On August 9^th, 1974 President of the United
States Richard Nixon resigned his office, the only US president in history to
do so. President Nixon and his aides had used a variety of muggle devices and
government agencies to surveil, intimidate, and harass political opponents,
activist groups, and journalists. Even in the Wizarding World the scandal
made front-page news.

President
Nixon was pardoned for his crimes by his successor, President Gerald Ford, and
spent over two years out of the spotlight. Then, in 1977, President Nixon sat
down with muggle, British journalist David Frost. In a shock to the world,
Frost managed to get President Nixon to apologize. “I let down my friends,”
President Nixon said. “I let down the country, I let down our system of government
and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but
will think it is all too corrupt and the rest.”

The muggle and magical worlds were stunned, but for wildly
different reasons. While muggles believed they had just witnessed an
extraordinary piece of journalism, informed witches and wizards recognized the
signs of a man struggling against Veritaserum.

International wizarding relations exploded overnight. Nearly
two thirds of the global magical governments sent ambassadors to the U.S.
Department of Magic, demanding to speak with the Secretary of Magic in person.
Everyone wanted to know who had used a potion on a President of the United
States and, more importantly, how had he known how to fight its effects?

The following investigation revealed several things:

Firstly, the potion had been slipped into a glass of water
just before the interview by one of President Nixon’s guards (a member of the
American Secret Service), acting under an Imperius Curse for a wizard named
Milton M. Adams. Adams, an at-large member of the radical muggle group the
Symbionese Liberation Army (or SLA), was already wanted by aurors for a
previous use of the Imperius Curse on kidnap victim Patty Hearst.

Secondly, while liaising with leaders of the muggle word was
technically acceptable under the International Statute of Secrecy, common
practice had always limited the interaction to heads of state and had never
included defensive training. The extent of the relationship between the muggle
government of the United States and the U.S. Department of Magic was deemed so
broad that a special gathering of the International Confederation of Wizards
was called to assess whether or not the Secretary of Magic had violated the
ISS. The ultimate verdict was not guilty, but it was a divisive ruling. To this
day a wide rift exists between nations that have adopted defensive training for
high-ranking muggles and nations that have not. The latter consider such
exposure of the wizarding world to a muggle to be not only wrong but also
dangerous. On the other hand, Veritaserum is virtually undetectable until it
has already begun to take effect. Without training, President Nixon could have
unintentionally revealed the entire wizarding world. The debate continues to this
day.

President Nixon’s actions and orders broke the trust of the
American muggle public, but the use of Veritaserum on an influential muggle and
subsequent discovery of the American training program sewed a persisting seed
of doubt between magical governments the world over.