Item Information
Title
"How It Felt: The Impeachment Diary of James Reston, Jr., 27 June-13 August 1974"
Description
A circa 2018 transcription of Reston's original diary from his time in Washington, DC, during the summer of 1974 to witness the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon.
Creator
Reston, James, Jr., 1941-2023
Source
From "How It Felt: The Impeachment Diary of James Reston, Jr., 27 June-13 August 1974," Folder 414 in the James Reston Jr. Papers #5692, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Date
June 27, 1974-August 13, 1974
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Format
image/jpg
Language
English
Type
Text
Identifier
https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/05ddd/id/479689
Text
HOW IT FELT:
The Impeachment Diary of James Reston, Jr.:
June 27-August 13, 1974
It’s only two months since my 33rd birthday, and after giving the university the news that I’ll be taking off teaching for a semester, we’ve finally arrived in Washington from Carolina, flushed with excitement about the months ahead and at being here at such a historic moment. This is certain to be the greatest political drama of our lifetime. We will surely never experience another impeachment of an American president.
What lies ahead is the spectacle of the great American nation exercising the most serious remedy of its constitution. Last summer when I was here for the Ervin Committee hearings, the public extravaganza was dramatic enough: the revelation of the tapes, the John Dean’s “cancer on the presidency” testimony, the 18 ½ minute gap. Eighteen top Administration figures including presidential assistants, H.R.Haldeman [sic] and John Erlichman, and Attorney General John Mitchell are heading to jail for the cover-up. Presiding over the whole amazing show was courtly, wise, old Senator Sam Ervin who is surely a great American.
In the final report of public hearings, I remember how Ervin defined the Watergate scandal as a conglomerate of illegal and unethical activities. But he stressed that his investigation
1
The Impeachment Diary of James Reston, Jr.:
June 27-August 13, 1974
It’s only two months since my 33rd birthday, and after giving the university the news that I’ll be taking off teaching for a semester, we’ve finally arrived in Washington from Carolina, flushed with excitement about the months ahead and at being here at such a historic moment. This is certain to be the greatest political drama of our lifetime. We will surely never experience another impeachment of an American president.
What lies ahead is the spectacle of the great American nation exercising the most serious remedy of its constitution. Last summer when I was here for the Ervin Committee hearings, the public extravaganza was dramatic enough: the revelation of the tapes, the John Dean’s “cancer on the presidency” testimony, the 18 ½ minute gap. Eighteen top Administration figures including presidential assistants, H.R.Haldeman [sic] and John Erlichman, and Attorney General John Mitchell are heading to jail for the cover-up. Presiding over the whole amazing show was courtly, wise, old Senator Sam Ervin who is surely a great American.
In the final report of public hearings, I remember how Ervin defined the Watergate scandal as a conglomerate of illegal and unethical activities. But he stressed that his investigation
1