Richard Nixon spent more than two years away from public life after resigning from office due to the Watergate scandal.
He was publishing his memoirs at the time, but his publicist Irving Paul Lazar believed that he could reach a mass audience by using television.
Frost had agreed to pay Nixon for the interviews[2] but the American television network news operations were not interested, regarding them as checkbook journalism.
[4] Nixon's staff saw the interview as an opportunity for him to restore his reputation with the public and assumed that Frost would be easily outwitted.
[5] Frost recruited author and intelligence officer James Reston Jr.[13] and ABC News producer Bob Zelnick[14] to evaluate the Watergate details prior to the interview.
[16][17] Recording took place at a seaside home in Monarch Bay, California[18] owned by Harold H. Smith, a longtime Nixon supporter.
[23] In part 3, Frost asked Nixon whether the president could do something illegal in certain situations such as against antiwar groups and others if he decides "it's in the best interests of the nation or something".