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Tricky Dick and Slick Willy
SIRS Decades
Bill Clinton submitted to impeachment hearings in the senate over allegations that he lied about his relationship with a White House intern. Nearly a quarter of a century earlier, another president, Richard Nixon, had resigned so he wouldn't have to face similar hearings over allegations he had lied about his role in covering up the Watergate break-in.
What can the words and actions of Tricky Dick and Slick Willy teach us about the relationship of individuals to the offices they hold?
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, after tapes revealed that he had suggested buying the silence of individuals involved in the Watergate break-in and ending the FBI investigation on spurious national security grounds. The tapes provided the "smoking gun," or the indisputable evidence, that Nixon had deliberately tried to cover up an illegal attempt to bug the Democratic National Committee in Washington's Watergate hotel.
Clinton's crime was telling a grand jury he had not had sexual relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky when he had. In agreeing to impeachment hearings, Clinton gambled that senators would rule that a lie about personal conduct with no direct national security implications did not warrant impeachment. He won--and went on to serve the rest of his second term.
Nixon on his way out
SIRS Decades
© National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
In a speech given just hours before his resignation, Nixon implied that staying in office would damage the interests of the country. In an apology given at the height of the impeachment crisis, Clinton implied that leaving office would damage the interests of the country. Underlying both statements was the apparent conviction that American presidents--whether by staying too long or leaving too early--have a great impact on the fate of the United States and, by extension, the world.
If they were historians, Nixon and Clinton and perhaps all politicians would surely be "Great Man" theorists, not determinists.
Activity
With reference to two 20th-century American leaders, write a 500-word essay either supporting or refuting the following statement:
There is no correlation between a "great man's" personal moral standing and his ability to lead a nation.
In his resignation speech, Nixon said that at one time he had felt constitutionally obligated to stay in office during impeachment proceedings. Write a 500-word essay either supporting or refuting the following statement:
In the United States, the impeachment of individual leaders provides reassuring evidence that the constitutional process is alive and well.
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