Pat Nixon

=== Watergate ===
{{further|Watergate scandal}}
At the time the Watergate scandal broke to the media, Nixon "barely noticed" the reports of a break-in at the [[Democratic National Committee]] headquarters.<ref name="csa201">{{harvp|Anthony|1991|p=201}}</ref> Later, when asked by the press about Watergate, she replied curtly, "I know only what I read in the newspapers."<ref name="csa203">{{harvp|Anthony|1991|p=203}}</ref> In 1974, when a reporter asked "Is the press the cause of the president's problems?", she shot back, "What problems?"<ref>Anthony, C. S. (1991), p. 210</ref> Privately, she felt that the power of her husband's staff was increasing, and President Nixon was becoming more removed from what was occurring in the administration.<ref name="csa203"/>''

[[Image:NIXONSandFORDS.jpg|thumb|left|The Fords escort the Nixons as they depart the White House on Nixon's final day as president, August 9, 1974.]]
Pat Nixon did not know of the secret tape recordings her husband had made. [[Julie Nixon Eisenhower]] stated that the First Lady would have ordered the tapes destroyed immediately, had she known of their existence.{{sfnp|Eisenhower|1986|pp=409–410}} Once she did learn of the tapes, she vigorously opposed making them public, and compared them to "private love letters—for one person alone".{{sfnp|Anthony|1991|p=214}} Believing in her husband's innocence, she also encouraged him not to resign and instead fight all the impeachment charges that were eventually leveled against him. She said to her friend Helene Drown, "Dick has done so much for the country. Why is this happening?"<ref name="csa215"/>

After President Nixon told his family he would resign the office of the presidency, she replied "But why?"{{sfnp|Anthony|1991|p=216}} She contacted White House curator Clement Conger to cancel any further development of a new [[White House china|official china pattern]] from the Lenox China Company, and began supervising the packing of the family's personal belongings.{{sfnp|Eisenhower|1986|pp=417–419}} On August 7, 1974, the family met in the [[Sunroom|solarium]] of the White House for their last dinner. Pat sat on the edge of a couch and held her chin high, a sign of tension to her husband.<ref name="csa217">{{harvp|Anthony|1991|p=217}}</ref> When the president walked in, she threw her arms around him, kissed him, and said, "We're all very proud of you, Daddy."<ref name="csa217"/> Later Pat Nixon said of the photographs taken that evening, "Our hearts were breaking and there we are smiling."{{sfnp|Eisenhower|1986|p=424}}

On the morning of August 9 in the East Room, Nixon gave a televised 20-minute farewell speech to the White House staff, during which time he read from [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s biography and praised his own parents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon-farewell.htm|title=Richard M. Nixon: White House Farewell|access-date=September 23, 2007|publisher=The History Place|archive-date=October 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004084041/http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon-farewell.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The First Lady could hardly contain her tears; she was most upset about the cameras, because they recorded her anguish, as they had during the 1960 election defeat. The Nixons walked onto the Executive Mansion's South Lawn with Vice President [[Gerald Ford]] and Betty Ford. The outgoing president departed from the White House on [[Marine One]]. As the family walked towards the helicopter, Pat, with one arm around her husband's waist and one around Betty's, said to Betty "You'll see many of these red carpets, and you'll get so you hate 'em."{{sfnp|Anthony|1991|p=218}} The helicopter transported them to [[Andrews Air Force Base]]; from there they flew to California.<ref>{{cite news|work=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/08/06/nixon.resigns/|title=Nixon's resignation changed American politics forever|date=August 9, 1999|access-date=August 18, 2008|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070829175425/http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/08/06/nixon.resigns/ |archive-date = August 29, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pat Nixon later told her daughter Julie, "Watergate is the only crisis that ever got me down&nbsp;... And I know I will never live to see the vindication."{{sfnp|Eisenhower|1986|p=453}}