On this day in 1974 POTUS Richard Milhaus Nixon finally released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States. The end was near for Nixon. He would resign on the evening of August 8th. It was either resign or be impeached. Repubican senators would tell Nixon he didn’t have the votes to survive impeachment. Nixon would see the writing on the wall and become the only POTUS to resign. The general thought among historians is that if Nixon hadn’t made the tapes in the first place he would have survived, his presidency would have been damaged but he would have finished his second term. Vice President Gerald Ford would take over as POTUS on August 9th.
slicethelife 
big contrast in nixon. did some really good things – epa, going to china, and some really head scratcher things like this. i think there were some others in CREEP that made the watergate decision, i dont think nixon signed off on that.
like so many things this shows if you come out and admit the problem you might make it through the incident, if you cover it up that is where you are going to get devastated.
like the joe pa thing.. i agree i don’t think dick authorized the break in but it was the cover up…nixon in some ways was brilliant..but he had that fatal flaw.. paranoia..