# What did Nixon do in his last 15 hours in office?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 1, 2019, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089 "2019-10-01T09:52:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/1 "2019-10-01T09:52:03Z")
On August 8, 1974 at 9:01 PM Eastern Time, Richard Nixon delivered a speech announcing his resignation, which was to take effect the following day at noon.
What did Nixon do between this announcement and actually leaving office on August 9? In particular, did he carry out any official acts? I know that a lot of presidents choose to spend their last day in office granting mass pardons and commutations; did Nixon do anything like that? Did he sign or veto any bills from Congress, classify or declassify any documents, fire or appoint anyone to public office, make any business calls to national or foreign leaders, or do any other “presidential” things? If not, what was the point of waiting 15 hours after the speech to resign, rather than resigning immediately?
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/2 "2019-10-01T10:49:48Z")
Here’s a fairly detailed account from the History Channel:
[https://www.history.com/news/the-last-hours-of-the-nixon-presidency-40-years-ago](https://www.history.com/news/the-last-hours-of-the-nixon-presidency-40-years-ago)
Basically he made a lot of phone calls, wrote his resignation letter, and worried a lot.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/3 "2019-10-01T12:52:37Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> If not, what was the point of waiting 15 hours after the speech to resign, rather than resigning immediately?
Being able to do the handover in a better organized manner, especially considering this had not been done before.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/4 "2019-10-01T13:19:52Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> Being able to do the handover in a better organized manner, especially considering this had not been done before.
I guess you must be referring to the phone calls, since apart from signing a terse pre-written resignation letter, DCnDC’s article doesn’t mention him doing anything else that could possibly be related to his public duties. Is it known who he called and what handover-related business was discussed?
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/5 "2019-10-01T15:15:54Z")
Probably to have Ford make a public swearing-in at a fixed time, and at the time that the presidential inauguration swearing-in normally occurs, rather than doing do at night. As well as letting Nixon leave town before Ford became president.
The handover involved two people, remember. This is was the better route for Ford.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/6 "2019-10-01T15:25:40Z")
Drinking everything he could pour into his lie hole, if I understand his habits correctly.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/7 "2019-10-01T15:41:17Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Probably to have Ford make a public swearing-in at a fixed time, and at the time that the presidential inauguration swearing-in normally occurs, rather than doing do at night.
Ford’s inauguration was in the East Room, with his family and all top officials present, and with TV cameras ready for it and for his first speech to the nation. That was on short notice, but still with enough to make it a dignified, planned affair.
Plus, the Nixons had to pack.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/8 "2019-10-01T15:41:47Z")
Didn’t he ask Kissinger to get on his knees and pray with him?
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/9 "2019-10-01T15:50:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Probably to have Ford make a public swearing-in at a fixed time, and at the time that the presidential inauguration swearing-in normally occurs, rather than doing do at night. As well as letting Nixon leave town before Ford became president.
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> Ford’s inauguration was in the East Room, with his family and all top officials present, and with TV cameras ready for it and for his first speech to the nation. That was on short notice, but still with enough to make it a dignified, planned affair
Oh, good points.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/10 "2019-10-01T20:59:57Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Didn’t he ask Kissinger to get on his knees and pray with him?
I thought that was a few days prior, but articles such as this [one](https://deadpresidents.tumblr.com/post/357264561/what-have-i-done) says it was that last evening in the WH.
Note, clearly the source is Kissinger. It was used in Woodstein’s _The Final Days_. Some Nixon apologists say Nixon would have never done such a thing. But Nixon was in a really bad mental state then. Neither he nor Kissinger denied it.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/11 "2019-10-01T22:13:06Z")
IIRC, Nixon spent a chunk of the morning formally saying goodbye to the White House staff. That’s something Presidents normally do on the last morning of their term, and I guess Nixon figured he wouldn’t break that tradition.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/12 "2019-10-03T00:03:26Z")
By that time, I believe Kissinger and Haig had already given very very very strict instructions to those who might receive a “Launch” order from POTUS.
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### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2019, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/13 "2019-10-03T05:49:05Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> By that time, I believe Kissinger and Haig had already given very very very strict instructions to those who might receive a “Launch” order from POTUS.
The instruction was, supposedly, given James Schlesinger, the Secretary of Defense. However this story isn’t very credible and Schlesinger himself was something of a nut.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2019, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-nixon-do-in-his-last-15-hours-in-office/841089/14 "2019-10-06T03:36:32Z")
> [@TSBG](#):
>
> The instruction was, supposedly, given James Schlesinger, the Secretary of Defense. However this story isn’t very credible and Schlesinger himself was something of a nut.
_The Washington Post_ reported it a few years later as having been true, and I’d say Schlesinger had a pretty impressive career in Federal service, as recently as 2008, for having been “something of a nut.”
> **[James R. Schlesinger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Schlesinger)**
>
> James Rodney Schlesinger (February 15, 1929 – March 27, 2014) was an American economist and public servant who was best known for serving as Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1975 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to becoming Secretary of Defense, he served as Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from 1971 to 1973, and as CIA Director for a few months in 1973. He became America's first Secretary of Energy under Jimmy Carter in 1977, serving until 1979.
> While Secretary ...