The cover-up unraveled further in April 1973 when L. Patrick Gray, acting director of the FBI, resigned after confessing that he had confiscated and destroyed several incriminating documents. On April 30 Ehrlichman and Haldeman resigned, together with Attorney-General Richard Kleindienst. A few days later Nixon nervously assured the public in a television address: “I’m not a crook.” But new evidence suggested otherwise. John Dean, whom Nixon had dismissed as presidential counsel, testified before the Ervin Committee and a rapt television audience that Nixon had approved the cover-up. In another “bombshell” disclosure a White House aide told the committee that Nixon had installed a taping system in the White House and that many of the conversations about Watergate had been recorded.
A year-long battle for the “Nixon tapes” then began. The Harvard law professor Archibald Cox, whom Nixon had appointed as a special prosecutor to handle the Watergate case, took the president to court in October 1973 to obtain the tapes. Nixon, pleading “executive privilege,” refused to release them and ordered Cox fired. In what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” the new attorney-general, Elliot Richardson, and his deputy resigned rather than execute the order. Cox’s replacement as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, proved no more pliable than Cox, and he also took the president to court. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the president must surrender the tapes. A few days later the House judiciary Committee voted to recommend the three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice through the payment of “hush money” to witnesses and withholding of evidence; using federal agencies to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights; and defiance of Congress by withholding the tapes. But before the House of Representatives could meet to vote on impeachment, Nixon handed over the complete set of White House tapes. On August 9, 1974, fully aware that the evidence on the tapes implicated him in the cover-up, Richard Nixon resigned from office.
EFFECTS OF WATERGATE Vice-president Spiro Agnew did not succeed Nixon because Agnew himself had been forced to resign in October 1973 when it became known that he had accepted bribes from contractors before and during his term as vice-president. The vice-president at the time of Nixon’s resignation was Gerald Ford, the former minority leader in the House, whom Nixon had appointed with Congressional approval, under the provisions of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967). Ford insisted that he had no intention of pardoning Nixon, who was still liable for criminal prosecution. “I do not think the public would stand for it,” predicted Ford. But a month after Nixon’s resignation the new president issued the pardon, explaining that it was necessary to end the national obsession with the Watergate scandals. Many suspected that Nixon and Ford had made a deal, though there was no evidence to confirm the speculation. President Ford testified personally to a congressional committee: “There was no deal, period.” But suspicions remained.
If there was a sliver lining in Watergate’s dark cloud, it was the vigor and resiliency of the institutions that had brought a president down the press, Congress, the courts, and an aroused public opinion. The Watergate revelations provoked Congress to pass several pieces of legislation designed to curb executive power in the future. The War Powers Act (1973) required presidents to consult with Congress before sending American troops into combat abroad and to withdraw troops after sixty days unless Congress specifically approved their stay. In an effort to correct abuses of campaign funds, Congress enacted legislation in 1974 that set new ceilings on contributions and expenditures. And in reaction to the Nixon claim of “executive privilege,”
Congress strengthened the 1966 Freedom of Information Act to require prompt responses to requests for information from government files and to place on government agencies the burden of proof for classifying information. 感谢您阅读《Politics 》一文，出国留学网(liuxue86.com)编辑部希望本文能帮助到您。