On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon made a speech that would guarantee him a special spot in American History books for many, many years to come. Although Nixon is known for the Watergate Scandal, many presidents have had scandals; however, he is the only president to have resigned from office (Nixon, 1974).
Stuck in a media frenzy of accusations pointing to him being guilty, many of course question Nixon’s credibility at this point. As a rich, white man holding such a high political position, many would not question his credibility. However, his reputation is now tainted by accusations of him being a crook and dishonest to the American people. In order to try and persuade the American public to be on his side again, he utilizes ethos and shares his credibility with them by using “we” when discussing what America has accomplished while he was in office. “We have ended America’s longest war” (Nixon, 1974) he states, not only sharing responsibility of the end of the war with North Vietnam, but now also puts some of the blame on the American people for the Watergate Scandal.
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Nixon uses emotion to appeal to America in order to try and recover what little bit of dignity he still has. He states how he is not a quitter and would have preferred to carry through with the rest of his term (Nixon, 1974) and goes on to discuss the items on his agenda he would have carried out, but is now leaving to someone else to clean up. He appeals to the audience’s emotions by expressing his desire for nuclear weapons are destroyed and peace is attained (Nixon, 1974). As Americans, we want peace to be a universal idea that becomes a reality and by expressing how he wanted to destroy nuclear weapons worldwide, Nixon is able to appeal to the hope that still resides in his