The 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation is next week. Although I've revisited cartoons from that historical moment before, the 1970's were a golden age of editorial cartooning; so there are plenty more whence those cartoons came.
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| "No One Is Above the Law" by Ranan Lurie, ca. July 29, 1974 |
At the end of July, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in U.S. v. Nixon, rejecting President Nixon's claim that "executive privilege" gave him the right to ignore subpoenas from the courts and Congress to turn over the White House tapes. Even with three Nixon appointees on the Court, the ruling against Nixon was 8-0, Justice William Rehnquist recusing himself.
Such a ruling has proven impossible under today's right-wing Court, stacked with grand old partisans who pretend to profess that the Founding Fathers intended for a president to have executive privilege entitling him to commit crimes, cover them up, and quash any investigation into them.
As long as he's a Republican, of course.
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| "The Last Bullet" by Walter "Trog" Fawkes in London Observer, August 4, 1974 |
Complying with the ruling, the White House surrendered the tapes, and investigators soon found the "smoking gun" they were looking for.
Six days after security guard Frank Mills discovered the Watergate break-in, and contrary to the President's claims that he wasn't involved, Richard Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman decided that the CIA should instruct the FBI to drop its investigation on the grounds that it would expose covert operations related to the Bay of Pigs invasion.
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| "I Didn't Know It Was Loaded" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, August, 1974 |
I've posted Pat Oliphant's cartoon before, but it's too good not to rerun it again. I'll probably rerun it every time I ever refer back to the final days of Nixon's presidency.
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| "Wait, fellers..." by Gene Basset for United Feature Syndicate, Aug. 8, 1974 |
Support from congressional Republicans instantly evaporated. Party leaders Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott, and John Rhodes came to the White House with advice for Nixon to start packing his bags.
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| by Don Wright in Miami News, August 7, 1974 |
On the way out, they suggested to Gerald Ford that if he hadn't yet moved into the brand new Vice President's residence at #1 Observatory Circle — he hadn't — he needn't bother.
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| by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun Times, ca. August 7, 1974 |
The House Judiciary Committee had already voted to send articles of impeachment to the full House. A few Republicans had voted with the majority Democrats. Now even Nixon's Republican defenders were urging him to resign before the House would have the opportunity to vote.
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| "Pay" by Jacob Burck in Chicago Sun-Times, August 9, 1974 |
The only question left was how steep a price Nixon would have to pay.
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| by Les Gabbard in The Guardian, London, August 8, 1974 |
Congress would happily drop its impeachment proceedings; but how much longer would the President of the United States remain an unindicted co-conspirator?
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| by Kenneth Mahood, Punch, London, August, 1974 |
President Nixon announced his resignation in an address to the nation on Thursday evening, August 8, 1974. Without admitting culpability for the Watergate break-in or the subsequent cover-up, he acknowledged that although "I have never been a quitter," he had lost all support to continue in office.
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| by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, August 9, 1974 |
Unlike his "You Won't Have Richard Nixon to Kick Around Any More" speech in 1962, his address didn't wallow in self-pity. He didn't blame his political enemies for his fate. He didn't argue that his discussion about obstructing an FBI investigation was "perfect."
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| "The System Works" by Clifford "Baldy" Baldowski in Atlanta Constitution, August 8, 1974 |
And he definitely didn't call upon an unruly mob to march on the Capitol and fight, fight, fight or they wouldn't have a country any more.
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| by Frank Interlandi in Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1974 |
I had intended to close out today's post with the above cartoon by Frank Interlandi (which didn't foresee the ink spent on cartoons drawn after Ford's pardon of Nixon a month later, and Nixon's interview with David Frost in 1977); but in light of the passing this week of Tom Engelhardt at 93, I'll let him have the last word instead.
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| "The End" by Tom Engelhardt in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 1974 |
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