284 a short history of the united states
his legal counsel, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, who was
replaced by the secretary of defense, Elliot Richardson.
Early in 1973 the Senate had voted to create a committee to investi-
gate activities during the presidential campaign of 1972. Senator Sam J.
Ervin Jr. of North Carolina headed the committee. This Senate
Watergate Committee commenced public hearings on May 17 , and its
televised proceedings attracted national attention. During the hear-
ings, from June 25 to June 29 , John Dean, recently fired, revealed that
Nixon had been party to the cover-up. In addition, Alexander Butter-
field, a former presidential aide, informed the committee on July 16
that since 1971 the President had tape-recorded all his conversations in
the White House and the Executive Office Building. Although Nixon
vowed publicly, “I am not a crook,” he knew that the tapes would prove
otherwise. Among other things, the committee learned that the White
House kept an “Enemies List” of politicians, journalists, and other
public figures to be used for possible investigation by the Internal Rev-
enue Service, and a “Plumbers” unit which involved wiretaps of sus-
pects in order to stop press leaks.
Both the Senate committee and Judge Sirica subpoenaed the tapes.
They were to be turned over to the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox,
a professor at Harvard Law School and former Solicitor General in the
Kennedy and Johnson administrations, who had been appointed by
Attorney General Richardson in May. On July 23 , knowing what
the tapes contained, Nixon refused to surrender them, citing executive
privilege. These subpoenas, he insisted, constituted “such a massive
invasion of presidential conversations that the institution of the presi-
dency itself would be fatally compromised” if he complied. But, on
August 29 , Judge Sirica ordered nine tapes to be delivered to him for
private review. Instead, Nixon offered transcripts, which he himself
would edit and Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi would verify.
Cox refused the offer, whereupon the President ordered Richardson to
fire Cox. Rather than obey the order, Richardson resigned on Satur-
day, October 20. The recently appointed Deputy Attorney General,
William Ruckelshaus, also declined to discharge Cox, and Nixon fi red
him. Finally Nixon got the Solicitor General, Robert H. Bork, next in
line to become acting attorney general, to do his dirty work. Bork dis-
missed Cox during this so-called “Saturday night massacre” of October