President Richard M. Nixon was the only American President to ever resign from office. He did that in August of 1974 when he finally realized that he was about to be impeached and that if he did not choose to leave by his own choice then he could be removed from office. His political party was turning against him and he understood that his chances of retaining his post were dwindling. On August 9, 1974 he boarded a helicopter on the White House lawn and flew into exile in California.
Many books have been written about Nixon and that period. The journalist Michael Dobbs saw what happened to Nixon as a tragedy. In his book "King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy" the author takes readers back to a pivotal period during Nixon's fall from power; the first 100 days after Nixon won re-election. That's when things began falling apart as the Watergate scandal and the coverup that followed it played out in tragic fashion. We observe as Nixon loses control of the situation and as he became more desperate to save his presidency he began to sacrifice his closest advisors with the increasingly futile hope that he could halt the slow motion disaster that was unfolding.
Dobbs takes a novelistic approach here. Nixon secretly recorded many incriminating conversations that took place. He had a chance to destroy the tapes-he waited too long. As it became public knowledge that these recordings existed Nixon's fate had been sealed. Dobbs recreated many of those conversations. We hear the words. We sense the fear and the paranoia that began to flow throughout the White House. It really was rather tragic.
Nixon fascinates. Many of the things that he did half a century ago still bedevil us today.
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