President Nixon wins a second term in the White House after landslide victory
This week in 1972, President Richard Nixon won an overwhelming victory in the US presidential elections for a second term in the White House. He took 61 per cent of the popular vote, compared with 38 per cent for his Democrat rival Senator George McGovern.
Nixon won 521 electoral college votes and carried 49 states, while Mr McGovern took just 17 votes and won only two states, Massachusetts and the predominantly black district of Columbia.
Nixon’s Republican party, however, lost ground in the Senate and fell short of gaining control of the House of Representatives.
Nixon’s first achievement of his second term was to sign a ceasefire agreement in Vietnam, announcing “peace with honour” on 23 January 1973.
But Nixon was soon embroiled in the domestic political scandal that became known as Watergate.
The scandal led to the discovery of multiple abuses of power by members of the Nixon administration, the commencement of an impeachment process against the president, and Nixon’s resignation.
The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty, many of whom were top Nixon officials.
Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford as President, who on September 8, 1974, issued a full and unconditional pardon of Nixon, immunising him from prosecution for any crimes he had “committed or may have committed or taken part in” as president.
Back on home soil, Scotland Yard sent an urgent warning to all police forces in Britain that letter bombs may turn up in their areas and appealed to the public not to handle or open any suspicious envelope.
This unprecedented action was taken after one of a wave of letter bombs, postmarked Bombay or Delhi, exploded on being opened at a Jewish diamond firm in Hatton Green in London.