IV.

Nixon's Resignation

Throughout this period of revelations, Nixon's support in Congress and popularity nationwide steadily eroded. On August 5, 1974, three tapes revealed that Nixon had, on June 23, 1972, ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop investigating the Watergate break-in. The tapes also showed that Nixon himself had helped to direct the cover-up of the administration's involvement in the affair.

Rather than face a vote in the House of Representatives, which almost certainly would have resulted in his impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9. He was the first US president to resign from office. A month later his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him for all crimes he might have committed while in office; Nixon was then immune from federal prosecution.

The Watergate scandal severely shook the faith of the American people in the presidency and turned out to be a supreme test for the US Constitution. Throughout the ordeal, however, the system of checks and balances worked to prevent abuses, as the constitution's authors had intended. Watergate showed that in a nation of laws no one is above the law, not even the president.