system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why was Richard Nixon pardoned?
gpt
To put it very simply, president Ford said he wanted to put "this long national nightmare behind us" by pardoning Nixon. Basically he didn't want the country to get bogged down in all the trials and endless continuing investigations into Nixon and staff post-WH. 
However, many Americans wanted to see Nixon and his co-conspirators publically brought to justice for so betraying the trust of the American people. They believed the pardon to be a cop-out, especially since many of Nixon's staff had had to face the music.
As a result, Ford handily lost the next election for this very reason.