Letter From America By Alistair Cooke: From Nixon To Carter (1969-1980)

Speculation, suspicion and compromise. Demands, resignations and black clouds over President Nixon's refusal to assist the Watergate investigators.

A lack of procedure for the events following the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, and the promotion of Gerald Ford from House Minority Leader to Vice President.

The speech that President Nixon had hoped would sink the Watergate scandal once and for all fails to hit its target, according to polling.

A question of clarity. A week of presidential explanation, in the guise of polysyllabic obfuscation, over the Watergate scandal.

Watergate - Nixon's admirers in the Kremlin, and how the tenacious lawyer Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina challenged Nixon.

Trial by the press: is the tidal wave of Watergate reporting drowning the 'not guilty' pleas of all the president's men?

Can the Watergate hearings restore the faith of the people in a system of government that has taken so many beatings?

Where next for Vietnam, as 18 years of savage fighting comes to an end? And the Supreme Court rules on abortion for all in Roe v Wade.

President Truman's life, his Missouri farm childhood, his war service, and how his political skills and achievements may have been overlooked by his critics.

Nixon's landslide victory, how close he came to winning in 1960, and why middle class Americans have been moving to the right as they have fled the city centres for the suburbs.

American reaction to claims of British brutality in Northern Ireland, and an early glimpse into the Kennedy clan.

Taiwan is out, and China in – why the change of seats in the UN General Assembly is much more than musical chairs.

The wit and wisdom of Art Buchwald, political satirist and columnist for the Washington Post and a modern day Jonathan Swift.

A tribute to trumpeter Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), his life and music, and how attitudes to jazz have changed since Cooke's teenage years in Blackpool.

Dishonouring the dead: the sad scenes at New York's Hunter College, when acts of Veteran's Day remembrance turned into political stances, and forgot the victims of war.

How Roosevelt was warned of Germany's nuclear threat by two Hungarian refugees from Long Island in 1939, thanks to a boy who liked fishing.

The American reaction to hearing of the horror of the Son My massacre (My Lai) in Vietnam, and parallels with Hiroshima and the Allied devastation of Dresden.