Nixon

Richard Nixon, turning over the Watergate tapes:

The materials I make public tomorrow will provide all the additional evidence needed to get Watergate behind us and to get it behind us now.

Never before in the history of the Presidency have records that are so private been made so public. In giving you these records -- blemishes and all -- I am placing my trust in the basic fairness of the American people.

I know in my own heart that, through the long, painful and difficult process revealed in these transcripts, I was trying in that period to discover what was right. I hope, and I trust, that, when you have seen the evidence in its entirety, you will see the truth of that statement.

As for myself, I intend to go forward to the best of my ability with the work that you elected me to do. I shall do so in a spirit perhaps best summed up a century ago by another President when he was being subjected to unmerciful attack.

Abraham Lincoln said, "I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

Thank you and good evening.