Will never forget seeing Richard Nixon's television address, fifty years ago tonight, announcing he was resigning the presidency, and that it would take effect the next day.
It was jaw-dropping, watching the speech.
The video, below, is of the first few minutes of the speech, at the end of which he announced his resignation. The full address lasted approximately fifteen minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEOGJJ7UKFM
While it is not the most significant of matters, it is interesting, today, to see Mr. Nixon holding, and reading from, a script, and then placing each page to the side after it has been read. (I don't know if he might have had the back-up benefit of a teleprompter.)
Six years prior, on March 31, 1968--four days before the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.--Lyndon Johnson announced he would be leaving the presidency, at the end of his term.
I remember watching that speech, as well; at the time, I was twelve.
Mr. Johnson's speech, that evening, was some forty minutes long. During its concluding minutes, seen in the video below, he made his historic announcement.
At just after four minutes from the start of the video, Mr. Johnson said the following:
With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country.
Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
