Archibald Cox – 1912-2004

A distinguished American jurist, solicitor general in the Kennedy administration, and law professor, Cox accepted appointment in May 1973 as the first special prosecutor assigned to investigate the Watergate affair. When Cox pressed to obtain Richard M. Nixon’s secret tapes of White House conversations, the president ordered Cox to be fired. Attorney General Eliott Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, both resigned rather than obey the order, which was carried out by Solictor General Robert Bork on October 20, 1973, in the so-called “Saturday Night Massacre.” Cox responded with simple dignity: “Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people to decide.”