On 9 August 1974 the greatest political scandal of our times reached its climax with the resignation of Richard Nixon from the Presidency of the United States. Never before in American history had a President been forced to give up office. It was a stunning conclusion to a series of events that for drama and sheer improbability cannot be rivalled by fiction. The train of events from the break-in to Nixon's resignation in the face of certain impeachment brought into sharp focus all that is good and bad in American public life. The country and its politics were decisively changed.