Days That Shook the World (2003) s01e11 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR:
The President of the United States,
the most powerful human being
in the world.
No one could have foreseen
the seismic shocks
America would suffer
in the 20th century.
The assassination
of its youngest-ever leader,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
and the disgrace of its most successful
election-winner, Richard Milhous Nixon.
One man destined to die,
the other never to be forgiven.
This is a dramatic reconstruction
of events as they happened
on two days that shook the world.
It is the 22nd of November, 1963,
in central Asia,
Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova
is the first woman
to be launched into space.
In England, the hunt is still on for the
perpetrators of the Great Train Robbery.
In Washington DC, Martin Luther King
addresses the Million Man March
in front of the Lincoln Memorial
And in Dallas, Texas, preparations
are underway for a presidential visit
Dallas, Texas.
Thursday, November 22nd, 1963
it's a mild morning, but there are
ominous grey clouds in the distance
threatening an overcast day
with a chance of rain.
In the Oak Cliff suburb of Dallas,
the Newman family are looking forward
to this weekend's
Thanksgiving celebrations.
But today, they have made plans
for a family day out
Hey, you watch that TV, all right?
What's the matter, little buddy?
You aren't ready yet?
NARRATOR: It's 7 a.m., and the Newmans
are having breakfast
Bill and Gayle Newman were high school
sweethearts and now, both aged 22,
they have a young family.
Four-year-old Billy Newman
loves cartoons.
Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
are his favourites.
Two-year-old Clayton
doesn't care what's on TV,
He's too excited
to eat breakfast, either.
Billy, Billy! Come in here and eat!
No, I'm watching TV.
Gayle Newman is having her usual
breakfast A bottle of Dr Pepper.
Where was that Indian at? You remember?
Her husband Bill has taken the day off.
But he's still thinking about work.
He recently took a professional
electricians' exam
and is waiting for the results.
Across town, Dr Malcolm Perry
is also having his breakfast
The 34-year-old surgeon has
a routine day ahead of him, lecturing,
and doing his patient rounds at Parkland
Memorial Hospital in central Dallas.
Perry trained as a doctor in Dallas,
and served in the US Air Force in
Washington before returning to Texas
five years ago, to work as a surgeon
at Parkland Hospital
The President of the United States.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, 30 miles away
in Fort Worth, Texas,
John F. Kennedy,
35th President of the United States,
is addressing a breakfast conference.
Two years ago,
I introduced myself in Paris by saying
that I was the man who had accompanied
Mrs Kennedy to Paris.
I'm getting somewhat that same
sensation as I travel around Texas.
Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I wear.
NARRATOR: John Kennedy
married fashion icon
34-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier
10 years ago.
They now have two young children.
Caroline, aged five,
and John-john, aged two.
Jackie Kennedy is looking forward
to celebrating the children's birthdays
next week, well away from the hassle
of this political trip.
20,000 feet up in the Texas skies,
Air Force One, the president's plane,
is making the short flight from
Fort Worth to Love Field, Dallas.
On board with John and Jackie Kennedy,
35-year-old Malcolm Kilduff is anxious.
His boss is away in Japan,
50 as Assistant Press Secretary to JFK,
it has been Kilduff's responsibility
to organise
the President's tour of Texas,
shortly arriving at Dallas.
KILDUFF: The forces of the Republican
Party were starting to pick up in '63,
prior to running against Kennedy in '64.
There were a few negative signs.
NARRATOR: Last month, America's United
Nations' Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson,
was physically attacked
during a visit to Dallas.
The political climate remains tense.
Kilduff is daydreaming about his plans
to set up his own PR agency,
well away from the stress and strain
of the political world.
The Newman family set off to see
the President arrive at Love Field.
-Come on, BILL
-Coming, honey.
NARRATOR: Yesterday, Bill bought a new
roll of film for his 8mm cine camera,
but in all the excitement,
he leaves the camera at home.
As Air Force One
comes into land at Love Field,
Malcolm Kilduff is steeling himself
for the worst.
Texas is a traditional
Republican stronghold.
Kennedy's progressive approach
to domestic issues like civil rights
is unsettling the Republican hardcore.
What's more, his international ambition
to act as peacemaker to the world
has angered local right-wingers,
who believe that America is too heavily
influenced by the United Nations.
Kilduff anticipates a hostile reception.
But so far, so good.
(MARCH PLAYING)
As the 46-year-old President and
First Lady descend from the aircraft,
the Newman children find it hard to see
anything through the mass of people.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
the youngest and the first Catholic
President of the United States.
Over the past three years, he has
overseen the strongest economic upturn
in American history,
and has energised the country.
Ask not what your country
can do for you,
ask what you can do for your country.
(BAND PLAYING
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER)
NARRATOR: The future appears
to be Kennedy's to command.
He is the dynamic force behind
the Civil Rights Bill of 1963.
The man who has made
racial segregation illegal
One hundred years of delay have passed
since President Lincoln
freed the slaves,
yet their heirs, their grandsons,
are not fully free.
They are not yet freed
from the bonds of injustice.
They are not yet freed
from social and economic oppression.
And this nation, for all its hopes,
and all its boasts,
will not be fully free
until all its citizens are free.
NARRATOR: Malcolm Kilduff
steps into the press car,
three cars behind
the President's Lincoln,
part of a motorcade
that will travel the five miles
through the city
to the Dallas Trade Mart.
Kilduff has helped plan the route.
This morning,
the President ordered the removal
of the protective bubble on his car,
in order to be closer
and more visible to the crowds.
The journey will take approximately
35 minutes through downtown Dallas.
Crowds swarm to the pavements along
the main streets of Kennedy's route.
Bill and Gayle Newman leave
the airport with Billy and Clayton
to get to Elm Street as quickly as
possible ahead of the presidential show.
Bill was too young to vote for
Kennedy in 1966,
but he's desperate to see the President,
any president.
John F. Kennedy is ending the near
of a tough tour of Texas.
San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas
and finally, Austin this evening.
Texas is a difficult state.
Very right-wing, very Republican,
very vocal
But the President is a political fighter
well used to facing down his critics.
Two weeks from today,
you have to make your decision
of what you want this country to be.
What you want Illinois to be.
How ready you are to move
this country forward.
That is the question which separates
Mr Nixon and myself.
JFK narrowly beats Republican
Vice-President Richard Nixon
to the Presidency in 1960
To all Americans, I say that
the next four years
are going to be difficult
and challenging years for us all
NARRATOR: But despite his popularity,
he does not yet have total support
across America.
In April 1961,
Kennedy unsuccessfully attempted to
oust the socialist liberator of Cuba,
Fidel Castro.
Then, last year,
the Soviet Union sent an arsenal of
nuclear weapons to Cuba.
Kennedy ordered a blockade of the island
and forced the USSR to back down.
The President's foreign policy
is dividing supporters within America.
Okay, if we increase pressure here,
and here
NARRATOR: Noon in Dallas. Assistant
Professor of Surgery Malcolm Perry
delivers his last lecture of the morning
at the Southwestern Medical School
Perry is keen to finish on time.
He has a lunch appointment with
a friend over at Parkland Hospital
Meanwhile, Malcolm Kilduff
is following the President
Lemon Avenue, Turtle Creek Boulevard,
Cedar Springs Road,
right onto Main, round Dealey Plaza
and onto Stemmons Freeway North.
Kilduff knows the route well
And so he should,
since he helped plan it
The crowds are out in force.
Press interest in the Kennedy family
is as intense in Dallas
as it is across America.
A thousand days into his presidency,
John F. Kennedy is a celebrity.
Camelot, as the White House
is now nicknamed,
enjoys a constant influx of
glamorous intellectuals.
After the old-world flavour of
Presidents Truman and Eisenhower,
JFK is the herald of a new age.
Let the word go forth, from this time
and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed
to a new generation of Americans.
The Newmans arrive at Dealey Plaza,
only five minutes from JFK's
destination, the Dallas Trade Mart.
They find a prime position near the
corner of Houston Street and Elm Street,
on a grass bank,
only four yards back from the road.
The crowd has thinned out on the Plaza
next to the underpass.
Bill Newman is reminded
that he left his own camera at home.
Shocking when Babe died
before the record.
He never got to see it be broke.
NARRATOR: Malcolm Perry is having lunch
with Dr Jones
at Parkland Memorial Hospital,
before his afternoon surgical rounds
begin at one o'clock.
The Dallas Trade Mart is awaiting
the arrival of the President.
As part of his speech,
in an hour's time,
he plans to talk about international
strength and security.
Reassuring his audience that
the United States is a peaceful nation.
But right-wing Republicans have already
made JFK uncomfortable in Texas.
Even a front-page welcome
in today's newspaper
is actually a list of challenges
to the young president.
The Kennedy motorcade
moves through central Dallas,
Main Street, onto Dealey Plaza
towards Houston Street.
The crowds on the main part of
the route are surprisingly large
and enthusiastic
and the weather has stayed bright
The motorcade begins the drive
around the Plaza's north corner,
by the old School Book Depository.
The President is relieved at
the positive reaction to his visit
As the motorcade turns into Elm Street,
Billy Newman glimpses the President.
Misreading the sign behind him,
Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff asks,
"what the hell is a book repository?"
(GUNSHOTS)
Three shots have been fired.
After the first, Bill and Gall think
someone is letting off firecrackers.
(GUNSHOT)
Billy Newman sees a spurt of blood
across the car.
(GUNSHOT)
(GUNSHOT)
The third and final shot brings a spray
of blood from the President's head.
Billy ls pulled to the ground
beneath his father,
who is now terrified of
further random shooting.
"Some son of a bitch just shot
the President," he screams,
pounding the ground with his fists.
Billy hears Jackie shout, "Oh no,"
as the crowd panics
and her husband slumps into her lap.
Immediately,
an agent jumps onto the Kennedy car
to protect the President and First Lady.
Special Agent William Greer, driving
the Kennedy car, accelerates.
Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff
is uncertain what's happened,
or where the motorcade is heading.
Nearby, a 24-year-old man
called Lee Harvey Oswald
is seen running away from
the Book Depository.
In Dealey Plaza,
there is chaos and confusion.
People rush towards the
prone Newman family.
Some even take pictures,
wondering why they have hit the ground,
or if they have been caught
in the cross-fire.
(GUNSHOT)
Kilduff is confused.
KILDUFF: The motorcade pulled off fast
but none of us thought that was unusual
because, in any sort of emergency,
we knew that the conditioned reflex
was to get out of there
if there was trouble.
NARRATOR: There is no communication
with the press car,
only 25 metres behind
the President's car,
as they speed through the streets.
In the Parkland's café,
Dr Perry hears a pager message
for the head of emergency services,
Dr Tom Shires.
Perry knows his boss is
away in Galveston,
so he responds to the emergency call
journalists begin filing stories
as soon as they realise the firecrackers
were actually gunshots.
But still they have no idea
what's really happened.
KILDUFF: There was nothing in those
bulletins that will indicate
that anyone had the slightest idea
that the President had been shot
until after we got to Parkland Hospital
NARRATOR: Immediately pursued by
TV journalists following the shooting,
the Newman family are quickly picked up
by police officers
and taken to the sheriff's office
to make a witness statement.
They are shocked and very scared.
Dr Perry discovers the emergency
patient is the President.
- Talk to me.
- WOMAN: Get the blood pressure
NARRATOR:
He rushes into Trauma Room 1,
where has been JFK has been taken,
case number 24740.
PERRY: I did not detect a heartbeat,
and was told there was
no blood pressure obtainable.
MAN: What's the EKG look like?
The President's clothing is removed
as part of emergency procedure.
The trauma team notice
an amateur bandage
around President Kennedy's thigh.
They have no idea to this day
what it was for.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
You mean to tell me that in
a service area the size of Dallas
I can't get at least 12 phones?
Lady, I have an emergency
NARRATOR: Now operating on autopilot,
Malcolm Kilduff is on
the phone to Southern Bell,
ordering more phone lines for
the press and government agents.
Southern Bell are quickly onto the case.
Kennedy's body is making
what doctor's call
ineffective spasmodic respiratory
efforts. He is trying to breathe.
Dr Perry makes a quick diagnosis.
PERRY: I noted the presence of
lacerated brain tissue.
In the lower part of the neck,
below the Adam's apple,
was a small, roughly circular wound
from which blood was exuding slowly.
NARRATOR: Malcolm Perry attempts to
ease the President's breathing.
He quickly performs
an emergency tracheotomy
by inserting a tube through the wound
in Kennedy's neck.
Meanwhile, the neurosurgeons prepare
to take readings of electrical
activity in the President's brain.
Kilduff waits for news in the corridor.
He already fears the worst
There is a five-inch hole in the back
of Kennedy's skull
From his vantage point
of the President's head,
Dr McClellen sees that half the right
side of his brain has been destroyed.
Fearing a coup d'etat, the security
services decided it's too dangerous
to allow Vice President Johnson
to remain so close.
He is moved away from Parkland Hospital
Dr Malcolm Perry already fears
it is a hopeless situation.
PERRY: The President's eyes were dim
and dilated and he was unresponsive.
We were breathing for him.
I had begun external cardiac massage.
We had been unable to detect a
heartbeat, blood pressure, or a pulse.
(TELEPHONES RINGING)
NARRATOR: Kilduff has set up
an emergency press office
in a nearby classroom to cope
with the growing media interest
News of the shooting
is starting to hit the airwaves.
ANNOUNCER:
Here is a bulletin from CBS News.
In Dallas, Texas, three shots were
fired at President Kennedy's motorcade
in downtown Dallas.
The first reports say that
President Kennedy has been
seriously wounded by this shooting.
Stay tuned to CBS News
for further details.
As quickly as possible, I need you down
there to find as many witnesses
NARRATOR: Malcolm Kilduff realises
that Kennedy's spattered Lincoln
is now vulnerable to prying eyes,
and immediately orders agents
to replace the bubble fixture
previously removed from the car.
At some point before one o'clock,
the Lincoln is also thoroughly cleaned
of all forensic material,
apparently on orders from the FBI
At 12:58, Dr Perry leaves
Trauma Room 1 to wash up.
There is nothing more he can do.
Perry remembers
he has left his jacket behind,
and slips back into
the trauma room to retrieve it.
1:00 p.m.,
30 minutes after the shooting,
John F. Kennedy is pronounced dead.
He is the youngest president
ever elected. And the youngest to die.
Exactly 100 years to the week
since the Battle of Gettysburg,
Abraham Lincoln's finest moment.
(GUNSHOTS)
Only Dr McClellen remains
as Father Oscar Huber arrives
to administer the last rites to
America's first Catholic President.
If thou livest
His first words are "If thou livest".
In accordance with
strict Catholic protocol,
he is only able to grant
conditional salvation to a dead man.
soul, body and
ANNOUNCER: Late information just in:
Acting White House Secretary
Malcolm Kilduff
was asked whether the President was
dead, and he said "I have no word now".
The President
NARRATOR: In the temporary press centre
at Parkland Hospital,
Malcolm Kilduff has been asked to wait
until Vice President Johnson
is back on board Air Force One
before he formally announces
the President's death.
Jackie Kennedy enters the trauma room.
Her husband has been dead
for just over 10 minutes.
The last remaining doctor
watches at a distance
as she removes her wedding ring
and places it next to her husband's.
Only three months ago, Jackie gave
birth to their fourth child, Patrick.
The boy died after only three days.
The trauma now brings nothing
but silence.
The Vice President boards Air Force One
and Malcolm Kilduff
is finally allowed to make the most
important press statement of his life.
KILDUFF: President John F. Kennedy died
at approximately 1 p.m.
Central Standard Time here in Dallas.
He died from a gunshot wound
to the brain.
I have no further details at this time.
NARRATOR: The American public
are stunned by the announcement.
No one is left unaffected
by the shock news.
From Dallas, Texas, the flash
apparently official,
President Kennedy died at 7 p.m.
Central Standard Time,
2:00 Eastern Standard Time,
some 38 minutes ago.
Vice President Johnson has left
the hospital in Dallas,
but we do not know
to where he has proceeded.
NARRATOR: Former teacher and
Texas senator Lyndon Baines Johnson
has served under Kennedy as
Vice President for almost three years.
Now, in tragic circumstances,
the 55-year-old
will succeed JFK as President
Ten miles away,
24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald
is arrested in a cinema following
the shooting of a police officer.
He is later charged
with the murder of President Kennedy.
As Malcolm Kilduff reaches
Air Force One,
Vice President Johnson phones
the Attorney General
and is instructed to take
the oath of office immediately.
He reluctantly calls the only local
judge available, Sarah Hughes.
Johnson vetoed her appointment
to the federal bench,
but now he must ask her
to swear him in as president.
Johnson personally phones
three lawyers in Dallas.
No one has the text of
the Presidential oath to hand.
There are also no sound and motion
cameras to record the moment.
One of Kilduff's press agents
finds a Dictaphone
with one spare recording belt
A professional stills camera
is also brought on board.
Two very basic machines will immortalise
one of the most important events
in American history.
Finally, the Attorney General dictates
the words of the ceremony
over the telephone from Washington.
President Kennedy's body is loaded onto
Air Force One as Judge Hughes arrives.
Five minutes later,
Lyndon Johnson begins the ceremony
that will make him President
Malcolm Kilduff, crouched at
Johnson's feet, operates the Dictaphone.
Still, silent, and in shock,
Jackie Kennedy acts as witness
to the event.
HUGHES: I do solemnly swear
JOHNSON: I do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully execute
that I will faithfully execute
the office of President
of the United States
the office of President
of the United States
and will, to
the best of my abilities
and will, to
the best of my abilities
NARRATOR: With the new
President Johnson on board,
Air Force One takes off
from Love Field, Dallas.
Two and a half hours later,
the plane lands at Andrews
Air Force Base in Washington,
where President Kennedy
took off for Texas yesterday morning.
The casket is removed from the plane
and Jackie rides with it
into Washington.
She is still wearing the pink,
blood-soaked dress and stockings,
caked in her husband's blood.
At 6:15 p.m., President Lyndon Johnson
addresses the world for the first time.
JOHNSON: This is a sad time
for all people.
We have suffered a loss
that cannot be waived.
For me, it is a deep, personal tragedy.
I know that the world
shares the sorrow
that Mrs Kennedy and her family bear.
I will do my best, that is all I can do.
NARRATOR: On Monday, next week,
John Kennedy Junior
will mark his third birthday
and, on Wednesday,
his sister Caroline will be six.
Deeply shaken by
their experiences of the day,
the Newman brothers will sleep on
the floor of their parents' room
for days afterwards.
The family will never return
to Dealey Plaza.
Dr Malcolm Perry will later move to
Washington DC as Professor of Surgery.
He returned to
Southwestern Medical School in 1996.
Two years after
President Kennedy's death,
Malcolm Kilduff left the White House
to set up his own news agency.
He later edited a local newspaper,
and died in March, 2003.
Two days after Kennedy's death,
the accused assassin,
Lee Harvey Oswald, is himself
gunned down in a Dallas city jail
He dies the day before JFK's funeral
KENNEDY: If a beachhead of cooperation
may push back the jungle of suspicion,
let both sides join
in creating a new endeavour,
where the strong are just and the weak
secure and the peace preserved.
All this will not be finished
in the first 100 days,
nor in the life of this administration,
nor even, perhaps, in our lifetime
on this planet.
But let us begin.
NARRATOR: It ls the 8th of August, 1974.
At the Geneva Peace Conference,
negotiations continue on
the future of Cyprus.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland,
vehicles are set alight in protest
at the British Government's
internment policy.
In Buenos Aires, Eva Peron is sworn
in as interim leader of Argentina.
And in Washington DC
President Richard Nixon
is to be impeached following his role
in the Watergate break-in.
10:45 a.m. The White House, Washington.
51-year-old Ollie Atkins
loads his cameras
with two rolls of black-and-white film.
Ollie has been ordered to get over to
the Oval Office as quickly as possible.
A meeting will take place at 11:00
between the Vice President
and the President,
Richard Milhous Nixon.
Thirty seventh President of
the United States.
Ollie is the White House
chief photographer.
Today will be the biggest day
of his career.
This morning,
the White House ls under siege.
Political aids and party workers
face a major crisis.
The press are camped out everywhere.
Yesterday it was announced that
President Nixon is to be impeached.
He will be tried by the US Senate
for high crimes and misdemeanours
The charges stem from his involvement in
a political scandal known as Watergate.
At stake, the presidency itself,
his political career
and even his freedom.
Ollie gets to the Oval Office early
and arranges for a White House assistant
to turn the lights up
on a signal from him
when the Vice President arrives.
"These will be the
most historic photographs
"you will ever take", he has been told.
Meanwhile, on the other side
of the White House,
in the Nixon family residence,
Manolo Sanchez is emptying drawers.
He has been valet to
Richard Nixon for 13 years.
His wife, Fina, is the personal maid
to First Lady Pat Nixon.
Vice President Gerald Ford arrives
and Ollie waits with him
outside the Oval Office.
He follows him in a minute later
and the President turns to him.
"How do you want us, Ollie?"
he asks. The President is smiling.
Ollie asks him to be more serious.
Nixon and Ford discuss how to respond
to the current impeachment crisis.
The President's career has been
something of a roller coaster ride,
but, right now,
his prospects look bleak.
Richard Nixon launched his bid
for the presidency way back in 1960,
But he lost a close-run race
to the emerging John F. Kennedy.
He then proclaimed the end
of his political ambitions,
when he lost the election for
Governor of California, two years later.
I leave you gentlemen now,
and you will now write it You will
interpret it. That's your right
But as I leave you, I want you to know,
just think how much
you're gonna be missing.
You don't have Nixon
to kick around any more.
NARRATOR:
But, ever the political opportunist,
Nixon bounced back in 1968
when he won the presidency on the pledge
of ending the war in Vietnam.
The greatest honour history can bestow
is the title of peacemaker.
This honour now beckons America.
NARRATOR: 11:30 a.m. And Nixon
continues his meeting with Ford.
The President still believes
he can salvage his reputation
despite his pending impeachment
Others disagree,
including some of his oldest friends
and political allies
who now begin to publicly desert him.
I am prepared to conclude
that the magnificent public career
of Richard Nixon
must be terminated involuntarily.
NARRATOR: It seems Nixon's
luck has run out.
He has been a President
with the knack of being
in the right place at the right time.
In his first term,
he welcomed home
America's first men on the moon,
though it had been Presidents Kennedy
and Johnson who had put them there.
But Nixon was also the architect
of significant milestones
in Cold War diplomacy.
In 1972, he was
the first American president
to ever visit China and Moscow.
At the very moment Nixon was enjoying
his greatest political achievement,
the seeds of his eventual downfall
were being sown.
Reports were emerging
of a seemingly insignificant break-in at
the Watergate building in Washington.
On June the 17th, 1972, five men were
caught installing bugging devices
in the offices of the Democratic Party
in the Watergate complex.
Two of the men had CIA connections.
Another was James McCord,
Nixon's Republican security chief.
Justice will be pursued fairly,
fully and impartially,
no matter who is involved.
NARRATOR: 77:45 a.m., and Vice President
Ford leaves the Oval Office.
He has a momentous day ahead of him.
If Nixon is forced out of power,
then Ford will assume the presidency.
But Richard Nixon has proved his ability
to fight his way back when the political
odds seem stacked against him.
Twenty two years ago,
he fought a charge of embezzlement
while standing for election.
I don't believe that I ought to quit
Because I'm not a quitter.
NARRATOR: £ncouraged by intense coverage
by The Washington Post,
the FBI began to investigate following
the Watergate burglary in 1972.
But Nixon, himself,
seemed untouched by it
He was re-elected the same year with
the biggest landslide in US history.
Just days after Nixon
celebrated his re-election,
the five Watergate burglars
and two accomplices
went to trial and
to prison in January, 1973,
Nixon was still at a safe distance,
the hero of the hour for negotiating
a ceasefire in Vietnam.
12:15 p.m., Ollie Atkins races
ahead of the President,
to the Executive Office Building.
Nixon walks across five minutes later.
He's due to meet with his personal
lawyer to discuss his options.
The crowd's are building up outside
the White House.
Following yesterday's
impeachment announcement,
the media are campaigning for,
and anticipating, Nixon's resignation.
The political climate remains tense.
Last October, Vice President Spiro Agnew
resigned over charges of tax evasion.
His was not
the only resignation of 1973.
Domestic affairs assistant
John Erlichman,
resigned pending trial
for obstruction of justice.
And most damaging of all,
the Attorney General John Mitchell,
apparently the ring leader of
the Watergate bugging team,
was forced to quit
We have faced other crises
in our history and
we have become stronger
by rejecting the easy way out
and taking the right way
in meeting our challenges.
Our greatness as a nation has been
our capacity to do what has to be done
when we knew our course was right.
NARRATOR: Newspaper investigations
have revealed trails of dirty money
and espionage linking the Watergate
burglars to the White House.
Nixon himself has been implicated.
The noose is tightening.
Ollie waits outside
the President's office.
He's not invited in.
The President is meeting
his personal lawyer.
For two years, Nixon has claimed there
had been no attempt
to prevent the FBI's investigation
of the Watergate break-in.
NIXON: We must maintain the integrity
of the white House.
And that integrity must be real,
not transparent.
There can be no whitewash
at the White House.
NARRATOR: But a taped conversation has
revealed that there was a whitewash.
Only a week after the break in,
Nixon and Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman
colluded to block the FBI
investigation of Watergate.
This taped conversation is
the smoking gun
that finally proves Nixon's direct
involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
Richard Nixon
is now considering his position.
The President leaves
the Executive Building.
Already facing impeachment
and the threat of legal action,
Richard Nixon has decided to resign.
He will be the first American President
to resign from office.
White House staff are briefed
in the White House Theatre
by the Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
The President walks through
the corridors of the White House.
NIXON: The West Wing
was strangely quiet
Desks that had never been
uncluttered were cleared.
Only the steady ringing of the phones
gave the place a sense of purpose,
of life.
Everything else seemed frozen.
NARRATOR: Manolo Sanchez is preparing
the President's lunch.
He takes a special pride in it today.
Cottage cheese and pineapple
and a glass of milk.
He insists on taking it across
to the President personally.
The President is taking a nap.
He skips Manolo's lunch.
Ollie takes a snap of it,
feeling that every moment,
every detail, is now historic.
Richard Nixon's last White House meal
Ollie shares a club sandwich with
Manolo at lunchtime.
The valet makes his anguish clear.
Richard Nixon had endorsed the
Sanchez couple's naturalization
in 1968 down in Florida.
They are still proud
to serve the President.
OLLIE: When he gets worked up,
he keeps lapsing into Spanish
and nobody knows
what he's talking about
And he kept on going in a marathon
English-Spanish talking jag.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
NARRATOR: Nixon spends the afternoon
locked away, writing his speech,
the resignation speech.
He will broadcast live to the nation
at nine this evening.
Raymond K. Price Junior is also working
on the President's speech.
He's been on the staff for seven years
and wrote Nixon's inaugural
speech in 1969.
Tonight's address will be typed
in large-print letters
so the President can read it on
television without glasses.
Nixon takes a walk in
the white House Rose Garden.
He did the same thing yesterday
afternoon with his daughter, Tricia.
She had been married here,
three years ago.
Today Nixon has instructed
the Press Secretary
to keep everyone away from him.
Snappers grab
illicit photographs anyway.
Nixon shaves and takes a shower
as Manolo lays out his suit
It's the same one he wore
in Moscow in 1972,
when speaking on Russian television.
Slate blue with light texture.
Cooler, he thinks,
for wearing under hot TV lights.
The full significance of this choice
is only revealed later.
Nixon leaves Manolo
and the White House family quarters.
Outside the nearby gates,
the public throng has grown.
Most are angry at the President.
Some are apparently singing America,
in support of him.
He walks on to the Executive Building
without acknowledging anyone.
The countdown to the speech has begun.
An hour and a half to go.
Official business. Nixon meets the five
congressional leaders to inform them
that he has decided to resign.
NIXON: I took a look around the office.
My eyes ran over the familiar elephants,
the gavels, the framed cartoons,
and the pictures of
Pat and Tricia and Julie.
I walked out
and closed the door behind me.
I knew that I would not
be back there again.
NARRATOR: Half an hour later,
an hour until airtime,
Nixon meets 46 friends and
supporters in the Cabinet Room.
Nixon mentions that he will fly home
to California tomorrow,
and will have the black briefcase
with the Presidential nuclear
launch codes with him
until Air Force One lands in California.
The President is unaware that Defense
Secretary James R Schlesinger,
a so-called supporter, will have removed
the briefcase from the aircraft.
He has also instructed
the Joint Chiefs of Staff
that any order for military movement
from the White House
must be counter-signed by him.
The Schlesinger protectorate
is intended to impede any last-minute
military coup by President Nixon.
Ollie Atkins is preparing to
photograph the President's speech.
Two rolls, colour and black and white.
He is standing in the corridor as
Nixon leaves the Cabinet Room,
"saying to his friends,
I just hope I haven't let you down"
Outside the white House gates,
the public are anticipating
the President's address.
Inside the white House,
the staff gather around television sets,
as they await the President's speech.
The President is taken to a room
adjacent to the Oval Office for make-up
prior to the broadcast at 9:00.
He remembers refusing make-up
for the Presidential Candidate's Debate
with Kennedy back in '60.
He looked terrible.
Some still say that is why
he lost that year.
We know what peace demands.
We will keep America
the strongest nation in the world.
And we will couple that strength
with firm diplomacy.
NARRATOR: The President knows
he has destroyed himself.
He installed the secret White House
taping system
that revealed his complicity
in the Watergate cover-up.
He had recorded himself planning it
with his Chief of Staff
a week after the 1972 break-in.
(HALDEMAN ON TAPE)
(NIXON ON TAPE)
NARRATOR: The President was forced to
release the tape of this conversation
only two weeks ago.
It's evidence that he led
and it could yet send him to prison.
Those acts cannot be defended.
Those who are guilty of abuses
must be punished.
NARRATOR: Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman
resigned last autumn over Watergate
and now stands to go to jail for
obstruction of justice and perjury.
Nixon could face the same fate
at the hands of special prosecutor
Leon Jaworski.
"Some of the best writing
has been done in jail"
Nixon quips to his lawyer,
masking a real fear of prison.
To most of us, Watergate has come
to mean not just a burglary and
a bugging of party headquarters,
but a whole series of acts that
either represent or appear to represent
an abuse of trust.
NARRATOR: Nixon is overwrought,
and the make-up girl is asked to leave
while he regains his composure.
8:58 p.m.
The President sits down
behind the desk in the Oval Office.
Ollie usually takes snaps
before or after a speech,
but wants it real and live this time.
The President reluctantly agrees.
As the shutter clicks repeatedly,
Nixon is very nervous and makes jokes
and comments which no one reacts to.
Without realising it, he is wearing the
same suit and tie that he was wearing
when the Watergate burglary
took place in June, 1972.
Manolo is in the kitchen with the staff
watching television.
All over the White House,
staff gather around television sets
to witness the President's
historic address.
At exactly 9:01 p.m.,
President Nixon addresses the nation
for the last time.
In all the decisions I have made
in my public life,
I have always tried to do
what was best for the nation.
NARRATOR: 110 million people
across America are watching.
Forty million are listening
to the radio.
NIXON: Throughout the speech I looked
down at the pages of the text,
but I did not really read it
That speech was truly in my heart.
I have never been a quitter.
To leave office before
my term is completed
is abhorrent to every instinct
in my body.
NARRATOR: Ollie shifts onto the porch
and photographs the President through
the window in the middle of the speech.
Nixon does not acknowledge any guilt
over Watergate,
but says he would be too distracted by
the scandal to be an effective leader.
Therefore, I shall resign
the presidency,
effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford shall be sworn
in as President..
NARRATOR: 9:76 p.m. Nixon finishes
the speech without breaking down.
He is sweating profusely, so much so
that his suit is wringing wet
He jokes with the TV crew who stand
respectfully silent around him.
The President hands out old election
souvenirs to the camera operators.
"Well, that's what's left, boys",
he says.
The President makes his way over to the
Family Residence to be with his family.
There were pictures yesterday evening
of a similar emotional gathering.
Tonight Ollie has not been invited.
Outside, the crowd chants,
all to the Chief
The family departs,
and Manolo brings the President bacon
and eggs in the Lincoln Sitting Room.
He leaves the room, but hovers near
in case the President needs him.
Nixon starts making phone calls.
Meanwhile, two of the Watergate
prosecution team
are preparing a formal
recommendation for Nixon's arrest
following his departure tomorrow.
NIXON: In any organisation,
the man at the top
must bear the responsibility.
That responsibility, therefore,
belongs here, in this office.
I accept it.
NARRATOR: Nixon awakes,
thinking H's 4:30.
Two hours early, he gets up anyway
to fix himself a snack.
He is surprised to find
Manolo already up,
and the two men quickly discover
that the President's watch
must have stopped during the night
Time is still ticking for Richard Nixon.
Nixon is working on the morning
address to the White House staff.
Chief of Staff, General Al Haig
enters the Lincoln Room with
the President's resignation letter.
Surrounded with the memoirs of
past presidents, Nixon signs his name.
He has been President
for just over 2,000 days.
While Nixon completes his final duties,
his fate is about to be determined.
Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski
receives a memo detailing the reasons
to prosecute the President.
"To preserve the integrity
of the criminal justice system,"
"a person should not be permitted
to trade-in the abused office"
in return for immunity.”
Mr Nixon's aides are to be prosecuted
for the same of fences.
Leon Jaworski agrees to consider
prosecuting Nixon.
Manolo fights back the tears
as the First Family arrive in the lift
by the East Room
where the President will speak.
When the Marine band strikes up
with Oklahoma in the Grand Hall,
Pat Nixon is upset to learn
that TV cameras are present.
Her husband says he authorised it
Manolo remains at the back of the room.
Ollie Atkins and his team
photograph the President's farewell
remarks to the White House staff.
NIXON: The emotion in the room
was overpowering.
For several minutes,
I could not quiet the applause.
After I started to talk,
I began to look around.
I think the record should show that
this is one of those spontaneous things
that we always arrange whenever
the President comes in to speak.
NIXON: By now, I was fighting back
a flood tide of emotions.
Last night had been
the formal speech for history.
But now I had the chance to speak
personally and intimately
to these people who had worked
so hard for me,
and whom I had let down so badly.
NARRATOR: There is no mention
of Watergate.
For the first time, Nixon wears
his glasses in front of the public.
He quotes his hero, Theodore Roosevelt,
directly from the page.
"She was beautiful in face"
NARRATOR: Nixon uses the example
of Roosevelt's resilience
after losing his wife as an
encouragement to his own followers.
This was in his diary. He said,
"And when my heart's dearest died,"
"the light went from my life forever."
Always remember, others may hate you.
But those who hate you don't win,
until you hate them.
And then you destroy yourself.
I want to say
for each and every one of you,
not only will we always remember you,
not only will we always
be grateful to you,
but always you will be in our hearts
and you will be in our prayers.
Thank you very much.
MAN: Everybody else
was fighting back tears
and trying to keep from breaking down.
But at the end of it?
When he made the thumbs-up signal,
he looked remarkably like he did
when he was on the campaign trail
NARRATOR: Ollie hurries to where
the helicopter
is waiting in front of the crowds.
When he takes off with the President,
his staff will take pictures
on the ground.
Richard and Pat Nixon are escorted to
the Presidential helicopter, Marine One,
by Gerald and Betty Ford.
NIXON: The memory of that scene for me
is like a frame of film,
forever frozen at that moment.
The red carpet, the green lawn,
the white House,
the leaden sky, the starched uniforms
and polished shoes of the Honor Guard.
NARRATOR: Nixon gives his characteristic
victory salute to the press and staff
and the helicopter takes them
to Andrews Air Force Base,
where the President boards
Air Force One for the last time.
The one-line resignation letter is
presented to Henry Kissinger,
who formally counter-signs it
Noon. Nixon is in Air Force One,
sipping a martini.
His resignation is now effective.
He is no longer president
Back in Washington, his chair
is removed from the Oval Office
as all traces of Richard Nixon
are erased.
The office is prepared for
the new President
Exactly three minutes later,
Gerald Ford takes the oath
in the White House
and becomes the 38th
President of the United States.
Simultaneously, Air Force One
loses its Presidential name
and officially becomes simply
Spirit of '76.
Congratulations, Mr President.
Richard Nixon's plane heads
for California and exile.
Awaiting him is a roomful of flowers
sent by well-wishers.
Ollie Atkins takes a picture,
his last as official photographer
to Richard Nixon.
Almost immediately, Gerald Ford replaced
Ollie Atkins with his own photographer.
Ollie left the White House
a few weeks later,
to become vice president
of a publishing company.
Manolo Sanchez remained with the Nixons
until they left California in 1980,
Soon after, he returned to Spain.
In February, 1975,
Bob Haldeman went to prison.
In total, almost 30 people were
imprisoned in connection with Watergate.
Richard Nixon remained in California
with his family.
Jaworski did not act on
the prosecution memo,
but many still demanded that
Nixon should be jailed.
In September 1974,
President Ford used his position
to publicly pardon the former President
for all of fences against
the United States.
In accepting his pardon,
Nixon finally accepted his guilt.
NIXON: To have served in this office,
is to have felt a very personal sense
of kinship with each and every American.
And leaving it,
I do so with this prayer.
May God's grace be with you
in all the days ahead.