richard m. nixon has been unanimously nominated to be the candidate of the republican party for the office of president of the united states .
the fbi and secret service agents continued their investigation into a possible link between the alleged plot against nixon and the assassination of sen. robert f. kennedy in los angeles last june .
on july 17, 1969 the trial concluded. the namer’s were found not guilty of all but one charge, that of possessing two switchblade knives. the namer’s and the nixon assassination attempt then faded into history .
i picked up a cheap used version of the assassination of richard nixon simply because i spent much of my youth listening to my dad yell at the 37th president during the years of the watergate scandal, and figured that there might be some posthumous vicarious thrill that he could glean from my watching such a film with such a title .
richard m. nixon, then seeking the republican presidential nomination, addresses an audience in oregon in may 1968 .
some students of history are familiar with samuel byck’s 1974 deluded attempted assassination attempt of richard nixon by hijacking and flying a plane into the white house. or they may know about arthur bremer’s attempt on nixon in 1972. bremer failed to get near nixon and instead successfully shot and paralyzed presidential candidate george wallace a few weeks after his failed attempt at nixon .
( l - r) first lady pat nixon, president richard nixon, tricia nixon and edward cox at wedding reception at white house on june 12th, 1971 .
narrator: to some, it seemed that kennedy' s assassination might open the way for nixon in the next election, but sensing the mood of the country, nixon concluded that lyndon johnson, the new president, would be unbeatable in 1964 .
narrator: an angry, resentful richard nixon strode from the beverly hilton on november 7, 1962, seemingly bound for political oblivion .
barring a miracle ,
said time magazine, richard nixon' s political career was over .
john ehrlichman, nixon campaign staff: richard nixon was studiedly different to different people. and i don' t think there' s any one person, including his wife probably, who could sit down and write the definitive explanation of richard nixon. we all saw him differently .
based on real life events, assassination is set in 1974 and centers on a businessman who decides to take extreme measures to achieve his american dream .
richard m. nixon, then seeking the republican presidential nomination, addresses an audience in oregon in may 1968. ap hide caption
narrator: on february 18, 1972, richard nixon began still another remarkable comeback, with a stunning foreign policy success .
heroic bsod: the treble whammy of being divorced, getting his loan rejected and the discovery of the attempted tyre theft (which in turn leads to his brother disowning him) all in the space of a few days drives sam over the edge and leads to his assassination attempt .
it is to be richard nixon' s foreign policy and it is to be carried out with sophistication and some subtlety by henry kissinger .
drawing on material from his new book, american maelstrom, michael a. cohen shows how clinton is working from richard nixon’s comeback playbook .
yet, the one person often given short shrift when we talk about 1968 is the one who was the last man standing when all was said and done—richard nixon .
the heart of nixon’s speech, however, was directed toward the hopes and fears of those he called “the great majority of americans. ”
nearly 40 years before the obama white house denounced the wikileaks website for publishing classified documents, another president, richard nixon, was even more obsessed with the same phenomenon .
11th newscaster: good evening. the 37th president of the united states, richard m. nixon, is in china, the first american chief executive ever to visit the world' s most populous country .
former president richard nixon meets in the oval office with top aides, left to right, h. r. haldeman, dwight chapin and john ehrlichman .
excerpted from poisoning the press: richard nixon, jack anderson, and the rise of washington' s scandal culture by mark feldstein. copyright 2010 by mark feldstein. excerpted by permission of farrar, straus and giroux .
narrator: richard nixon loved the movie patton and watched it again and again in the white house. general george patton was a man of action, contemptuous of his critics, uncompromising, determined to win at all costs .
well meaning comparisons can sometimes do more harm than good. equating the assassination of richard nixon with one of the best plays ever written and some of the best movies ever made places a heavy burden of expectation upon this little film' s shoulders - but they are valid reference points. this is no a - list star vehicle for sean penn; instead, it' s a politically daring, psychologically troubling, based - on - fact american tragedy that took years to secure funding and only got made because of the artistic integrity of those involved .
how did all of this come to pass? in many ways, the rise of washington’s modern scandal culture began with richard nixon and jack anderson, and their blistering twenty - five - year battle symbolized and accelerated the growing conflict between the presidency and the press in the cold war era. this bitter struggle between the most embattled politician and reviled investigative reporter of their time would lead to bribery and blackmail, forgery and burglary, sexual smears and secret surveillance - - as well as the assassination plot. their story reveals not only how one president sabotaged the press, but also how this rancorous relationship continues to the present day. it was richard nixon’s ultimate revenge .
richard nixon is remembered as a ruthless politician driven at times by fear and hatred of his perceived enemies. but a new book suggests that nixon' s paranoia was based at least in part on his own experience .
in poisoning the press: richard nixon, jack anderson and the rise of washington' s scandal culture, mark feldstein describes the epic battle between nixon and the muckraking syndicated columnist jack anderson. feldstein follows the rise of anderson' s investigative journalism career and explains how his decades - long face - off with nixon would become emblematic of the relationship between the press and other politicians .
as the likely democratic nominee, she will enter the general election—no matter her opponent—as the symbolic adult in the race, a candidate of competence, clear qualifications, and experience who can run a campaign predicated on the theme of uniting americans at a time of disunity—just like richard nixon in 1968 .
narrator: nixon' s campaign amassed huge sums of money. skillful television ads appealed to democrats, blue collar workers, the south. nixon had always campaigned hard for other republicans. now he abandoned them, even dropped the party label. richard nixon campaigned as
the president .
nixon’s opponent hubert humphrey would make a remarkable comeback—from a double digit deficit at the end of september to a virtual tie with nixon on the eve of the election .
narrator: at age 56, after 22 years of political battle, richard nixon had become the most powerful man in the world. he envisioned nothing less than a new world order with himself as its architect .
narrator: h. r. haldeman recalled that the day the war ended, richard nixon had never looked so happy. his popularity soared to the highest point of his entire career. almost 70 percent of the american people supported the president. it was not to last .
4th newscaster: in the latest sensational turn of the red espionage probe, the maryland farm of the magazine editor becomes the focus of attention .
mr. cronkite: with the 26 electoral votes in illinois, richard nixon goes over the top with 287 electoral votes, he needed 270 to win and that seems to be the 1968 election .
“jack anderson was like ahab chasing after richard nixon, this great white whale, and he plagued nixon from the very beginning of his career, ” says feldstein, a veteran journalist and former “dateline nbc” producer who has spent years researching the life and career of anderson, once one of the most widely read newspaper columnists in the country .
that led to their arrest and the downfall of the regime ,
feldstein says .
[ but ] there are no smoking - gun tapes showing nixon ordering the assassination of anderson. what hunt and liddy both said was that the order came from [ white house special counsel ] charles colson. but what hunt told me before his death was that he believed that colson was acting at the behest of the president himself... . i find it very difficult to believe that colson and the other aides were acting without the implicit support of president nixon. it defies logic to imagine that they would cook this up, the assassination of a journalist as prominent as jack anderson, unless they had the signal from above to do it .
goldwater was, of course, crushed at the polls—an outcome that pleased nixon, because it meant that after the greatest popular vote loss in american history, republicans were going to be looking for a less inflammatory leader, who could unite the party. someone like richard nixon .
narrator: miami beach, august 1972, two months after the watergate break - in, a triumphant richard nixon took command at the republican national convention. narrowly elected four years earlier, nixon now wanted to win the biggest landslide in presidential history .
narrator: on august 9, 1974, richard milhous nixon became the first president in the history of the united states to resign from office. his staff gathered in the white house to bid him farewell, as millions of americans watched on television, some in sorrow and disbelief, others glad to see him go. richard nixon had accomplished great things as president and had been reelected overwhelmingly, but he was also widely distrusted, sometimes ridiculed, even despised .
3rd reporter: you' ve just heard richard nixon refer to you, among all these people, as the
forgotten americans .
what do you think he' s referring to ?
sean penn plays bicke as a man who has always been socially inept and now, as his life comes apart, descends into madness. his own frustration and the evils in the world are all the same, all somehow someone else' s fault, and in the opening scene of
the assassination of richard nixon ,
we see him in an airport parking garage, concealing a pistol in a leg brace. he mails one last tape to leonard bernstein. he plans to hijack a plane and fly it into the white house .
mr. patrick hillings, campaign staff: during the eisenhower years, nixon became the point man. eisenhower never expected to have to get into too much political discussion, but that was one of the reasons he put young senator richard nixon on the ticket, because he could do that. so all the tough political assignments usually were given to nixon .
narrator: the fate of lyndon johnson did haunt richard nixon. he felt he had to demonstrate that most americans still supported him and that it would not benefit hanoi to stall peace negotiations .
don' t get rattled .
pres. nixon: one constantly has the problem of either getting on top of the job or having the job get on top of you. i find that up here on top of the mountain, it is easier for me to get on top of the job .
narrator: by election night, nixon and humphrey were dead even. nixon prepared his family for the possibility of still another defeat .
mr. john ehrlichman, nixon campaign staff: richard nixon pulled it into the white house. he couldn' t leave it alone. and so, within a week after the break - in, or maybe two weeks, he had personally involved himself in the intrigue of the whole thing. so nixon sealed his fate six days after the break - in .
family of accused nixon plotter mona el namer wife of ahmed rageh namer, accused in alleged plot to assassinate president - elect richard nixon, sits with namer’s two sisters in the family’s mud - walled home in the remote mountain village of al matawir, yemen. the two sisters are miseiak namer, left and saadiek namer. namer’s two sons are also held in the alleged plot .
12th newscaster: president nixon' s motorcade is now sweeping toward the city of peking .
narrator: nixon promised his family a moratorium on politics in 1967, but immediately took off on a grueling tour of four continents. traveling as a private citizen, the former vice president could still command a crowd in the most remote reaches of the globe. his trips kept him in the news and strengthened his grasp of foreign policy. once again, richard nixon was aiming for the presidency .
howard k. smith, moderator: the candidates need no introduction: the republican candidate, vice president richard m. nixon and the democratic candidate, senator john f. kennedy. according to the rules set by the candidates themselves each man - -
a day - by - day itinerary of nixon' s trip to china .
in 1956, murray kempton wrote, “great care had gone into the construction of the shadow which declares itself to be richard nixon. ” but in a single morning of pique, all those many years he had spent developing and honing the self - discipline and contrived earnestness that lay at the heart of his political success had been wiped away .
narrator: in the end, it proved to be one of the closest elections in history. kennedy won by only 100, 000 votes and charges of democratic fraud were widespread. much of the winning margin came from lyndon johnson' s texas and richard j. daley' s chicago, but nixon refused to demand a recount .
adlai stevenson, democratic national candidate 1956: i must say bluntly that every piece of scientific evidence we have, every lesson of history and experience indicates that a republican victory tomorrow would mean that richard nixon would probably be president of this country within the next four years. i say frankly, as a citizen more than a candidate, that i recoil at the prospect of mr. nixon as custodian of this nation' s future, as guardian of the hydrogen bomb, as representative of america in the world, as commander - in - chief of the united states armed forces .
foregone conclusion: anyone even vaguely familiar with history is probably going to remember that richard nixon was in fact not assassinated, and that the white house was not destroyed by having an airliner fly into it .
two days later, five burglars working for the committee to re - elect richard nixon entered the watergate complex in washington. they broke into the office of the democratic national committee, placed bugs on the telephones and made their escape. but the microphones failed to work. they would have to go back .
narrator: h. r. haldeman, a former advertising executive who had been at nixon' s side since 1956, was made chief of staff. he was proud, he once said, to be richard nixon' s
son of a bitch .
john ehrlichman, a lawyer and top aide during the campaign, would handle much of domestic policy .
but most people are unaware that a brooklyn man, born in yemen named ahmed rageh namer was arrested along with his two sons in 1968 and charged with conspiracy to kill president - elect richard nixon .
over the next six years richard nixon would transform himself into the “new nixon”—or, perhaps more accurately, the “new, new nixon. ” the overwrought and emotionally coiled politician of old had disappeared. in his place emerged a patient, disciplined, affable, even self - effacing nixon, who brought the two wings of a warring political party together under his leadership. during his years in the political wilderness, after the “last press conference, ” nixon exhibited a self - discipline, energy, and single - minded devotion to winning the presidency that showed why he should be ranked among the most talented politicians of the 20th century .
narrator: nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of the tapes to the committee and the public simultaneously. the president himself had supervised the editing .
pres. nixon: [ at the grand ole opry ] if you' ll join us in this song, i think you' ll recognize it when i start it. just let me get a chord. [ richard nixon plays on the piano
wild irish rose ]
the assassination of richard nixon
is about a man on a collision course; given the stark terms in which he arranges right and wrong, he will sooner or later crack up. he hasn' t a clue about appropriate behavior, about how others perceive him, about what may be right but is nevertheless impossible. the movie' s title has one effect before we see it, and another afterward, when we can see the grandiosity and self - deceit that it implies. what really happens is that sam bicke assassinates himself .
helen gahagan douglas: [ 1979 interview ] when richard nixon ran for the house of representatives and unseated jerry voorhis, it was the same kind of campaign as he waged against me in 1950, but the essence of that kind of campaign is this: to avoid the issues, you work up bogus issues, trying to play on the fears of people because if you talk about the real issues, you may lose votes. it' s as simple as that .
there was a real sam bicke (spelled byck), whose plan of course failed. niels mueller' s movie is based on his botched assassination scheme, but many of the other details, including some scenes of mordant humor, are the invention of mueller and his co - writer, kevin kennedy. this is a character study of a marginal man who goes off the rails, and penn is brilliant at evoking how daily life itself is filled, for bicke, with countless challenges to his rigid sense of right and wrong .
narrator: on september 8, 1974, president gerald ford granted richard nixon a full and absolute pardon. over 70 others were found guilty of criminal acts and punished. the contradictions of nixon' s career - - his triumphs and defeats, grand vision and petty grievances - - have left their imprint on america, but his legacy remains ambiguous .
the judgment of history ,
nixon has said ,
depends on who writes it .
narrator: on capitol hill, the judiciary committee prepared to vote on three articles of impeachment. they charged the president with obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of congress .
ruckelshaus refused, in a moment of constitutional drama, to obey a presidential order to fire the special watergate prosecutor. and half an hour after the special watergate prosecutor had been fired, agents of the fbi, acting at the direction of the white house, sealed off the offices of the special prosecutor, the offices of the attorney general and the offices of the deputy attorney general .
the two men — and nixon — then discussed the idea of digging up information that hume and anderson were gay .
narrator: nixon' s gamble paid off. the soviets did not cancel the summit. on may 22, 1972, richard nixon became the first american president ever to set foot inside the kremlin. nixon had done what none of his predecessors had been able to do. he had negotiated a treaty in which the two superpowers agreed to slow an arms race that had been accelerating for more than a quarter of a century. it was his greatest achievement .
six weeks after the invasion of laos, president richard nixon of the united states held a gala affair in honor of st. patrick’s day and his wife pat’s 59th birthday. three hundred guests attended, among them “bebe” robozo, the president’s best friend; three democratic senators whose names begin with “me, ” robert abplanalp, the aerosol king of bronxville; the howard elles coxes of new york; irene “granny” ryan of the beverly hillbillies, and fred mcmurray, who looked mystified and said, “i don’t know why i’m here. ”
narrator: early the next morning, nixon went to the pentagon for a firsthand briefing. the military was reporting success. nixon was encouraged and praised american soldiers fighting in the jungles of southeast asia. the wife of one of those soldiers reached out to shake his hand. nixon drew a sharp contrast between the troops in vietnam and the student protesters at home .
roger morris, nixon biographer: richard nixon does not simply defeat jerry voorhis for the congress or defeat helen gahagan douglas for the senate in 1950, he destroys these people politically and very nearly personally. and he does that in such a way as to leave a great legacy of bitterness among their supporters and even among onlookers, people who were sort of neutral observers on the side .
both harvard and yale invited nixon to apply for scholarships, but his dream of a prestigious eastern university was frustrated. it was 1930, the great depression and harold was in the midst of his long struggle with tuberculosis .
we needed richard at home ,
hannah nixon remembered. nixon had to settle for whittier college just down the road and later said he' d never felt disappointed. he soon became a big man on the small campus .
narrator: republicans once again pinned their presidential hopes on richard nixon. to them and to many in the press, he seemed a
new nixon ,
better prepared than the man who had lost in 1960. but the democratic front runner, hubert humphrey, said he' d seen it all before .
as sam' s breakdown descends into paranoia and, in turn, into political scheming, the obvious cinematic touchstones are the key movies that were made around the time that this one is set - taxi driver, the conversation, all the president' s men. the sweaty, untrustworthy face of richard nixon haunts sam from nearby tv screens .
narrator: the microfilm, thereafter known as
the pumpkin papers ,
provided the evidence and the publicity nixon needed. finally, after two controversial trials, hiss was found guilty of perjury and imprisoned. the hiss case polarized american opinion about richard nixon. to conservatives, he had fearlessly rooted out a dangerous subversive, but in the eyes of many liberals, nixon had destroyed an honorable man and set the stage for more unscrupulous communist hunters. but there was no doubt that, at the age of 35, the congressman from whittier had become a national figure .
narrator: when richard was 12, his younger brother arthur suddenly fell ill and died. and within eight years, harold, the eldest brother and family favorite, would succumb to tuberculosis. hannah nixon recalled ,
it was arthur' s passing that first stirred within richard a determination to help make up for our loss by making us very proud of him. he may have felt a kind of guilt that harold and arthur were dead and he was alive ,
she remembered .
the nixon - kennedy debates would forever change the way americans chose their presidents .
editor’s note: in “ the nixon sightings, ” steve hess recalls five key moments in his time working with richard m. nixon. each vignette offers a peek into some of the events that drove a young senator from california to the oval office. this series was written as background to hess’ new book the professor and the president: daniel patrick moynihan in the nixon white house (brookings press, december 2014), a “dramatic narrative” of events in 1969 - 1970, told in the present tense .
vice pres. nixon: i now declare that john f. kennedy has been elected president of the united states and lyndon johnson vice president of the united states .
narrator: richard nixon was favorite to win the republican presidential nomination in 1960. events of the last four years had made him one of the most visible vice presidents in history. during a tour of south america, he had faced down angry leftist mobs that spat upon him and his wife and attacked their motorcade. maintaining his composure throughout the ordeal, nixon returned home to a hero' s welcome. and in moscow, he had confronted the leader of the communist world, nikita khrushchev, in an impromptu televised debate .
mr. john ehrlichman, nixon campaign staff: the moratorium itself was seen by richard nixon as 200, 000 people out there on the mall, protesting his foreign policy while at the same time, the polls were showing that 58 - 59 percent of the american people supported him in his foreign policy. and he would look out the window and he would say ,
i simply cannot permit foreign policy to be made in the streets of washington .
narrator: nixon was less aggressive in 1956 than in earlier campaigns. the press began to write of a
new nixon ,
but the vice president remained the democrats' favorite target .
narrator: even the president' staff watched as a parade of witnesses implicated haldeman, ehrlichman and others high in the administration and the nixon campaign. but in the first month of testimony, the president himself escaped direct charges of wrongdoing. then the committee summoned its star witness, john dean. in a seven - hour opening statement, dean described the atmosphere of the nixon white house .
president richard milhous nixon: [ august 9, 1974 ] you are here to say goodbye to us and we don' t have a good word for it in english. the best is au revoir. we' ll see you again .
the white house obsession with anderson — whose
washington merry go - round
column was the wikileaks of its day — is detailed in a new book being published this month, “poisoning the press: richard nixon, jack anderson and the rise of washington’s scandal culture, ” by journalism professor mark feldstein. the book relies in part on newly unearthed tapes from the national archives that document how nixon’s aides plotted to destroy anderson by planting forged evidence with him and spreading false rumors about his sex life and that of one of his associates .
pres. nixon: our distinguished guests and my fellow americans, i proudly present to you the man whose name i will submit to the congress of the united states for confirmation as the vice president of the united states, congressman gerald ford of michigan .
mr. roger morris, nixon biographer: richard nixon is forever embittered by the experience and - - taken with the example, i think - - feels that never again will he be caught short, never again will his opponents outdo him and never again will he trust the ordinary, normal and honest devices of american politics to function as they' re supposed to .
vice pres. nixon: [ announcing gubernatorial candidacy ] i shall not be a candidate for president of the united states in 1964. i shall be a candidate for governor of the state of california in 1962 .
nixon will not be writing the making of the president 1964. i go home to washington, a city now in mourning .
vice pres. nixon: well, of course, it was the greatest of the campaign and i think this means that we' re on the way to victory in new york .
narrator :
richard had his father' s fire ,
his mother, hannah milhous nixon once said ,
and my tact .
she seemed the opposite of the loud, aggressive husband her quaker family always believed beneath her: soft - spoken, tightly controlled, never allowing anger to get the better of her. she insisted her second son be called
richard ,
not
dick ,
taught him to read before he entered school and made sure he said his prayers daily and went four times to quaker meeting on sundays .
narrator: one of the largest audiences in television history watched on may 17th as senator sam ervin opened the investigation of nixon' s re - election campaign and the watergate break - in .
narrator: for two years, the burglary of ellsberg' s psychiatrist' s office had remained one of the most closely - guarded secrets of the nixon white house. now, dean' s revelation suggested that the watergate break - in was not an isolated event. it was part of a web of illegal activities ordered by the president' s men .
narrator: suddenly, nixon faced a scandal of his own. the new york post reported that wealthy supporters had set up a secret fund for nixon' s personal use .
narrator: nixon was swept into office with 60 percent of the vote, part of a nationwide republican surge. his boyhood goal to enter politics had been achieved .
narrator: on election night, nixon watched the returns with two of his closest aides, chief of staff h. r. haldeman and special counsel chuck colson .
america, 1974. samuel bicke (penn) is suffering a breakdown. unable to lie to customers at work, he' s a failure as a salesman as well as a failure as a husband. so he figures the only way to give his life significance is to target the greatest liar of the age - president richard nixon .
ralph de toledano, early nixon biographer: nixon realized that once he had committed himself, that if everything collapsed, if hiss was exonerated or if the charges were not proved to the hilt, he would be badly hurt. now, i don' t think he would have been permanently hurt, but certainly, i think if that had happened, richard nixon would never have become a senator and never would have become president of the united states .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
second - grade teacher: i taught richard nixon in the second grade here in yorba linda. he sat in the back seat and always came to school with a white starched shirt with long sleeves. he was always a quiet, dignified little fellow and a very good student .
narrator: within hours, nixon ordered elliott richardson to fire archibald cox. but nixon had miscalculated. richardson refused .
at various points nixon realized the depth of the hole he was digging and fell back on insincere and formulaic platitudes: “i appreciate the press coverage of the campaign, ” and “i congratulate governor brown, ” who, he said, has “the greatest honor” of any governor in america. his back and forth between sincerity and artifice offered the press conference’s most revealing moment—a telling indication of the wide gap between the real nixon and the manufactured one .
nixon decided to use force to end the vietnam war with
the christmas bombing .
vice pres. nixon: there must be a free exchange of ideas. there are some instances where you may be ahead of us, for example, in the development of your - - of the thrust of your rockets for the investigation of outer space. there may be some instances - - for example, color television - - where we' re ahead of you, but in order for both of us - - [ khrushchev interrupts ] for both of us to benefit - - for both of us to benefit - - you see, you never concede anything .
the mood in room 724 of the beverly hilton on the morning of november 7, 1962, could best be described as funereal. after all, nine hours earlier richard nixon’s political career had, from all appearances, died. nearly two years to the day after his bid to be president of the united states had been narrowly rejected by the american people, california voters gave him a similar, if more stinging, rebuke—by re - electing his opponent, the state’s liberal democratic governor, pat brown .
and on august 3, 1948, shortly after the birth of nixon' s second daughter, julie, an unlikely drama began that would make the issue of communist subversion front - page news and make congressman nixon a national figure almost overnight .
narrator: the emphasis on law and order appealed to millions of americans. nixon' s television commercials hammered it home .
like the man who won the white house 48 years ago, clinton may not be the most popular candidate in the world; she might have high unfavorabilities; and may be viewed with deep contempt by her political opponents. but like nixon, by positioning herself as a more palatable option in a year of highly unpalatable presidential options and the safest, least likely to rock the boat candidate for the presidency this year, she stands a good chance of delivering the next inaugural address—and standing in the same spot where richard nixon delivered his 48 years earlier .
he was sort of the high guru of the kennedy government - in - waiting in cambridge. and the idea that these kennedy government political operatives were going to be demanding to run barefoot through all the most private files of the nixon white house was utterly appalling and absolutely outrageous .
president - elect kennedy: [ taking oath of office ] i, john fitzgerald kennedy, do solemnly swear that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states, so help me god .
thousands fled. if the offensive were not stopped, the war would be lost and with it, nixon feared, the presidency. but if he ordered a u. s. counterattack, the soviets might cancel the upcoming arms control summit in moscow, a vital part of nixon' s grand design. most of his advisers urged nixon not to take any action that might jeopardize the summit. once again, nixon overruled them .
narrator: boating in the florida keys, nixon was relaxed and confident. he was running far ahead of humphrey in the polls and the vietnam war was splintering the democrats .
nixon soon chimed in, referring to unsubstantiated rumors about the sex life of anderson and his former employer, columnist drew pearson .
narrator: richard nixon was born in the tiny southern california desert town of yorba linda in 1913. he grew up among the people he would one day call
forgotten americans ,
and
the silent majority ,
hard - working, church - going people, farmers, shop keepers, people with an inbred respect for authority and an unyielding belief in the american dream .
narrator: by the end of summer, nixon' s refusal to turn over the tapes and john dean' s testimony had badly eroded the public' s support for the president. but after months of unrelenting press coverage, nixon sensed that americans were growing weary of watergate. he moved to take the offensive. for the first time in 14 months, nixon held a televised news conference and tried to turn the persistent questioning to his advantage .
the white house obsession soon intensified after anderson — thanks to the legwork of his young associate brit hume — got hold of a “smoking gun” memo written by a washington lobbyist tying a $ 400, 000 political contribution to help underwrite the cost of the 1972 republican national convention to the nixon justice department’s decision to drop an antitrust investigation of the itt telecommunications conglomerate .
nixon fired special watergate prosecutor archibald cox in
the saturday night massacre .
senator joseph mccarthy: and call the roll. and call the roll of the traitors who plunder .
returning home, nixon landed at a small air force base in maine where the military crowd gave him a warm welcome. but the extraordinary journey that had taken richard nixon all the way from yorba linda to the white house, to peking and moscow, from humiliating defeats to the pinnacle of world power seemed to be coming to an end. most americans had lost faith in the president. they saw a man who had repeatedly lied to cover up his crimes, had subverted the political process and undermined the constitution .
reprinted and adapted from american maelstrom: the 1968 election and the politics of division with the permission of the author, michael a. cohen, and the publisher, oxford university press .
narrator: just 14 years after he was tapped by a group of small - town businessmen to run for congress in california, richard nixon stood at the top of his party. as he mapped out an ambitious 50 - state campaign, he was challenged by his opponent, john f. kennedy, to a series of televised debates, the first in american history. even when hospitalized for two weeks with a knee injury, nixon remained confident, anxious for the debates to begin, eager once again to use television to talk directly to the voters .
pres. nixon: [ inaugural address ] the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of
peacemaker .
this honor now beckons america .
pres. nixon: in giving you these records, blemishes and all, i am placing my trust in the basic fairness of the american people .
narrator: was nixon on or off the ticket? general eisenhower had been frustratingly silent. finally, after three days of waiting, a weary, anxious nixon received eisenhower' s phone call .
narrator: cox and his staff requested sensitive white house files. nixon reluctantly complied. cox also demanded nine of the president' s tapes. nixon refused. cox took his case to court .
pres. nixon: [ 1972 republican national convention ] tonight, i again proudly accept your nomination for president of the united states .
even before mccord' s letter, nixon had ordered john dean to write a report that would exonerate the white house of wrongdoing .
washington — tricia nixon and edward finch cox are reported by friends to be on the verge of getting married much sooner than expected .
narrator: in may, the president and mrs. nixon welcomed the returning pow' s to the white house .
narrator: nixon ordered the most drastic escalation of the war since 1968, massive sustained bombing of hanoi and the mining of haiphong harbor, risking a full - scale confrontation with the soviets by putting their supply ships in peril. after explaining his decision to the american people, he made a direct appeal to the kremlin .
narrator: fully recovered, eisenhower announced he would seek reelection, but did not guarantee nixon a place on the ticket. privately, he thought him immature, a political liability. but nixon refused to consider the president' s offer of a cabinet position instead of the vice presidency .
nonetheless, nixon’s words played on the same prejudices that animated wallace’s supporters. implicit in his speech—and in his middle - ground positioning—was a darker and more divisive message. those shouting and demonstrating, who didn’t work, who hadn’t served, and who didn’t pay taxes were clearly not included in nixon’s vision of america. nixon’s description of the “real voice of america” left out black voters—despite his kennedy - like appeal—the hippies, the feminists, and the agitators. in time, this us - versus - them construct would become an explicit feature of nixon’s political rhetoric .
narrator: just days before, the supreme court had ruled in the case of the united states v. richard nixon .
the president must turn over the tapes to the special prosecutor .
not even a president, said the court, could withhold evidence in a criminal trial. nixon returned to washington, still calculating the odds. he knew the house of representatives would vote to indict him. there was a chance he might survive a trial in the senate as long as there was no irrefutable evidence that he had personally committed a crime. but nixon himself possessed that evidence, a tape that plainly showed he' d obstructed justice. his conversation with h. r. haldeman on june 23, 1972, when nixon ordered his aides to divert the fbi .
mr. butler, judiciary committee: there are frightening implications for the future of our country if we do not impeach the president of the united states. if we fail to impeach, we have condoned and left unpunished a course of conduct totally inconsistent with the reasonable expectations of the american people .
he is about to sign a book contract with doubleday and i agree to take charge of the research. theodore white’s account of the kennedy - nixon contest, the making of the president 1960, had explored campaign management, revolutionized political journalism, and been a massive best - seller. now nixon proposes to challenge white with his own version of the making of the president 1964. the premise is that the former presidential candidate (no longer a contender having lost his race for california governor) is better able to explain how the process really works .
the enigmatic nature of the nixon presidency combined comparatively progressive legislative initiatives with a flagrant abuse of presidential power and the public trust. even today, decades after his death, richard nixon inspires divided passions in america. nixon was a self - made man who rose from modest quaker beginnings in california to the most powerful office in the world. his story is filled with unlikely successes — a staunch anti - communist, he improved u. s. - soviet relations and surprised the world by opening up relations with communist china. some credit him with ending the war in vietnam. but nixon' s career was ultimately undone by his own actions. he abused the power of the office, resigned in humiliation, and tainted the presidency in the process. admired and reviled, loved and hated, the man and his life continue to fascinate us .
sen. nixon: [ campaigning ] all a democratic congress offers, if elected this year, is a return to the policies of the truman administration .
nixon' s failed attempts at' poisoning the press' writer mark feldstein says muckraking columnist jack anderson cut ethical corners to get nixon exposes, and the president responded with fury. he recounts surprising details of the long - running battle between the journalist and the politician in poisoning the press .
narrator: nixon' s call to the
forgotten americans
appealed to a bread band of voters, mostly white middle class, hawkish, patriotic. it was a group that felt ignored and excluded in the upheavals of the 60s. and the strategy seemed to be working. nixon held his strong lead into the fall .
narrator: when he appeared as the guest of honor at a billy graham crusade in tennessee, nixon had been in office 16 months. a majority of americans still backed his vietnam policy, but the furor over cambodia had deepened the divisions nixon had promised to mend. even here, surrounded by thousands who supported him, the president could not escape the ceaseless storm of protest .
narrator :
on sunday morning, june 18th ,
richard nixon later wrote ,
i left for key biscayne. when i got to my house, i could smell coffee brewing in the kitchen and i went in to get a cup. there was a miami herald on the counter and i glanced over the front page. the main headline was about the vietnam withdrawals. there was a small story in the middle of the page on the left - hand side .
narrator: away from the convention floor, eisenhower huddled with nixon. the young senator represented the growing power of the west coast and he was a rough - and - tumble campaigner. the general offered him the vice presidency .
november 13, 1968: a mystery witness told a brooklyn grand jury tuesday that a yemeni immigrant and his two sons tried to get him to join in a plot to kill president elect richard m. nixon and offered him money to participate. he testified an hour and 20 minutes .
narrator: nixon left washington and for the next two months remained in virtual isolation .
one of pearson' s foes was richard nixon, who had been elected to congress in 1946 and became a senator in 1950. in 1952, after nixon was tapped to become dwight eisenhower' s running mate, anderson and pearson wrote a column about the money nixon may have taken from corporate interests. that led to nixon delivering his famous
checkers speech ,
in which he decried his opponents and stated that no matter what anyone said, he would not return his daughters' dog, checkers, which had been given to them as a gift.
the assassination of richard nixon is a 2004 american drama film directed by niels mueller . it stars sean penn , don cheadle , jack thompson and naomi watts , and is based on the story of would-be assassin samuel byck , who plotted to kill richard nixon in 1974 . it was screened in the un certain regard section at the 2004 cannes film festival . 
the assassination of richard nixon is a 2004 american drama film directed by niels mueller. it stars sean penn, don cheadle, jack thompson and naomi watts, and is based on the story of would-be assassin samuel byck, who plotted to kill richard nixon in 1974. it was screened in the un certain regard section at the 2004 cannes film festival.
the assassination of richard nixon is a 2004 american drama film directed by niels mueller. it stars sean penn, don cheadle, jack thompson and naomi watts, and is based on the story of would-be assassin samuel byck, who plotted to kill richard nixon in 1974. it was screened in the un certain regard section at the 2004 cannes film festival.