“He’s Going to Have to Prove He’s the White Knight”: Elliot Richardson, Richard Nixon, and the Saturday Night Massacre

Attorney General Elliot Richardson’s refusal to fire the Watergate Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox, is arguably the most famous instance of an administration official saying no to President Nixon. This paper looks at Richardson’s time in the Nixon administration, his lesser known battles with the White House, and how those experiences shaped his decision to resign in protest. The Saturday Night Massacre was not only a key turning point in the Watergate saga, but it was also a product of the cultural and ideological rifts between the Nixon White House and the moderates within the administration. As a moderate Republican from Massachusetts, Richardson embodied the Ivy League establishment that Nixon wanted to destroy. His place within the Nixon administration was always tenuous, but he consistently proved to be a valuable asset for the White House in their attempts to reach out to moderates and liberals. Furthemore, Richardson was mostly loyal to Nixon and kept his policy disagreements with the White House away from the press. This combination of credibility and loyalty led to Nixon’s decision to appoint Richardson as Attorney General in the midst of the growing Watergate scandal. The decision underestimated Richardson’s integrity and resulted in a direct confrontation between the Justice Department and the President. The Saturday Night Massacre was the breaking point for Richardson and his staff of moderate and liberal Republicans. His resignation, along with his Deputy William Ruckelshaus’s, marked the moment that the moderates within the Nixon Administration could no longer remain silent in their dissent.