English subtitles for clip: File:Nixon resignation audio with buzz removed.ogg

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Good evening.

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This is the thirty-seventh time I have spoken to you from this office,

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where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation.

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Each time, I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.

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In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.

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Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate,

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I have felt it was my duty to persevere. To make every possible effort to complete the term of office, to which you elected me.

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In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me, that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress,

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to justify continuing that effort.

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As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the Constitutional process through to its conclusion.

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That to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process,

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and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

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But with the disappearance of that base,

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I now believe that the Constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

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I would’ve preferred to carry it through to the finish,