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The Saturday Night Massacre Ceived As a “Strong President’’—All the Great Presi­ Inquiries

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The Saturday Night Massacre Ceived As a “Strong President’’—All the Great Presi­ Inquiries Said President Nixon: “Brezhnev would THE never understand it if I let Cox defy my instructions.” Said Attorney General Elliot SATURDAY Richardson: the Cox “position was not only defensible but right.” The clash of NIGHT wills between these two tough-minded men, over the diligence of a third, equally MASSACRE tough-minded man. Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, produced a political by Elliot Richardson showdown unprecedented in this nation’s history. One of the participants tells the story as he remembers it. 44/— > od looks after fools, drunkards, and the I 'W" United States of America.” This old saying was fulfilled again in the case of Watergate. For beyond its own sordid confines, W*atives th'e”‘Wtepone4Pwere__ _ ______ _____to he *6/. J ’Vs - £ Watergate has been redemptive—a disguised stroke of good fortune for the United States of America. That good fortune may yet turn to ashes, but 1 am Iw ^ously * the Pte*,ae : nrde* one of those whom H. L. Mencken called the “op­ ’nitteepromised in t * « of timists and chronic hopers of the world,” and I see av« unim ' S k' " ubpoena v*»s con- gain for this country in the reassertion of old n any * 2*2^— 'resident 1 \T • ideals and the renewal of governmental processes. Don of 1 America was also fortunate in that the evils of Jas held ^ ^ Nixc O • Watergate were brought to light while it was still r«ce ,hpin i t l (v possible to correct them. The abuse of power is a week o g the B f l corrupting precedent for those who later hold Off;,.,., p n power. For those who are subJect to it, its contin­ HHSerf. w uing abuse can appear to be the natural order of things. For both, the effect is addicting. And the iork^wcS discovery that the habit of abuse has taken hold may come too late for cure. In dealing with and even drawing new strength •ERG from Watergate, our system of government has shown its basic soundness. Watergate can fairly be and regarded as demonstrating the failings of men and m the resiliency of a constitutional system. John Adams, who drafted the language of the Massa­ If t , , chusetts Constitution of 1780, declaring that sepa­ ft\V ration of the powers of government is “to the end B\\ it may be a government of laws and not of men,” later wrote: . that law proceeds from the will of man. whether a monarch or people: and that this will must have a mover; and that this mover is interest; but the interest of the people is one thing—it is the public interest; and where the public interest gov­ erns, it is a government of laws, and not of men: the interest of a king, or of a party, is another 40 thing—it is a private interest; and where private in­ but because others with whom he had been closely terest governs, it is a government of men. and not associated—Mitchell, Dean, and Robert C. Mar- of laws. dian—were implicated. The President was also about to accept the resignations of Haldeman. The Watergate revelations arrested a process Dean, and John D. Ehrlichman, his principal assis­ which was beginning to substitute the interest of a tant for domestic affairs. A new attorney general President for the interest of a people. We saw how was urgently needed—one who could restore public vulnerable to the abuse of power is even our sys­ confidence in the leadership of the Department of tem of checks and balances. And once again, Justice. The President had turned to Rogers for ad­ though in starker terms than ever before, we were vice. Rogers had proposed me. He said the Presi­ warned that eternal vigilance is essential to the dent had agreed that I was the best possible per­ survival of liberty. son in the circumstances. Two Saturdays in 1973—one in April and one in I had been sworn in as secretary of defense on Jan­ October- gave me considerable occasion to think uary 30. only three months earlier. 1 was deeply im­ about the implications of Watergate as regards the mersed in my Defense Department job and had no need for more adequate safeguards of the interest wish to leave it. The prospect of having to take over of the people against the abuse of power. The first the Watergate investigation was not pleasant. I said I of the two Saturdays was April 28. I was then a would go home, talk to my wife. Anne, and call back Watergate spectator from across the Potomac River after i had had a chance to think about it. at the Pentagon—an outsider absorbed in military I told Nancy that an emergency had arisen, affairs. In the middle of a Father’s Day morning at apologized to the headmistress, and went directly my daughter Nancy’s school, my friend and former to my home in McLean. Anne and I agreed that 1 chief. Secretary of State William P. Rogers, got should avoid the assignment if 1 could, but that through to me by telephone. His first words were, this might prove impossible. I then telephoned two “Are you sitting down?” of my oldest friends. We concluded that the objec­ The President, he said, wanted me to leave the tive of restoring confidence in the Department of Department of Defense and take over the Depart­ Justice would be better handled by bringing in a ment of Justice. new attorney general who had not been part of the Almost a year had passed since the break-in at Nixon Administration. But we were aware that Democratic national headquarters. It had been a time pressures argued for filling the job swiftly. long time since anyone had tried to laugh it off as The President might wish to announce a replace­ just another political caper. The press was filled ment for Kleindienst as soon as possible. A talent with reports that former Attorney General John N. search for an outsider for a qualified and inde­ Mitchell had authorized hush-money payments to pendent person in whom the President had con­ the Watergate burglars and that the money had fidence-might well involve an unacceptable delay. come from funds held at the White House by H. Because of this, even though I was reluctant. I de­ R. Haldeman. President Nixon's chief of staff. cided that if the President insisted on naming me, Some reports had it that the burglars were linked 1 would acquiesce. But first I would convey to him to still another burglary—that of the office of Dan­ my belief that 1 was not the right person for the job. iel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in Beverly Hills. Califor­ Rogers relayed this concern to the President, nia which had taken place after Ellsberg was in­ then called back to say that both he and the Presi­ dicted for releasing to the New York Times a dent were convinced that despite my long associa­ secret report on the Vietnam War. The President’s tion with the Nixon Administration, I would be counsel, John W. Dean III. had announced darkly universally regarded as capable of independence. I that he did not intend to be a scapegoat in this ra­ agreed to discuss the matter with the President at mifying affair. Camp David early the next afternoon. Bill Rogers told me that Attorney General Rich­ ard G. Kleindienst was about to resign, not be­ cause of any personal involvement in Watergate. unday, April 29, 1973, was a beautiful spring day. The Maryland countryside was gentle and serene below the helicopter which took Elliot Richardson, recently confirmed as secretary of Sme to Camp David. The President greeted me on commerce, is the only man in American political history ever to occupy four Cabinet positions. This the terrace of his lodge. He seemed strained and material is adapted from his forthcoming book. The depressed. He had just asked Haldeman and Ehr­ Creative Balance. lichman to resign—“the toughest thing,” he said, “I 41 have ever done in my life.” Kleindienst had left compound of his personal insecurity and his reac­ only a few minutes before I arrived. The President, tion to the reality of bitter attack. A second was visibly holding himself under tight control, told me the amoral alacrity to do his bidding of a politi­ I was needed more at Justice than at Defense. As cally inexperienced, organization-minded staff ob­ attorney general I would have full control of the sessively driven by the compulsion to win. A third Watergate investigation; it would be my “specific was the aggrandizement of presidential power and responsibility to get to the bottom of this. Anybody the tendencies toward its abuse that had already who is guilty must be prosecuted, no matter who it been set in motion before Nixon took office. hurts.” It would be up to me whether 1 appointed Only dimly perceiving that I might be touching a special prosecutor; as possibilities, he suggested on a fatal flaw of character, I alluded to the first Wilmot R. Hastings, who had worked with me in of these ingredients when 1 said to Richard Nixon the attorney general’s office in Massachusetts, at at Camp David, “There is no ‘they’ out there.” 1 State, and as general counsel of HEW; John J. had, it is true, caught glimpses of a suspicious and McCloy, a distinguished New York lawyer and manipulative streak in him. but I had no way of public servant; and J.
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