FBI Special Agent Richard M. Nixon?
It is April 1937.
Richard Nixon, age 24, will soon graduate from Duke Law School.
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.
Nixon interviews for the job in July 1937 and then undergoes a physical examination.
But then, he hears nothing further.
Ever.
Years pass.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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