Press Club to Host Retrospective on "Saturday Night Massacre"

Forty years after Robert Bork carried out the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox at the behest of President Richard Nixon, the National Press Club will host a retrospective of what has become known as the ``Saturday Night Massacre.

Speakers include Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, who with Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal, and former Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, who along with Attorney General Eliot Richardson refused to carry out Nixon's order and lost his job because of it. Bork, the solicitor general, then fired Cox.

The event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17. Tickets are $5 for Club members and $10 for non-members and can be purchased through www.press.org.

As Cox's investigation zeroed in on Nixon, he ordered on Oct. 20, 1973, that the special prosecutor be fired. After Bork carried out his orders when both Richardson and Ruckelshaus refused to do so, the ensuing backlash of public opinion engulfed Nixon, and his presidency never recovered before he was forced to resign the following August.

The events of that day began at the Club when Cox held a press conference that sparked Nixon’s decision to fire him. Snippets of that press conference will be shown during the presentation.

The Saturday Night Massacre remains a pivotal moment in modern American history, which demonstrated that even the president is not above the law.

This historic program will bring together key figures in these events, who will share recollections of the tense days in October 1973 and discuss the impact that the Saturday Night Massacre and Watergate have had on America’s system of laws and government.

Joining Woodward and Ruckleshaus will be Philip Heymann, Cox’s deputy; Cox’s former press secretary, James Doyle; and Jill Wine-Banks, the only female trial lawyer on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who was on Cox’s staff, also has been invited to speak.

The program will be co-moderated by former Club President Gil Klein, chair of the Club’s History and Heritage Committee; and Ken Gormley of Duquesne Law School, author of Archibald Cox’s biography.