The discussion on the same issue continued in the afternoon. Nixon's situation was unclear, and he feared being implicated. He first asked Haldeman to tell him truthfully whether any of our own officials, of any rank, had implicated us in this embarrassing situation. Then we will study together to see if all current investigations and confessions, if thoroughly investigated, will allow the Democratic Party to seize the situation and be detrimental to our election. According to Nixon's diary, Mitchell cryptically told Haldeman in a phone call not to get involved in the case. But at this time, Haldeman assured Nixon that White House officials would not get involved in the case and that Mitchell had nothing to do with it, and he could rest assured. After hearing this assurance, Nixon feared being replaced by confidence, and he decided to use offense as a defensive strategy. However, Haldeman also told him that the Watergate masterminds had approached Gordon Liddy, the legal counsel for the re-election committee's financial panel, and that the FBI was pursuing the money McCord had been arrested for in connection with the Watergate scandal. The money will likely come from the re-election committee. "The FBI must be prevented from tracing the source of this money!" Nixon said without doubt. Later, a senior CIA official authorized a phone call to the acting FBI director, asking him to "leave this matter alone" because the two agencies had an agreement not to interfere with each other's covert operations. Despite the White House's use of its power to cover up and obstruct, prosecutorial investigations into the Watergate scandal are ongoing. On September 15, after obtaining the necessary evidence, five people, including McCord, who were arrested on the spot in this incident, were prosecuted in accordance with the law. Also prosecuted were CIA agent Howard Hunt and the re-election committee. Gordon Liddy, Legal Counsel. Despite the shadow of Watergate, Nixon's re-election campaign was still very exciting. On October 26, 2010, the eve of the election, Kissinger's special envoy returned from Paris announced to the American people the results of a series of secret talks with North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, and declared: "Peace is coming." This was recorded in the Nixon administration Another addition to the book. Nixon mercilessly mocked his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate McGovern, as a "radical group that mocks our nation's past and will hinder its future." He criticized McGovern for using Watergate as an excuse to call his administration "the most corrupt administration": "Over the years, it has become fashionable to criticize the American system. Critics insist that it is so biased, corrupt and It's unjust and we should destroy it and replace it with something else. I don't believe in the American system." McGovern was clearly no match for Nixon. Known as an orator and debater in high school, Nixon deftly turned his opponents' accusations that he and his administration were corrupt into an attack on the corruption of the American system. Although many facts of the Watergate incident were exposed, American voters did not seem to care about it. They valued the performance of the Nixon administration more. So Nixon got 61 electoral votes and 520 electoral votes, while McGovern only got 34 electoral votes and 17 electoral votes. It is rare in the history of U.S. presidential elections that the outcome is decided by such a huge difference in votes. Members of the Presidential Re-election Campaign Committee, headed by Mitchell, were all beaming. They seem to have forgotten that there are seven other "he's my brothers" on trial in prison who lost their freedom because of the Watergate scandal. A smiling Nixon took office to begin his new presidential term. In his inaugural speech on October 20, 1973, he did not forget to criticize his opponents: "At every critical moment, we are always troubled by those who think that the United States is useless and rarely correct. However, I am convinced that this is not our luck. The judgment of history through these extraordinary years." He proudly used "What makes us proud..." in his speech, declaring that "the American experience in this century is unparalleled in the history of the world." However, the shadow of Watergate did not dissipate just because Nixon was smiling. On the contrary, it came towards him step by step. As Nixon took the stage to deliver his re-election address, the trial of the Watergate defendants was in full swing. The trial began on October 8, 65438. Under tremendous pressure, the defendants began to confess their criminal facts, and some publicly confessed to various crimes.Nixon finally made up his mind. A few days later, Haldeman and Ehrlichman were summoned to the Oval Office. Nixon told them in detail what the last time the attorney general had talked with the director of the department's criminal division, and then gently asked them to make up their minds. The two men were Nixon's right-hand men and loyal friends for many years. They contributed greatly to his presidency. Now, asking Nixon to ask them to resign would, in effect, drive them out of the White House. Nixon was really embarrassed. Haldeman and Ehrlichman were visibly stunned by the facts presented against them by the president. Although these facts have been experienced by them, they never thought about it once they were charged as evidence of a crime. The chief of staff and internal affairs adviser are very sensitive and can understand the president's intentions. In order to protect the face of the president and the White House, they can only swallow the bitter drink of resignation at this moment. "We're going to be realistic about this." Haldeman and Erlichman said this with their eyes a little red and their noses starting to feel sour. The three people were relatively speechless. No one said the awkward word "resign," but no one knew for sure. Let us have a tacit understanding with each other. Of course, our moods are different. Nixon later described his mental state in his memoirs: "I was selfish enough to ask them to leave for the sake of my own survival; but I was not cruel enough to have a clear conscience to deeply hurt the people I cared about. I worried that they would be "My problem now is that I have to fire some friends who did something that I was involved in on the night of April 30." , Nixon addressed the nation. He reiterated that he had nothing to do with Watergate, but went on to say that he would take responsibility for those subordinates who "may have made mistakes in what they believed to be the right thing to do." Nixon took the opportunity to declare: "Today. , I made the hardest decision of my tenure. I accepted the resignations of two of the White House's closest aides. They are Haldeman and Ehrlichman, two of the best public servants I have ever had the pleasure to meet. "The praise he gave to his friend who was forced to resign was not so much to comfort his friend as to make him feel better. Also announced were Counselor Dean and Attorney General Clintingster who had "returned"; if Without removing the former from the White House, how could Nixon's hatred be relieved? The latter resigned because some of his close colleagues may have "participated in some violations of U.S. laws." However, Nixon performed a modern drama of "tearing down Ma Su". , just like Ma Su couldn't recapture the lost street pavilion by beheading him, could Nixon, who had lost his cavalry, keep his "car"? p>
The investigation into the Watergate scandal did not stop with the resignation of the senior White House officials involved. On the contrary, the investigation moved forward more closely. "I had to deal with them extremely energetically," he said. . "Nixon secretly encouraged himself. He appointed Secretary of Defense Elliot Richardson (Elliot Richardson) to replace Clintingst, who resigned, as Attorney General, and gave him full authority to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate scandal. This appointment was quickly With the approval of the Senate, Nixon wanted to use such a positive gesture to show that he had a clear conscience in the Watergate case and to effectively control the judicial investigation of the case, but it was later proven that he was wrong when the newly appointed Attorney General Richardson chose Harvard. Archibald Cox, a famous law school professor, served as the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. Perhaps Richardson also wanted to make a gesture that was non-partisan and did not care whether Cox was a Democrat. He felt that he was unselfish and honest. However, Nixon felt as if he had been slapped on the head, and secretly complained that Cox was a partisan fanatic in Nixon's view. The goal of removing Nixon from the presidency as chairman of the Communist Party was established almost without investigation. Sadly, it was the president himself, through the attorney general, who gave Cox the authority to achieve their goals. As soon as the new official Cox took office, he began to request relevant files from the White House and conduct in-depth investigations.
He first operated on the special prosecutor. Nixon halted his Watergate investigation by asking Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Surprisingly, Richardson, his old cabinet member and one of his closest aides, refused to carry out the president's directive. Richardson knew full well what it meant to refuse to carry out the president's directives, so on October 20, 2010, he officially resigned. At the same time, Deputy Justice Minister Ruckelshaus also resigned. Caught off guard, Nixon had to temporarily appoint an acting attorney general. That afternoon, White House press secretary Ziegler announced to reporters that the attorney general and his deputy had resigned. He also announced that Cox was being fired as the acting attorney general, and that his Watergate special prosecutor's office would be eliminated accordingly and his work affairs would be handed over to the White House. Accepted by the Ministry of Justice. It was like a hole had been blown in the public psyche, and a raging wave of protest rolled in. Some newspapers even used "Executioner: Nixon" as their headlines, pointing out that the president who wanted to "kill chickens to scare monkeys" was challenging law and justice. Public opinion in Congress was overwhelmingly one-sided, including the Democratic Party and many members of the party who felt that the president had gone too far. They unanimously demanded that the investigation of the Watergate incident should not be handed over to the Department of Justice, but that a special prosecutor should still be appointed to be fully responsible for this work. Nixon, who had just been hit hard by the attack, had to restrain himself and agreed to choose a new special prosecutor as acting attorney general to investigate the Watergate case. 11 On October 1, Leon Jaworski, a Democrat from Texas and former president of the American Bar Association, took office. He issued a subpoena shortly after taking office, and he also wanted to obtain the White House tapes from June 20 last year as evidence. The tape haunted Nixon like a ghost. "Are there any shady records here?" The new Vice President Ford was puzzled and ventured to suggest that the president hand over the matter immediately. Because Nixon assured him that the president had done nothing wrong in the Watergate scandal. "In that case, wouldn't handing over the tape clear the president of suspicion?" Honest Ford thought so. "No, I am defending the principle of presidential privilege, which must not be easily abandoned." Nixon explained his insistence not to hand over the tapes. He seemed to see some doubt in Ford's eyes and said, "If you don't believe me, you can play the recording." But Ford refused. Christmas 1973 may have been a gloomy one for Nixon, but it was one to cherish, as the Watergate investigation had put him at an increasingly disadvantaged position, and his chance to spend Christmas in the White House might never come back. Of course, he didn't realize this at the time and didn't want to think about it. However, the psychological defenses about whether to turn in the tapes are receding. For the part of the tape that may eventually be handed in, listen to it first and do some processing work in advance to avoid being passive. Nicholson had no choice but to make this choice. A piece of news spread like wildfire in the White House, and was subsequently stirred up by public opinion: On the morning of June 20 last year, as important evidence, Nixon and Haldeman talked about how to deal with the Watergate incident, but there was a blank time of 18 and a half minutes! Rose, the female secretary in charge of recording the president's conversations, claimed that she had never done such "technical processing." If she says she made a mistake at work, she will inadvertently erase some recordings, no more than 5 minutes at most. What does the 18-minute blank mean? People can give wings to their imagination. At this moment, Nixon was in a bad mood. He wrote in his memoirs: "I understand that most people think I can't explain the 18 and a half minutes of blank space." This is the most incredible and insulting part of the entire Watergate scandal. I also know that if I admit that I erased the blanks myself, or if others say that Rose erased it for me, or that they erased it intentionally at my direct or indirect request, they will readily accept it.