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Tuesday, August 30, 2022

The Vice President Resigns (1973)-revised

Vice President Agnew Resigns
Vice President Agnew at one of his many fundraisers
Type of Activity
 Political Resignation
Location
Location
 Washington DC
Date of Activity
 11 Oct 1973
Coordinates
 38°53'51.2"N 77°02'20.9"W

Vice President Agnew Resigns from Office 11 Oct 1973

The announcement that the Vice President resigned from office came as a shock to me and I was saddened because I had worked with his staff and protection detail on many support trips and got to know everyone quite well! I first worked with them right after his nomination at the 1968 Republication Convention spending many days covering various, fund raisers, special events and even several vacation trips to Palm Springs.  My last involvement was at the 1972 National Republican Convention in Miami when I was with the Key Biscayne Communications Detachment. The NIXON/Agnew ticket achieved a resounding victory in the November 1972 election with a land slide defeat of Senator George McGovern.

Re-election victory for the President and Vice President in 1972
Vice President Agnew is sworn in at 1973 Inaugural Ceremony
In just 11 years, Spiro Agnew rose from being an attorney for a Union and serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals, to being elected Baltimore County Executive, and after taking advantage of a feud within the Democratic Party, finding himself elected Governor of the State of Maryland. Richard Nixon in need of a running mate that did not drag down his poll numbers, turned to the unknown Agnew to be his running mate in 1968 for Vice President of the United States. 

 An amazing rise for anyone to have come so far so fast.  

The State of Maryland had a very unusual way of doing business that apparently everyone was aware of and no one really talked about. It involved people looking to do work with various local governments subsidizing the decision-making office holders income.  Now today that would be considered illegal, and it is rather shocking to me that it was not considered illegal then, but the  truth is it wasn't. That basic fact is a part of the story rarely if ever discussed and it is about the only defense available for not only a Vice President forced to give up his office but for the rather large list of other public figures this scandal involved in the state of Maryland. 

Then we listen in on CBS News coverage of the events of October 10, 1973 as Spiro Agnew showed up at a Baltimore Courthouse to plead Nolo Contendere to one count of Federal Income tax evasion after resigning the Vice Presidency. Then he exits the stage only to return for a brief moment to sell his Memoirs in which he claimed he feared for his life after a visit from Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig who had been tasked with pushing the Vice President to resign by the Administration. 

The Vice President had very little time to enjoy his landslide victory, as a scandal was brewing in the summer of 1973, involving the Vice President. The United States Attorney's Office in Baltimore, Maryland, was investigating allegations that Vice President Agnew, while Baltimore County executive in 1966, had solicited payoffs from contractors doing county business and that as governor of Maryland and later as Vice President he had accepted kickbacks from engineers whose firms had received state contracts, even accepting several $2,000 payments in the Executive Office Building next to the White House.

On July 31, 1973 Agnew's lawyers were handed a letter written by George Beall, United States attorney for Baltimore, informing them that the Vice President was under investigation for conspiracy, extortion, and bribery. At a meeting with Attorney General Elliot Richardson, Agnew denied all the charges, and on August 6, 1973 as the story broke in the newspapers, the Vice President released a statement saying, "I am innocent of any wrongdoing."

Vice President Agnew meets with reporters in front of the
Federal Courthouse in Baltimore MD

Although President Nixon called Vice President Agnew into the Oval Office and assured him of his support, the White House chief of staff, Alexander Haig, immediately dropped over to Vice President Agnew's office after that conference and suggested to the Vice President that if he were indicted he should consider how it would affect his performance as Vice President—a not so subtle hint to consider resignation.

The Vice President exits the  Federal Courthouse in Baltimore MD
 after pleading "No Contest"
In September of 1973, Vice President Agnew began to plea-bargain with the prosecutors, but negotiations dragged on for more than a month as he sought a deal that would not involve any admission on his part of wrongdoing. He tried desperately to get out of the corner: he made an issue of leaks to the press by the prosecutors; he had a meeting with President Nixon, desperately trying to get the President to put pressure on Richardson to agree to a compromise; he asked the House of Representatives to impeach him so that Congress could conduct an investigation. White House aides refused to pressure Richardson, and the Democratic majority in the House refused to impeach Agnew until judicial proceedings had run their course.

The delay was not to Agnew's advantage. He antagonized Nixon by attacking the Justice Department. His standing in the polls was dropping, a sure sign that he was a political liability. An exhaustive investigation of his finances was completed by the Internal Revenue Service, and the prosecutors now had details about his personal life that conceivably could prove embarrassing if they were revealed.

Vice President Agnew’s letter of resignation to the President
Between October 5 and October 9, 1973 Vice President Agnew's lawyers and justice department lawyers cut a deal, which on October 8, 1973 was agreed to by a federal judge. 

Vice President Agnew’s letter of resignation
New York Times Headlines on Oct 11, 1973
With Vice President Agnew out of the way, President Nixon named Congressman Gerald R. Ford (R-MI) as his nominee for Vice President. Congressman’s Fords nomination was received by Congress with great enthusiasm and strong bipartisan support. 

The appointment to the Vice Presidency sailed through the Senate with a 97 - 3 vote to make Gerald R. Ford the 40th Vice President of the United States. Two days before the Presidents announcement, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned his office after being convicted of tax evasion charges unrelated to Watergate. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew officially resigned. 

In his acceptance speech Vice President Ford very humbly said to the nation "I am a Ford not a Lincoln". It is this humbleness that will serve Ford well over the next year as it becomes increasingly certain that he will end up as the President of the United States.
Gerald Ford is sworn in as the new Vice President
With the resignation and succession crises resolved, attention once again turned to the long-simmering Watergate crisis. It would only take another eight months of intense scrutiny for Watergate to bring down the entire Nixon administration leading to President Nixon’s Resignation in 1974.

Spiro and Judy Agnew
Spiro, Judy Agnew, and Family (1973)
After he resigned, Vice President Agnew and his wife Judy moved to a winter home at the Springs Country Club in Rancho Mirage. By then, the Agnew’s had visited the Coachella Valley numerous times and had become friends with Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. They avoided publicity and lived a quiet, reserved country-club style life. He played tennis and golf. Neighbors recall seeing him bicycle around Rancho Mirage, dine at local restaurants and party, often at the Sinatra compound.

The Vice President’s resignation and Gerald Fords swearing in as the new Vice President would be the last major event that I would be a member of WHCA. I was discharged at Andrews AFB on December 10, 1973.

I had experienced so much history of the 1960’s and 1970’s, from the escalation of the war in Vietnam, and the antiwar protests, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the ensuing civil unrest at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the San Clemente Western White House, the historic trip To China, the Florida White House in Key Biscayne, the end of the Vietnam war including the return of the POW/MIA’s, the Watergate break in, the cover up and the resignation of the Vice President! There are so many details that I have forgotten, but so much that I can remember to say that I was very proud to have served as a member of the White House Communications Agency for over nine years. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Watergate and President Nixon's Resignation (1974)-Revised


President Nixon Resigns
President Nixon resigns for his involvement in the Watergate scandals

Type of Activity
Political Resignations
Location
Location
Washington DC
Date of Activity
9 August 1974
Coordinates
38°53'51.2"N 77°02'20.9"W

It was shortly after the 1972 Presidential Election that things started to unravel for the Nixon White House.

The Watergate break-in was the beginning of the end of the Nixon Presidency and over the next two years the country listened to the relentless pursuit of proving the guilt that the White House was involved with the a cover-up of this and other illegal activities known as Watergate..

The Watergate Break-in

Early in the morning of June 17, 1972, several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C.

The Watergate Complex in Washington DC

The Democrat National Headquarters in the Watergate Complex
                                                                                                                
The Watergate break-in occurred about a month prior to the Republican Convention: Miami Beach, FL August 21 to 23, 1972 and I never paid much attention to the incident because the Key Biscayne Detachment was concentrating on setting up communications required for the Convention. We were also working with the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP) at the Doral Hotel with communications which we found out that the burglars were also working for CREEP. When the Convention ended we removed all of the temporary equipment at the hotels and villa’s where the staff stayed. We then got ready for a busy fall as the election campaign of 1972 began!

The 1972 Presidential Election

On November 7, 1972 the Nixon/Agnew ticket was reelected in one of the largest landslides in American political history, taking more than 60 percent of the vote and crushing the Democratic nominee, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota. The President and his family visited Key Biscayne the day after the election to relax and celebrate the overwhelming victory! The Family along with Mr.’s Rebozo and Abplanalp spent the weekend aboard the Coco Lobo III and visiting the Ocean Reef Club at Key Largo FL. The President then returned to Washington to start his second term. The Nixon’s would return and spend Christmas at Key Biscayne and just prior to the inauguration.

President Nixon’s second Inauguration January 20, 1973

The second inauguration of Richard Nixon as the 37th President of the United States was held on January 20, 1973. The inauguration marked the commencement of the second term (which lasted approximately one and a half years) for Richard Nixon as President and the second term (which lasted approximately nine months) for Spiro Agnew as Vice President.

The Watergate Scandal 1973

1973 for us in Key Biscayne could pretty much as observers although the Watergate break-in and cover-up was daily news. We never knew what happened that day; but it was common knowledge to us that recording devices were being used in the White House as well as other locations, This was nothing new, LBJ had all of them removed from the White House in 1968, so the new Nixon administration would not know that LBJ recorded many of his conversations. As a routine set up for all visits to Key Biscayne we would place a recorder coupler and IBM dictating machine on telephones used by senior staff that always stayed in villas at the Key Biscayne Hotel. These machines were connected to start up as soon as the phone was in use and since one party knew about the call was being recorded no BEEP tone was present.

In Feb.1973 I was sent to Jacksonville FL. for a couple of days to install a radio base station for the Secret Service who was supporting Julie Nixon Eisenhower while she visited the city on official business. This visit was very low key, no staff, no press, just Secret Service support. All I had to do was to install a “Charlie” FM Base station and a remote console in the residence where she was staying.

Also in February of 1973 The Senate voted (77-0) to create the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. The Committee is chaired by Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat, North Carolina). Ervin cultivated a folksy image as a country lawyer, but his supervision of this committee is crucial to the outcome. His deputy is Senator Howard Baker (Republican, Tennessee)and Fred Thompson (Republican, Alabama)

The Senate Watergate Sub-committee Sam Ervin Chairman and his Deputy Howard Baker

Shortly after 10:00 am on March 21, 1973, John Dean, Counsel to the President, entered the Oval Office. After a few minutes of talk, Dean got to his point: “Uh, the reason I thought we ought to talk this morning is because in, in our conversations, uh, uh, I have, I have the impression that you don’t know everything I know” about Watergate. “We have a cancer—within, close to the Presidency, that’s growing.”

Over the next 105 minutes Dean, who would later describe himself as the chief desk officer of the Watergate cover-up, first shared specifics of the cover-up with Nixon. Dean said that he had been given responsibility from Haldeman with developing “a perfectly legitimate campaign intelligence plan,” had recruited Gordon Liddy for the job, and Liddy did the Watergate break-in. Dean told Nixon that there were people perjuring themselves to avoid prosecution. 

Dean then revealed to Nixon that one of the Watergate burglars, former CIA operative Howard Hunt, was demanding cash payments to cover his legal fees and personal expenses in exchange for keeping quiet about actions he claimed to have taken at the direction of two White House aides.

Nixon and Dean then discussed the pros and cons of meeting Hunt’s demands, and explored a number of possible scenarios. 

Later in the conversation, Nixon identified the futility of trying to buy the silence of Hunt or any of the other burglars: “[In the end, we are going to be bled to death, and it’s all going to come out anyway, and then you get the worst of both worlds. We are going to lose, and people are going to…and we’re going to look like we covered up. So that we can’t do.” 

In Late March of 1973 James W. McCord who was the head of the Watergate burglars wrote a letter to Judge John Sirica in which he claims that the defendants had pleaded guilty under duress. He says they committed perjury and that others are involved in the Watergate break-in. He claims that the burglars lied at the urging of John Dean, Counsel to the President, and John Mitchell, the Attorney-General. These allegations of a cover-up and obstruction of justice by the highest law officers in the land blew Watergate wide open.

I had met John Dean and his wife in October of 1972 when they came to Key Biscayne on their honeymoon. I was at home, trying to enjoy a weekend that no visitors were scheduled to come to town when I received a phone call from our CO. I was sent to the Key Biscayne compound to pick up a stereo system and take it over to one of the Senior Staff villas at the Key Biscayne Hotel and install it for Mr. and Mrs. Dean. When I arrived I was greeted by Mr. Dean and escorted to the living room where I installed and tested the system. We would always provide stereo equipment as part of the set up on all trips when the villas were occupied. When I left that day I would never see the Dean’s again until they appeared on national TV during Watergate.

In early April 1973 John Dean, the White House Counsel, began to co-operate with the Watergate prosecutors, and President Nixon announces that senior White House staff will appear before the Senate Committee. He promises “major new developments” in the investigation, saying there will be real progress towards finding the truth. An official statement was released from the White House claiming President Nixon had no prior knowledge of the Watergate affair.

A month later President Nixon would appear on national television to announce the dismissal of John Dean, and also announced the resignations of Robert Haldeman and John Erlichman, describing them as two of his “closest advisers”. The Attorney-General, Richard Kleindienst, also resigns and is replaced by Elliot Richardson. The President would then appoint Gen. Alexander Haig as his Chief of Staff replacing Robert Haldeman.

The Senate Watergate Committee began public hearings on May 17, 1973, and began its nationally televised coverage the next day. Our lives began to change as we watched the daily broadcasts.

The President made frequent visits to Key Biscayne and Bahamas until the day I was discharged from the military. No one could anticipate how bad things would get! John Dean would become the prosecutor’s chief witness. The Washington Post reported that John Dean has told Watergate investigators that he discussed the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon at least 35 times.

In June of 1973 while testifying before the Senate Watergate Committee, John Dean claims that Nixon was involved in the cover-up of the Watergate burglary within days in June 1972. In a seven-hour opening statement, he details a program of political espionage activities conducted by the White House in recent years.

John Dean with his wife Moreen

John Dean is sworn in at the Watergate hearings

The most damaging testimony however: came from a most unsuspected source and would expose WHCA to very close scrutiny! Alexander P. Butterfield, a former presidential appointments secretary, informed the Senate Committee of the White House taping system. He said that since 1971 President Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his office and other locations where these recording systems were presumably set up by the White House Communications Agency and serviced by the Secret Service. Butterfield also revealed that President Nixon was recording all conversations in the oval office with his staff and others. The recordings were secret and very few people knew about them.

President Nixon struggled to protect the tapes during the summer and fall of 1973. His lawyers argued that the president’s executive privilege allowed him to keep the tapes to himself, but Judge Sirica, the Senate committee and an independent special prosecutor named Archibald Cox were all determined to obtain them. When Cox refused to stop demanding the tapes, Nixon ordered that he be fired, leading several Justice Department officials to resign in protest, (These events, which took place on October 20, 1973, and are known as the Saturday Night Massacre.) Eventually, Nixon agreed to surrender some—but not all—of the tapes.

During this period of time the President frequently visited Key Biscayne and made several trips to the Bahamas and Grand Cay. Nothing had changed in our preparation for his visits except they were generally only over a weekend and then they would return to Washington.

During late summer dark clouds were forming around the Vice President about illegal activities performed while he was the Governor of Maryland. Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew resigned after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation and a $10,000 fine.

On October, 12 1973 President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford, Republican Minority leader in the House of Representatives, as the new vice-president.

I was nearing the end of my career with WHCA and would leave on December 20, 1973 so my knowledge the events that occurred in 1974 are only obtained from the various news outlets.

Early in 1974, the cover-up began to fall apart. On March 1, 1974 a grand jury appointed by a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski indicted seven of President Nixon’s former aides on various charges related to the Watergate affair. The jury, unsure if they could indict a sitting president, called Nixon an “unindicted co-conspirator.”

In July, 1974 the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. While the president dragged his feet, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, criminal cover-up and several violations of the Constitution. Finally, on August 5, 1974 Nixon released the tapes, which provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes. The tapes revealed President Nixon's knowledge and cover up of Watergate and brought down his Presidency. In the face of certain impeachment by the Senate, the president resigned on August 8, 1974. As he flies out of Washington on August 9 1974 in route to his San Clemente estate, Richard Milhous Nixon resigns as the 37th President of the United States, the first President ever to do so.

The Nixon’s say goodbye to the White House Staff

President Nixon’s Letter of Resignation

In the face of certain impeachment by the Senate, the President resigned on August 8, 1974. His resignation letter was submitted to the Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, at 11.35am and Gerald Ford is sworn in as President shortly afterwards.

As the President flies out of Washington DC on August 9 1974 and while in route to his San Clemente estate, Richard Milhous Nixon resigns as the 37th President of the United States, the first President ever to do so.

On this day in history, it was also a big day for Don Cammel, (Don was a friend of mine in Key Biscayne and joined WHCA in 1967), as well as a historic day for our country. Don was promoted from the enlisted ranks in the Army, to Warrant Officer. His promotion ceremony was scheduled about 3 ½ months in advance and would take place at Noon on Aug 9. 1974. Little did he know that would coincide with the resignation of President Nixon. Watergate was considered at the time as the biggest event of political corruption we had ever experienced, and it divided the country. President Ford was very aware of the division and issued a full pardon to help heal the country. That event most likely killed any chances of him winning the next election. August 9, 1974 was a sad day for the country.

As for my family, when Richard Nixon resigned, we were living in Ohio adjusting to civilian life!