On Aug. 8, 1974, 40 years ago, Richard Nixon announced his resignation from his office as president of the United States on national television, effective at noon the next day.
The resignation, the first for a U.S. president, was the culmination of nonstop damaging revelations related to Watergate, an approval rating of 24%, and nearly-zero support in Congress.
In a newly released, unedited video series from the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Nixon discussed why he resigned with ex-White House aide Frank Gannon.
"I knew that we could not survive," Nixon says. "However, when I got back to Washington, in my usual methodical way—people think it's methodical and I guess it is—I decided I should put down the pros and cons of what options I had."