For the second straight day, 1973 was a critical year in US history. October 20 marks the anniversary of the event in the Watergate Crisis known as the Saturday Night Massacre. The Saturday Night Massacre involved president Richard Nixon ordering Attorney General Elliot Richardson and then Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox when Cox refused a compromise regarding incriminating tapes recorded by Nixon in the White House. When both men refused to fire Cox and resigned instead, the job of firing Cox fell to Solicitor General Robert Bork, who carried out Nixon’s wishes.
The Saturday Night Massacre was just one event leading to the resignation of Nixon as president. Despite Nixon’s constant attempts to deceive the public and lie his way through the crisis, he resigned the presidency after learning his impeachment was inevitable.
Fallout of the Saturday Night Massacre
While a full detail of the events of Watergate is beyond my scope here, I’d like to mention a couple interesting things demonstrated by the aftermath of the Saturday Night Massacre. First, I’ve always been cynically interested in the fact that Nixon had to resign over what amounted to spying on political opponents and then lying about the fact he’d done so.
The impeachment hearings brushed over his other, seemingly more serious crimes—taking numerous bribes from corporations and bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War, for instance. The televised Senate hearing on Watergate didn’t show the public those things. I suppose this was because it became necessary to portray Nixon as the bad guy, but Congress didn’t wish to expose his crimes so common to so many presidents—supporting murderous dictators in Latin America with money and weapons to terrorize their own people or bending over backward to help corporate executives and overlooking their misdeeds.
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I also find it interesting how the Republican Party later rewarded Robert Bork for his loyalty in helping Nixon attempt to break the law. He later became a judge, and Ronald Reagan eventually nominated him for a spot on the Supreme Court, although he was not confirmed because of his extreme views. Not a bad career for someone who chose to aid the president in his illegal activity.
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