The feeling of wariness for those in politics was not always existent; although only three presidents have faced impeachment charger, only one president has left office. Richard Nixon was the thirty seventh president of the United States, a man in the public eye for many years as both a U.S. representative and Senator (“Richard”), well educated and around sixty when he resigned from the position as president. On the evening of August 8, 1974, Nixon delivered his resignation speech over a public broadcast from his Oval Office to the people of the United States. The former president gave this speech to inform the nation of the upcoming changing president; he also voiced his hopes for the country in future affairs, especially the foreign policies …show more content…
The thirty seventh president’s tone throughout the speech was genuine and anguished. He stated frequently his regret towards his resignation; when this passage is read aloud, it is stressed heavily on pathos and that Nixon defended his decision with the selflessness of his own emotions and did what is better for the country (“American”). In his speech, Richard Nixon establishes his credibility and then goes on to show the logic of why he is resigning along with sparking the reader’s emotions in defense of him through the use of frequent fallacies and rhetorical devices. Nixon goes on to speak of his accomplishments and the tasks he hopes the American people will achieve with a new president, but those ideas are shadowed by the steady reminders by Nixon himself of the circumstances that are causing him to resign the Presidency that overall make Nixon’s arguments to logic and his credibility seem …show more content…
The men arrested would not speak of who sent them there but they were later traced back to Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President members. Nixon seemed to be in enough trouble, being moderately involved with this scandal, it was then known that the crooks had also been wiretapping the office and stole copies of top secret files. Although even to this day it is unknown if Nixon knew of the break-ins in the Watergate while it happened, it is fact that the President had sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush-money” to the burglars to keep it out of the public eye. Nixon and his affiliates then began attempting to create the CIA to stop any further investigations of the FBI’s on the Watergate scandal (Staff). The former president continuously denied he was involved in the scandal, until the court ordered he handed over recordings that proved he attempted to redirect the fact-finding (“Richard”). All of this deceit only made Nixon viewed as dishonest and shady to the American people, making his impeachment seem almost predictable. But something that was not predicted was Richard Nixon’s
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Show MoreIn 1974, former President Nixon resigned from office and Gerald Ford became the temporary president. One of the first executive orders that Ford did was pardon Nixon for his crimes against the United States. The entire scandal had, “driven a stake into the heart of traditional national politics.” (Farber, 27) This controversy was not only publicized nationally, but severely damaged the American people’s already withering relationship with their government.
The speech I chose is, "The Great Silent Majority," by Richard Millhouse Nixon. Who is the speaker? : The speaker is Richard Millhouse Nixon What is the speaker’s purpose?: Richard Nixon’s purpose for his address ensure the overview of deep-rooted issues over the Vietnam war, answer questions regarding Government policies, and to answer the American people’s questions regarding the war.
This further shows the disintegrity of Nixon, as he tried to make up powers supposedly given to him by the Constitution to make himself more powerful than the rest of the government. Soon after his subpoena, a “smoking gun” tape of Nixon confessing to knowledge of the cover-up was presented before Congress, eventually leading to his resignation. After the entire investigation, Congress finally exposed Nixon’s corruption, along with the help of Woodward and Bernstein. The White House tapes ultimately played a large role in both Woodward’s and Bernstein’s investigation and the downfall of
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation.” He starts off with this in order to attempt to get the people to reminisce on his past speeches and how they helped in a way to make the Nation greater. He does this in order to attempt to ease the tension and make it easier to say what he has to say. In his speech, President Nixon repeats the same phrases an abundant amount of time, these phrases include: I have, I would, I shall, I must, and I will.
On August 8th, 1974 at exactly 9:01 pm, Richard Nixon--former President-- gave a speech that would affect both United States history and the american people. Richard Nixon’s argument and claim lay within the textual aspects, in other words, his tone, attitude, and the strategic ways of presenting to his audience. In this historical speech, Richard Nixon broadcasted his character, past decisions, and future advice to the people of the United States in order to justify his resignation from the presidential office. The rhetorical stylistic tools were effective and instrumental in backing up the argument. Recognition of audience was important, because it will determine his attitude and tone, which was innocence.
Thanks to his previous domestic policies and foreign policy successes, Richard Nixon won a landslide victory in the presidential election 1972. Viewing difference of opinion and critic as a threat to national security, Nixon “developed an ‘enemies list’ that included reporters, politicians, and celebrities unfriendly to the administration.” (1) In June 1972, five men, who were later proved to be former employees of Nixon’s reelection committee, were caught for breaking into Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. Initially promoted by the media, political investigations of the Watergate began in 1973 as a Committee was established by the Senate. While it’s uncertain whether or not Nixon knew about
The televised advertisement was very persuasive for voters of different ethnicities and backgrounds. He used the three different rhetorical appeals, ethological appeals, logistical appeals, and pathological appeals, to gain the votes, minds, and hearts of citizens. Nixon emotionally connected with American parents and future American parents as voters to gain their respect and trust with their children and their uncertain futures in a turbulent American society. He shows himself to be a respectful and knowledgeable man whom not only has experience as a leader and political figure, but also sees the people of America as people. He deems them more important than the American government system, and tries his best to ensure that they know that they will be taken care of by him if he becomes the President of the United States of America.
On June 17, 1972, Democratic Party’s National Committee offices were broken into by Watergate burglars, assumed former President Richard Nixon. The coverup of the scandal made by Nixon resulted to further investigations and assumptions that led to the impeachment of Nixon. Amid to the scandal, Nixon resigned for “the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations “ (PBS). As President, it is their duty and responsibility to make decisions for their citizens and country, those in which are hard to conclude. Although Nixon should be equally treated like any other citizen accused of violating the law, President Ford entirely justified in pardoning Nixon.
He is shaming the people that are questioning his actions. He is making them feel like they have called him a coward without doing anything. Nixon also employs logical fallacies in his speech, such as the use of tradition when he says, "As I say, we didn't own a car until I was Vice President"(Nixon 214). He is trying to say how he has been poor just like most people have.
Throughout the speech the evidence Nixon uses to support his speech mostly comes from a logical perspective. He heavily employs the use of logos on his audience, but often contradicts what he has previously said and often provides no details to confirm the validity of his argument. An example of one such contradiction is when Nixon brings up his finances and how much he owes. Nixon says, “We have a house in Whittier, California which cost $13,000 and on which we owe $3,000.” The problem with this statement is that later on in his speech he
Nixon successfully apologized to the country by using pathos, ethos, and logos, as well as other forms of rhetoric. In his speech, Nixon used forms of logos to appeal to people’s sense of logic. He wanted to give his reasoning of resigning in a way he knew people would understand. He said “It has become evident to me that i no longer have a strong enough political base in congress.”.
Interestingly enough, apology speeches do not necessarily include actual apologies. This essay will demonstrate that Richard M. Nixon’s Checkers speech belongs to the rhetorical genre apologia, imploring many characteristics common to an apology, but also serves as a campaign stump speech. The genre apologia, gets its name from ancient Greece were it meant ‘defense of’. (Lewis & Short, 1889).
This scandal caused many Americans and Republican politicians to push Eisenhower to remove Nixon as his running mate and to question Nixon’s integrity. In rebuttal to the scandal, Nixon took the bull by the horns and defended himself by going on live national television and addressed the nation by giving the famous Checkers speech. The soon to be Vice-President articulated his speech with a perfect combination of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to turn the tables from making everyone hate him to making the American People and Republican Politicians love him. Nixon’s integrity was
He rose “hush money’ for the burglars, tried to stop the FBI from investigating the crime, destroyed evidence, and fired uncooperative staff members. In 1974, after the Watergate scandal had finally come to light, President Nixon resigned. Nixon abused
Kennedy wisely sticks to using pathos throughout his entire speech, rather than relying on his then-minimal ethos or allowing his stirring speech to become bogged down by logos represented by the dull facts and figures of statistics. As a very young President just starting his first term, Kennedy lacks the reputation and reliability that an older, more experienced politician might have available. While it is true that most of the nation had seen him on television during the Nixon-Kennedy Presidential debates, those debates were the near-total of the people’s exposure to the dashing young President, and a pretty face does not a solid political reputation make! However, no matter how dashing and heroic he might have appeared to be in those