RICHARD NIXON and WATERGATE 1974 The Fall ( Part 12 ) The Public Debate on the Impeachment of Richard Nixon

The Richard Nixon Experience

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This episode opens with President Richard Nixon's March 1974 visit to the Grand Ole Opry. Nixon was there to open the brand new Opry House on its first night after moving from downtown Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. It is a symbol of the one section of the country that never wavered, as President Nixon's problems mounted. In the South, we don't cut and run, especially when it is a President that stood strong during war time as this President had done.
Unfortunately, the public support was not translating to the Judiciary Committee's three influential Democratic Congressmen Representatives Walter Flowers of Alabama, Ray Thornton of Arkansas, and Jim Mann of my home state of South Carolina. They were moving toward impeachment, undercutting the President's support in their states delegations. President Nixon sensing the momentum shifting away from him, reached out to Governor George Wallace of Alabama to see if he could not help him sway Walter Flowers, when Wallace refused, it was the moment President Nixon knew this fight was lost. He would lose the southern firewall that stood between himself and Impeachment.
The President was also having trouble holding his Republicans together as Representatives William Cohen, Tom Railsback, W. Caldwell Butler, and Lawrence Hogan had decided to side with the democrats. As we listen in on the debate in this episode, you will hear these men, as some struggle to vote their conscience, and some make their decision in matter of fact fashion. You will get to hear the moments of high drama and one speech that has been an enormous part of the history of the moment from Representative Barbara Jordan of Texas. Jordan's speech contained many charges, most notably was that of Howard Hunt faking cables to embarrass the Kennedy Administration and involvement in the overthrow of the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
While that charge of Hunt faking cables tying Kennedy personally to the assassination of Diem was faked, it was faked by a man who, as a member of the CIA, had seen the real ones that had tied Kennedy to the overthrow of the Diem Government. A fact hidden from the public and Barbara Jorden for years afterwards. This is but one of many examples of charges made that with time, unsealed documents, and an explosive set of Church Hearings in the United States Senate would later be proven untrue.
All to late for Watergate and Richard Nixon.
But the President did have defenders, Representatives Charlie Wiggins of California and Charlie Sandman of New Jersey. The case they made has, in reality, stood the test of time and you will hear it in this episode too. Plus we will dismantle the mythology of the Watergate debate that the defense case was dismantled by a hearing full of specific accusations concerning the President that overwhelmed his defenders and that President Nixon's attorney, James St. Claire, was actually able to perform a real defense of the President.
Neither was true and you will hear it here for yourself.