Title Card: Part Three: The Fall

GARRICK UTLEY: [June 17, 1972] Five men wearing white gloves and carrying cameras were caught early today in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington. They were caught by a night watchman and they did not resist arrest when the police came. They apparently were unarmed and nobody knows yet why they were there. The film in the camera hadn't even been exposed. In any case, they're being held.

NARRATOR: "On Sunday morning, June 18th," Richard Nixon later wrote, "I left for Key Biscayne. When I got to my house, I could smell coffee brewing in the kitchen and I went in to get a cup. There was a Miami Herald on the counter and I glanced over the front page. The main headline was about the Vietnam withdrawals. There was a small story in the middle of the page on the left-hand side."

Fourteenth NEWSCASTER: The Watergate Apartment Hotel/Office Complex in Washington has a fortress-like appearance, but the burglars penetrated that security.

Fifteenth NEWSCASTER: Four of the men arrested were Cuban nationals now living in Miami and the fifth, James McCord, was a former FBI and CIA agent recently employed as a security aide by the Republican National Committee and the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

HOWARD K. SMITH: Presidential press secretary Ron Ziegler today called the incident, "a third-rate burglary and nothing the president would be concerned with."

NARRATOR: But the president was concerned. On June 23, he met with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman.

Mr. HALDEMAN: [Nixon White House tape] Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to that problem area because the FBI is not under control ...

NARRATOR: To thwart the FBI investigation, Haldeman suggested that the break-in could be made to look like a CIA operation.

Mr. HALDEMAN: [Nixon White House tape] And that will fit rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that's what it is. This is CIA.

NARRATOR: There is no evidence that Nixon had ordered the break-in, but his aides had. The president approved the plan to divert the FBI.

Pres. NIXON: "Just say this is sort of a comedy of errors" ... and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case, period.

NARRATOR: "I saw Watergate as politics, pure and simple," Nixon wrote in his memoirs. "We were going to play it tough. I never doubted that was exactly how the other side would have played it."

Mr. EHRLICHMAN: Richard Nixon pulled it into the White House. He couldn't leave it alone. And so, within a week after the break-in, or maybe two weeks, he had personally involved himself in the intrigue of the whole thing. So Nixon sealed his fate six days after the break-in.

NARRATOR: Miami Beach, August 1972, two months after the Watergate break-in, a triumphant Richard Nixon took command at the Republican National Convention. Narrowly elected four years earlier, Nixon now wanted to win the biggest landslide in presidential history.

Pres. NIXON: [1972 Republican National Convention] Tonight, I again proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States.

And let us pledge ourselves to win an even greater victory this November in 1972.

NARRATOR: Nixon's campaign amassed huge sums of money. Skillful television ads appealed to Democrats, blue collar workers, the South. Nixon had always campaigned hard for other Republicans. Now he abandoned them, even dropped the party label. Richard Nixon campaigned as "the President."

WOMAN: You're great.

Pres. NIXON: Thank you. Well, you're great.

NARRATOR: As the president pursued victory, the White House continued to deny involvement in Watergate. A few reporters followed the story, but most voters dismissed the break-in as a campaign caper.

Watergate never threatened Nixon's big win. Nixon overwhelmed his Democratic rival Senator George McGovern. He carried every state but Massachusetts. But his victory was not complete. The Democratic opposition retained control of both the House and the Senate.

DAVID S. BRODER, Reporter, "The Washington Post": It turned out to be a lonely landslide. He monopolized all of the resources, all of the money, all of the political talent in the Republican Party and anything else that he could annex for his own personal victory and didn't share the wealth and the opportunity with his party. It was an extraordinarily selfish victory, in my view.

NARRATOR: On election night, Nixon watched the returns with two of his closest aides, Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and Special Counsel Chuck Colson.

Mr. COLSON: And I couldn't feel any sense of jubilation. It was just sort of a very depressed atmosphere in the room. And here we were, supposedly winning and it was more like we'd lost. And it was more ... the attitude was kind of, "Well, we showed them, we got even with our enemies and we beat them," instead of, "We've been given a wonderful mandate to rule over the next four years." There was ... we were reduced to our petty worst on the night of what should have been our greatest triumph. And that's indicative of kind of the paradox of the Nixon years.

NARRATOR: "I'm at a loss to explain the melancholy that settled over me on that victorious night," Nixon later wrote. "To some extent, the marring effects of Watergate may have played a part, to some extent, our failure to win Congress and to a greater extent, the fact that we had not been able to win the war in Vietnam. Whatever the reasons, I allowed myself only a few minutes to reflect on the past. I was confident that a new era was about to begin."

Mr. EHRLICHMAN: The next morning after the election, Nixon came in the Cabinet Room. The Cabinet ... some of the White House staff were there. Everybody stood and then applauded and he sat down and immediately wanted to get down to work. And work was, "By golly, we're going to change this government and everybody's going to give me his resignation. Bob Haldeman here will tell you what I have in mind where that's concerned. I thank you all for your support. You did a wonderful job. I appreciate it." And he got up and left. And then Haldeman got up and said, "The president wants everybody's resignation."

RAY PRICE, Speechwriter: And this hit like a cold slap in the face. It wasn't intended that way. What he wanted to do was to give his second ... have his second administration start fresh, a fresh beginning.

NARRATOR: Nixon left Washington and for the next two months remained in virtual isolation.

Pres. NIXON: One constantly has the problem of either getting on top of the job or having the job get on top of you. I find that up here on top of the mountain, it is easier for me to get on top of the job.

Mr. BRODER: This was a period that is so Nixonian. I mean, you could just focus on that and say, "This is the essence of man." Instead of savoring the victory, instead of reaching out and embracing people, he withdrew within himself.

NARRATOR: Alone on his mountaintop, Nixon brooded over the issue that had haunted his first term and now threatened his second: the war in Vietnam. The Paris peace talks were again stalled. Re-elected by an overwhelming margin, he now resolved to use overwhelming force to break the deadlock once and for all. In December, Nixon ordered the most intensive bombing of the entire war. It became known as the "Christmas bombing." The raids went on for 12 days. Ignoring the pleas of his closest aides, Nixon gave no public explanation for his action.

Mr. PRICE: He thought it was diplomatically vital that he make this look as cold an operation as possible and so he would not explain it. He held himself apart up on the mountaintop at Camp David, knowing his silence would make it more effective.

NARRATOR: The New York Times denounced what it called "Nixon's Stone Age barbarism." The massive, unexplained destruction alarmed even his loyal supporters.

Sixth REPORTER: You were quoted recently as saying that the president had taken leave of his senses.

Senator WILLIAM SAXBE,(R) Ohio: I feel that he's done things here that a reasonable man would not have done. And I can't find an explanation for it.

NARRATOR: The bombing stopped, the controversy subsided and shortly thereafter, all sides returned to Paris. Nixon believed the Christmas bombing had driven Hanoi back to the bargaining table. Two weeks later, in a quiet ceremony, they signed an agreement. Nixon's critics charged he could have had the same terms months before. But after 20 years of American involvement, the loss of over 50,000 American lives, the conflict that had torn apart the nation at long last came to a close.

Pres. NIXON: [January 1973] A cease-fire will begin at 7:00pm this Saturday, January 27, Washington time. Within 60 days from this Saturday, all Americans held prisoners of war throughout Indochina will be released. During the same 60-day period, all American forces will be withdrawn from South Vietnam.

NARRATOR: In Vietnam, the fighting later resumed, but in America, the weary troops and the prisoners of war were finally coming home.

U.S. SOLDIER: I have three words for America: God Bless America.

NARRATOR: H.R. Haldeman recalled that the day the war ended, Richard Nixon had never looked so happy. His popularity soared to the highest point of his entire career. Almost 70 percent of the American people supported the president. It was not to last.