The Saturday Night Massacre

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the crucial events of October, which culminated in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre, were triggered by Archibald Cox's demand for White House tape-recordings that might resolve the conflict between President Nixon's claims of innocence and the testimony of former counsel John Dean, which implicated the President in the Watergate cover-up. The paper further discusses how ultimately, the existence of these tape-recordings, which had been revealed by Alexander Butterfield during the Senate Watergate Hearings in the summer of 1973, provided Cox with a definitive means determining who was telling the truth and who was lying.

From the Paper:

"Watergate unfolded over a period of two years against the tragic backdrop of the Vietnam War, which produced a powerful anti-war movement across America in the late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies. Richard Nixon's Watergate crimes were a direct result of his fear that he would lose his reelection bid in November of 1972 to an anti-war Democrat, and a product of his rampant paranoia about leaks and obsessive penchant for secrecy. Ironically, the break in itself in June of 1972 was a minor crime compared to the massive cover up concocted and carried out by Nixon and high White House officials. "

More papers on The Saturday Night Massacre :

• Essay # 10117 : "History of "Saturday Night Live"
• Comparison Essay # 66853 : "Saturday Night Live" Comedians"
• Term Paper # 121834 : "The Watergate Scandal"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: