Photo of the Day

FBI Special Agent Richard M. Nixon?

It is April 1937.

Richard Nixon, age 24, will soon graduate from Duke Law School.

Nixon sits in the back row, third from the right.

And, like most third-year law students, he is looking for a job.

So, Nixon submits an application to the FBI, the investigative arm of the Justice Department, for a job as a special agent.

1935. Rudy Guerin photo.

Nixon interviews for the job in July 1937 and then undergoes a physical examination.

FBI training instructors at Quantico, Virginia, 1937.

But then, he hears nothing further.

Ever.

FBI instruction in making an arrest, 1930s.

Years pass.

FBI trainees practice shooting from a moving vehicle, 1930s.

Then, during his vice presidency in the mid-1950s, Nixon approaches FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at a party.

‘What ever happened to my FBI job application,’ he asks.

This is news to Hoover, so he agrees to have the old files checked and report back.

Hoover, a life-long bachelor, January 1940.

And it turns out that Nixon was approved for the special agent job but, before he could be notified, the Justice Department’s budget was cut.

No more ‘new hires,’ so Nixon was never notified of his initial acceptance.

Hoover with Vice President and Mrs. Nixon in La Jolla, California, 1955.

This little story is of a piece.

The Justice Department never seemed to give Nixon what he wanted.

Fast-forward to 1973 and the beginnings of the Watergate mess.

Attorney General John Mitchell, Nixon and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, 1971. Mitchell would become the chairman of Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign.

The world finds out about Nixon’s secret White House audiotaping system and the Watergate Special Prosecutor, a Justice Department appointee, subpoenas the tapes.

And the Special Prosecutor is unrelenting in seeking those tapes.

So, on October 20, 1973, Nixon demands that the Justice Department fire him.

Nixon had attempted to satisfy the demand for his White House audiotapes by releasing edited transcripts, April 1974. It didn’t work.

And a series of DOJ leaders resign their positions late on a Saturday night rather than do this.

And for Nixon, it was all downhill from there.

Hillary Clinton, then 26, served as a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee staff. David Hume Kennerly photo.

Impeachment proceedings against Nixon will begin within days of the Saturday Night Massacre.

The tapes will be made public and reveal Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate coverup.

David Hume Kennerly photo, c. 1971.

And he’d resign the presidency ten months later.

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I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

Banner image: FBI training class of 1935. Robert E. A. Boyle photo.