Two Key Watergate Figures Die

Archibald Cox and Sam Dash, two leading figures from the Watergate drama, both died on Saturday. Cox was 92. Dash was 79.

Cox's refusal to curtail his Watergate investigation after being ordered to do so by the White House cost him his job, and opened the way for President Nixon's impeachment.

Cox, whose principled stand against what he termed "exaggerated claims of executive privilege" guaranteed him a place in the history of Watergate, died peacefully on Saturday, said his daughter, Phyllis Cox. He was 92.

Cox died at his home in Brooksville, Maine, his daughter said.

Dash, the former chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Watergate, became known across the nation for his televised, penetrating interrogations into President Nixon's secret taping system.

Dash, who had been hospitalized since January, died at the Washington Hospital Center at the age of 79, according to family members.

Cox, a longtime Harvard law professor, had also been an adviser to President John F. Kennedy and served him as U.S. solicitor general.

In May 1973, Cox was asked to head the special prosecution force investigating charges Republican party operatives had broken into the Democratic campaign headquarters at the Watergate Hotel prior to the 1972 presidential election.

Nixon ordered Cox fired in October 1973 for his continued efforts to obtain tape recordings made at the White House, important evidence in the investigation of the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

The day before, Nixon had refused to comply with a federal appeals court order to surrender the tapes, declined to appeal to the Supreme Court and ordered Cox to drop the case. But Cox vowed to continue, saying pulling back would violate his promise to the Senate.

The firing shook the nation and became known as "The Saturday Night Massacre."

Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, both refused to carry out Nixon's orders to fire Cox, resigning instead. Then-Solicitor General Robert Bork, who would 14 years later lose a Supreme Court bid after a strenuous debate over his legal theories, handled the job of firing Cox.

At his firing, Cox issued a one-sentence statement: "Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people."

Nixon's move gave rise to an effort to impeach him, and he eventually had to give up the tapes. In August 1974, Nixon became the only president ever to resign office.

Former White House counsel John Dean said Cox's place in the history of Watergate is assured.

"No question, he'll always be a part of that history … his firing was the catalyst that started the march towards impeachment," Dean said Saturday night from his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"What's remarkable is he did the right thing, he took the very principled stand."

The firing of Cox also gave rise to the law creating independent counsels — special prosecutors to investigate official misconduct.

Dash helped draft that law.

Although a lifelong Democrat, Dash over the years cultivated a reputation for independence and as an ardent advocate for ethics in the legal profession.

For nearly four decades, Dash specialized in constitutional law and legal ethics at Georgetown University Law Center where he taught and directed its Institute for Criminal Law and Procedures. He taught his last class in January shortly before being hospitalized.

As the lead attorney on Sen. Sam Ervin's Watergate committee, Dash directed some of the most intense questioning of White House officials during televised hearings into the scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation in August, 1974.

During a pivotal moment in the 1973 hearings, Dash pressed White House aide Alexander Butterfield on who knew about a secret taping system in the Oval Office.

"The president ...," Butterfield replied. The tapes exposed the fact that Nixon had been closely involved in trying to cover up the scandal.

Dash again made headlines — and angered some Democrats — in 1994 when he agreed to serve as the ethics adviser to independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the Whitewater investigation of President Clinton.

But he resigned four years later, saying that Starr "unlawfully intruded" and exceeded his authority by aggressively advocating that Clinton be impeached.

Recently, Dash had expressed concern about the threats to individual freedoms as a result of the Bush administration's fight against terrorism.

In a book on the Fourth Amendment, scheduled to be released next month, Dash complains about "the Bush administration's increasing intrusions on the privacy rights of American citizens in the post Sept. 11 world," according to David Molyneaux, his son-in-law, citing a quote on the book's cover.

Cox later said he was pleased that it was public outrage over the tapes issue that caught up with Nixon. He went on to serve as chairman of Common Cause, an organization that advocates improvement of the political system.

Reflecting on the scandal years later, Cox said it was a time when "the country showed its appreciation of the ancient rule that even the highest executive must be subject to the law. And I would hope that remains as an example to be followed if a similar challenge to the law ever occurs in the future."