Saturday Night Massacre

I'm not always certain that I remember the way things were and how they happened, but the Saturday Night Massacre is as secure a memory as I have.

Milt and I had gone to the New York City Ballet performance at the Kennedy Center. Bardyl and Gail Tirana were great fans (Gail had danced nearly professionally) so they invited a bunch of friends to the ballet. It turned out to be a pastiche of Balanchine -- "Jewels," and a lot of shorter works which made it possible to have three intervals. Could it really have been three? It seemed as if we spent a lot of time talking in the lovely new halls of the Center. Glasses of champagne also figured.

Meanwhile, as they say in bad novels, down at the Justice Department Attorney General Elliot Richardson, a liberal Massachusetts Republican, refused an order from the White House to fire Archibald Cox, the Special Prosecutor. Cox had demanded that the recently uncovered Oval Office tapes be handed over to investigators. Nixon refused and, just about the time "Jewels" was starting, he (probably it was Bob Haldeman) called Richardson and told him to fire Cox. Richardson refused.

The story this far was what we learned after someone in our group called his office at Justice -- called meant using the pay phone outside the restrooms at the Center; cell phones came later. The news spread like fire around the intermission; voices were raised in speculation and then it was time for the second act of the ballet.

The moment we were released from Act II, we learned that Bill Ruckleshaus, the deputy AG and now the acting AG, had been asked to fire Cox. Act III and back into the theater.

The next intermission was wild. People talked of the end of government, the final Nixon insult. Then we heard that Ruckleshaus was going to refuse to fire Cox. "Who's next in line?" Someone knew; it was the Solicitor General Robert Bork. By the time we left the Kennedy Center for good, we knew that Ruckleshaus had indeed refused to fire Cox and resigned himself.
Later in the evening Milt and I heard from a friend that Bork had fired Cox, who had calmly laid down his tools and was headed home to Massachusetts. Nixon didn't survive the massacre at Justice. The tapes were finally reviewed by Judge Sirica and the 18 empty minutes were discovered.

By then we were in France in a little family hotel in Mont Saxonnex, Savoie being asked by the curious French what the fuss was all about. "Nixon tried to steal the U.S. government," I explained in not-very-accurate French. A bit over the top perhaps, but it felt so good when he resigned in disgrace.

A wild time it was on October 20, 1973. I can't remember much about the ballets which is to be expected. The uproar (women were crying with fright) and the talk that the government would collapse were extraordinary. We all lived to see another day.