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Richard Nixon had received the message. When he held a private talk with one of his last-ditch supporters, Rabbi Baruch Korff, in the President's Executive Office Building hideaway at 3:30 p.m., he told Korff that he was seriously considering resignation.
In the evening, the troubled President telephoned Kissinger five times for wide-ranging talks about his predicament and how it might affect foreign policy. As the conversation turned to what kind of legacy in that field Nixon would leave, his decision to resign seemed certain. Already, Speechwriter Price was working on a draft of the President's resignation address.
WEDNESDAY: RUMORS
By Wednesday morning, the decision was irrevocable. On instructions from Nixon, Gerald Ford was called to the White House to meet with General Haig. Ford got the summons in his limousine as he was heading for a meeting of the Chowder and Marching Society, a House Republican social club. Deputy Press Secretary Gerald Warren announced only that Ford had been invited to discuss "the current situation." In fact, Haig told Ford to prepare to assume the presidency.
Unaware of this development, Republican leaders in the Senate still were worried. Would Nixon really heed their advice and succumb to the mounting pressures? Maybe he is not entirely rational about this situation, one such leader observed. And if pressed too hard, there was no way of knowing what the President's reaction might be. One concerned Senator telephoned Haig. "If we tell him it is hopeless," this Republican stressed to Haig, "that might be a factor in making up his mind." The fears of these Senators were never stated publicly — and in retrospect they seemed un founded. Yet one of them declared: "Well, I read this morning about the North Vietnamese getting close to Danang and I was concerned about what he might do."
Tricia's husband Edward Cox arrived at the White House from New York to join his wife, Mrs. Nixon, Julie and David Eisenhower in the family quarters. That gathering, too, signaled the fast-approaching end of the Nixon presidency. Rumors of resignation caused banner headlines and dominated news broadcasts. The stock market rallied again, with the Dow Jones industrials rising almost 24 points. Crowds gathered along the fences surrounding the White House; mostly somber and curious, they had the quiet air of a death watch. In the House of Representatives, the gravelly voice of William ("Fish Bait") Miller startled the occupants of that chamber. "Mr. Speaker, a message from the President of the United States," he announced. In the stillness, a clerk read the anticlimactic title: a presidential report on "Government Services to Rural America."
In the Senate, the Republican Conference, chaired by Cotton, held its regular meeting. Massachusetts Republican Ed Brooke proposed that a delegation be sent to the White