August 9, 1974: President Nixon Resigns, Gerald Ford Becomes President

A Brief History

On August 9, 1974, the Watergate presidential corruption scandal reached its climax when Richard M. Nixon became the first US president to resign, leaving Vice President Gerald R. Ford to become President after not having been elected as President or as Vice President.

Digging Deeper

The Watergate scandal started during the 1972 presidential campaign when operatives of the Nixon campaign broke into Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. and the five men were arrested on June 17, 1972. An investigation revealed the ties to the Nixon campaign, and the President sadly saw fit to attempt to cover up the burglary instead of just letting his campaign take their lumps. This lying to Congress amounted to an impeachable offense, and facing imminent impeachment, Nixon chose instead to resign.

Any question of trying Nixon for his pathetic attempt to cover up this dirty trick ended when new President Ford issued a blanket pardon for Nixon on September 8, 1974.

Ford had ascended to the office of Vice President when Nixon appointed him to replace the elected Vice President, Spiro Agnew, who had been forced to resign in 1973 over an unrelated scandal. (Apparently this period was not a happy time for the White House!)
Ford, born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., had been serving in Congress as the House Minority Leader representing Michigan as a Republican. Ford has the distinction (?) of being the only man to serve as Vice President and President without being elected to either office, and additionally the only person to serve an incomplete term as Vice President and President both.

The term “Watergate” has come to be synonymous with “scandal,” especially a political scandal. Since 1972, American scandals are often identified by adding “gate” to the prefix of whatever the scandal concerned. For example, “Hairgate” (1993) refers to a controversy surrounding a haircut given to U.S. President Bill Clinton, while “Travelgate” (1993) refers to the controversy surrounding firings of White House Travel Office employees at the start of the Clinton administration.

“Troopergate” (1994) refers to allegations by two Arkansas state troopers that they arranged sexual liaisons for then-governor Bill Clinton, whereas “Monicagate”, “Lewinskygate”, “Tailgate”, “Sexgate”, or “Zippergate” (1990s) all refer to Monica Lewinsky’s “inappropriate relationship” with the then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.

“Filegate” (1998) refers to the illegal possession and scrutiny of 300–900 FBI files by the Clinton Administration without the file’s subject’s permission.

While “Pardongate” (2001), the last of the major Bill Clinton -gate scandals (so far…), refers to the controversy surrounding his pardons of 140 people on his last day in office as President of the United States, including Patty Hearst, “Emailgate” (2015) is perhaps the biggest -gate scandal associated with Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton’s wife.

This last fiasco refers to how, in violation of federal security and transparency guidelines, “Crooked” Hillary Clinton covertly used a private email account tied to a server that had been purchased under a pseudonym and installed in her New York basement while she was Secretary of State.

Question for students (and subscribers): What scandal “gates” come to your mind? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.

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