Saturday Night Massacre
The "Saturday Night Massacre" refers to a pivotal event during the Watergate scandal on October 20, 1973, which significantly impacted President Nixon's administration. Following the appointment of special prosecutor Archibald Cox to investigate the Watergate burglary and cover-up, tensions escalated when Cox subpoenaed tapes that were believed to contain crucial evidence. Nixon's refusal to comply, citing executive privilege, led to a constitutional confrontation. When Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to dismiss Cox, Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, both refused and resigned in protest. Solicitor General Robert Bork ultimately dismissed Cox, leading to widespread public outrage and perceptions that Nixon had violated the rule of law. This backlash resulted in a flood of protests from citizens and even some members of Nixon's own party. The fallout from the Saturday Night Massacre contributed to the unraveling of Nixon's presidency, culminating in his resignation in 1974 after evidence emerged implicating him in the Watergate cover-up.
Saturday Night Massacre
The Event The resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus
Date October 20, 1973
During the Watergate scandal, Richardson and Ruckelshaus resigned rather than obey President Richard M. Nixon’s order to dismiss Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. The public reaction forced Nixon to surrender tapes of White House conversations.
Immediately after the resignations of President Nixon’s senior staff at the end of April, 1973, a Senate resolution was passed that called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate burglary and cover-up. The special prosecutor would be given broad power to investigate the matter, including the power to subpoena documents or bring to court anyone but the president himself. On May 18, 1973, Elliot Richardson appointed Cox, a professor at Harvard Law School, to the post. Cox, a former solicitor general of the United States, was known both for his integrity and for his legal acumen. By June, 1973, he had recruited his staff and begun operations in a guarded office on K Street in Washington, D.C.
On July 16, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, a member of the White House staff, testified before the Senate Watergate Committee. He revealed that President Nixon had a voice-operated taping system installed in his offices in the White House and the Executive Office Building. A week later, Cox’s staff issued a subpoena for nine of the tapes on which crucial Watergate evidence might be present. The president’s lawyer rejected the subpoena and refused to produce the tapes, claiming that they were protected by executive privilege, or the president’s traditional power to deny certain information to Congress and the public.
After a United States district court ordered enforcement of the subpoena, the president’s counsel appealed to the Court of Appeals. On October 12, 1973, this court upheld the district court’s order and gave the president seven days in which to either comply or appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Six days of negotiations between the special prosecutor, Attorney General Richardson, and the president’s lawyers produced no agreement.
On Friday night, October 19, Richardson received a letter from the president directing him to order the special prosecutor to take no action to obtain the tapes. Richardson refused to transmit this order to Cox as it violated assurances that he had given the Senate that the special prosecutor would be able to operate independently.
On Saturday, October 20, Cox held a press conference at which he announced that he would move to enforce the court order on the following Monday. President Nixon instructed his new chief of staff, General Alexander Haig, to order Richardson to dismiss Cox. Richardson again refused and sought and received an interview with the president, at which he tendered his resignation. Just as he was arriving back at the Justice Department, Haig telephoned Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, now the acting attorney general, and ordered the dismissal of Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned. By prearrangement with Richardson and Ruckelshaus, Solicitor General Robert Bork then accepted the president’s order and dismissed Cox.
Public Reaction
In the early evening, the White House Press Office announced the resignations of Richardson and Ruckelshaus, the dismissal of Cox, and the abolition of the special prosecutor’s office. An astonishing display of public fury erupted immediately. General Haig called it a “firestorm.” Fueled in part by news reports that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents had sealed off the special prosecutor’s offices, it seemed to many that the rule of law had been abolished—that the president had put himself above the law and worse, that he had something to hide. To some it appeared like a coup d’état.
Telegrams of protest began to descend on the White House and congressional offices in huge numbers—nearly half a million within a week. Significant numbers of telephone calls and letters also arrived, only a few of them supporting the president. Many notable Republicans joined in the protest. Nixon and his lieutenants had completely misunderstood the public mood and the outrage that the Watergate scandal had engendered. The pressure continued to grow over the next week until it could no longer be resisted. The president’s lawyer announced that the tapes would be made available since “this president does not defy the law.”
Impact
The public reaction to the Saturday Night Massacre sealed the doom of Nixon’s presidency. A new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski of Texas, was quickly appointed. The investigation continued, and additional tapes were subpoenaed and obtained. The House Judiciary Committee began a parallel investigation of Watergate to determine whether impeachable offenses had occurred. Three impeachment counts were eventually recommended. The final batch of subpoenaed tapes contained conversations that showed clearly that President Nixon had inspired and participated in the cover-up. Within a few days of public disclosure of that conversation, Nixon preempted the ongoing impeachment procedure by resigning from office. Gerald R. Ford succeeded to the presidency on August 9, 1974.
Bibliography
Ben-Veniste, Richard, and George Frampton. Stonewall: The Real Story of the Watergate Prosecution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977. Ben-Veniste and Frampton were senior staff members of the special prosecutor’s office. This book provides an insider’s view of the struggle over Nixon’s tapes and the dismissal of Archibald Cox.
Sirica, John J. To Set the Record Straight. New York: W. W. Norton, 1979. Sirica was the United States district court judge in most of the Watergate cases. Chapters 7 through 10 contain a detailed account both of the legal maneuvering that produced the Saturday Night Massacre and of its immediate aftermath.
White, Theodore H. Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon. New York: Atheneum, 1975. Excellent history of the Watergate affair; the Saturday Night Massacre and the public response to it are discussed in detail.
Woodward, Bob, and Carl Bernstein. The Final Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976. Informed account of the last year of the Nixon administration by the two Washington Post reporters who first uncovered the crucial links between the burglary and the White House.