July 1: At the trial of John Ehrlichman, G. Gordon Liddy, Bernard Barker, and Eugenio Martinez, David Young, Jr., who co-founded the White House Special Investigations Unit, testifies that he believes Ehrlichman had authorized “the examination” of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatric records in 1971, without the consent or knowledge of his psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding. In Washington, D.C., some 200 Vietnam War veterans demonstrate in front of the VA and the White House, calling for improved federal veterans benefits.

July 3: About 300 Vietnam War veterans attempt to march on the Capitol. At least twelve are clubbed by police while trying to cross a police line; eight are hospitalized and five arrested.

July 6: In Saigon, an American working for the UN Development Agency is killed in a robbery.

July 9: While touring the White House, five veterans lock themselves in a bathroom and ask to see Nixon to discuss veterans’ issues. The men, instead, have an hours-long discussion with White House Domestic Council member Roger Semerad. At the Washington Monument, four veterans seize the elevator to call attention to veterans’ issues. They are arrested two hours after doing so.

July 11: Nixon signs a bill extending veterans’ education benefits for two years.

July 12: The jury finds Ehrlichman, Liddy, Barker, and Martinez guilty of perjury and conspiracy to violate Fielding’s civil rights.

July 14: Communist insurgents shell polling stations during South Vietnamese local council elections. Fourteen people are reported dead and 67 wounded.

July 15: South Vietnam accuses the Viet Cong of attempting to sabotage elections by increasing the number of ceasefire violations (reports say 276 incidents) which resulted in 600 casualties.

July 22: Former Oregon Democratic Sen.Wayne Morse—a Vietnam War critic who, with Alaska Sen. Ernest Gruening, voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964—dies of kidney failure at age 73.

July 24: The House Judiciary Committee begins final deliberations on Nixon’s impeachment.

July 27: Citing Nixon’s involvement in a “course of conduct” designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case, the House Judiciary Committee, in a 27-11 vote, recommends the first article of impeachment against the president.

July 29: The Judiciary Committee votes 28-10 on the second article of impeachment, this one for Nixon’s repeated failure to uphold his constitutional duty and oath out of office.

July 30: Impeachment article three, claiming Nixon opposed court subpoenas, is passed by a 21-17 vote. An article for impeachment for the bombing of Cambodia is rejected, 12-26.

July 31: Gesell sentences Ehrlichman to twenty months to five years in what he calls “a shameful episode in the history of this country.” Liddy receives one to three years; Barker and Martinez are given suspended sentences and placed on probation for three years.

August 2: Judge Sirica sentences ex-legal counsel John W. Dean to one-to-four years’ incarceration for his part in the Watergate coverup.

August 6: As part of the Defense Department’s appropriations bill, the House votes to cut $300 million in military aid to South Vietnam and to eliminate funds for the production of a new nerve gas.

August 9: Nixon becomes the first president in U.S. history to resign. After being sworn in as the 39th president, Gerald Ford calls the “long, national nightmare” over.

August 15: In the closest fighting to Saigon in two years, a battle breaks out 20 miles north of the capital.

August 17: Enemy forces keep the pressure on Saigon. A C-130 cargo plane on a supply mission is hit over Angkor Wat. The plane suffers only light damage.

August 21: Ford names Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president.

August 25: A senior Pathet Lao official confirms that American POW Emmet Kay, a civilian pilot working with the U.S. Embassy, will be released “as a humanitarian and goodwill gesture” during a planned September 12 POW exchange.

August 28: To protest the attempt by Ford and Congress to cut GI Bill benefits, three people enter the office of VA administrator nominee Richard Roudebush and nail the door shut. The three are arrested.

August 29: Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger and Attorney General William Saxbe work out the details of a joint report for Ford on deserters and draft evaders.

August 30: An early copy of the Schlesinger/Saxbe document concludes that most Americans favor conditional amnesty for deserters and draft evaders. Among the report’s recommendations are that offenders have to reaffirm their allegiance to the U.S. and that they must work 18 months of alternative service.

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