Throughout the long and difficult
period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere -- to make
every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you
elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me
that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to
justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt
strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through
to its conclusion; that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the
spirit of that deliberately difficult process, and a dangerously
destabilizing precedent for the future. But with the disappearance of
that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been
served. And there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry
through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have
involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interests
of the nation must always come before any personal considerations. From
the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders I have
concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the
support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very
difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way
the interests of the nation will require.
I have never been a quitter.
To leave office before my term is
completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I
must put the interests of America first.
America needs a full-time President
and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we
face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead
for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and
attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our
entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and
prosperity without inflation at home.
Therefore, I shall resign the
Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford will be sworn in
as President at that hour in this office.
As I recall the high hopes for
America with which we began this second term, I feel a great sadness
that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve
those hopes in the next two and a half years. But in turning over
direction of the Government to Vice President Ford I know, as I told the
nation when I nominated him for that office ten months ago, that the
leadership of America would be in good hands.
In passing this office to the Vice
President, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of
responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow, and therefore
of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from
all Americans. As he assumes that responsibility he will deserve the
help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first
essential is to begin healing the wounds of this nation. To put the
bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us and to rediscover
those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a
great and as a free people.
By taking this action, I hope that I
will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so
desperately needed in America. I regret deeply any injuries that may
have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I
would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong -- and some were
wrong -- they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best
interests of the nation.
To those who have stood with me
during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends, the many
others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was
right, I will be eternally grateful for your support. And to those who
have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no
bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all of us in the
final analysis have been concerned with the good of the country, however
our judgments might differ.
So let us all now join together in
affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President
succeed for the benefit of all Americans. I shall leave this office with
regret at not completing my term but with gratitude for the privilege of
serving as your President for the past five and a half years. These
years have been a momentous time in the history of our nation and the
world. They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be
proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the
administration, the Congress and the people. But the challenges ahead
are equally great. And they, too, will require the support and the
efforts of the Congress and the people, working in cooperation with the
new Administration.
We have ended America's longest war.
But in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals
ahead are even more far-reaching and more difficult. We must complete a
structure of peace, so that it will be said of this generation -- our
generation of Americans -- by the people of all nations, not only that
we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.
We have unlocked the doors that for
a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the People's
Republic of China. We must now insure that the one-quarter of the
world's people who live in the People's Republic of China will be and
remain, not our enemies, but our friends.
In the Middle East, 100 million
people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their
enemy for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends. We must
continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last
over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will not
become its grave. Together with the Soviet Union we have made the
crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear
arms. But, we must set as our goal, not just limiting, but reducing and
finally destroying these terrible weapons, so that they cannot destroy
civilization. And so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang
over the world and the people. We have opened a new relation with the
Soviet Union. We must continue to develop and expand that new
relationship, so that the two strongest nations of the world will live
together in cooperation rather than confrontation.
Around the world -- in Asia, in
Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East -- there are millions of
people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. We must keep as
our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production
for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look
forward, in their children's time, if not in our own time, to having the
necessities for a decent life. Here, in America, we are fortunate that
most of our people have not only the blessings of liberty but also the
means to live full and good, and by the world's standards even abundant
lives.
We must press on, however, toward a
goal not only of more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every
American, and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve --
prosperity without inflation.
For more than a quarter of a century
in public life, I have shared in the turbulent history of this evening.
I have fought for what I believe in. I have tried, to the best of my
ability, to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that
were entrusted to me. Sometimes I have succeeded. And sometimes I have
failed. But always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once
said about the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and
again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who
does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the
best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and with the
worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
I pledge to you tonight that as long
as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue in that spirit.
I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been
dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a Senator, Vice
President and President, the cause of peace -- not just for America but
among all nations -- prosperity, justice and opportunity for all of our
people.
There is one cause above all to
which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as
long as I live.
When I first took the oath of office
as President five and a half years ago, I made this sacred commitment:
to consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to
the cause of peace among nations. I've done my very best in all the days
since to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am
confident that the world is a safer place today, not only for the people
of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our
children have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than
dying in war.
This, more than anything, is what I
hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency.
This, more than anything, is what I
hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I leave the
Presidency.
To have served in this office is to
have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American.
In leaving it, I do so with this
prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.
