Nixon Resigns: First President Forced from Office

Gerald Ford took the oath of office in the East Room of the White House at 12:03 p.m. on August 9, 1974, becoming the 38th President of the United States after Richard Nixon's resignation took effect at noon. Ford's first words as president — "Our long national nightmare is over" — became one of the most quoted lines in American political history. He was the first person to assume the presidency without having been elected either president or vice president, having been appointed vice president under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment after Spiro Agnew's resignation the previous year. Nixon had departed the White House that morning after an emotional farewell to his staff in the East Room, where he spoke without notes about his parents, quoted Theodore Roosevelt, and cried. He and First Lady Pat Nixon boarded Marine One on the South Lawn, and Nixon famously raised both arms in a V-for-victory gesture from the helicopter doorway before flying to Andrews Air Force Base and then to his home in San Clemente, California. Ford inherited a nation exhausted by Watergate and deeply cynical about its government. His administration faced immediate challenges: a recession, rising inflation, the final collapse of South Vietnam, and the lingering question of what to do about Nixon. One month after taking office, on September 8, Ford issued a full and unconditional pardon to Nixon for any crimes he might have committed while president. The decision was enormously unpopular, triggering a drop in Ford's approval ratings from 71 to 49 percent and contributing to his defeat by Jimmy Carter in 1976. Ford maintained for the rest of his life that the pardon was necessary to move the country forward. Many historians have come to agree, though the debate continues. The transition from Nixon to Ford — conducted through constitutional process rather than crisis — demonstrated the resilience of American democratic institutions. Power transferred peacefully from a disgraced president to an unelected successor, and the republic held.