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Sirica used his same rugged courtroom common sense to cope with the challenge of a historic constitutional clash between branches of Government. Even a President must respond to subpoenas for evidence in criminal cases, Sirica ruled. Judges, not the President, must ultimately decide whether claims of Executive privilege to withhold such evidence are valid. Presidents, in short, are not above the law. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld him; and in the end, Nixon gave up, partly because he feared that the Supreme Court would also see it Sirica's way.
Other characters in the Watergate drama, most notably the President around whom the whole affair revolved, played major roles. Yet Nixon, to his own detriment, never took charge of the scandal, continually reacting to events rather than shaping them. The remarkable Senator Sam Ervin, who rose spectacularly as a national folk hero in chairing the historic Senate Watergate hearings, employed literary allusions and unabashed outrage to effectively belittle the many evasive and amoral Nixon men who came before him.
Archibald Cox, the determined Special Prosecutor, refused to accept a unilateral Nixon "compromise" designed to circumvent Sirica's orders regarding the presidential tapes, and publicly protested Nixon's command that he desist from seeking further presidential evidence. Fired by Nixon, Cox bowed out with a Brahmin civility that inspired a fire storm of protest at his dismissal. Former Attorney General Elliot Richardson, too, stood as a staunch symbol of integrity in the celebrated "Saturday Night Massacre" by defying the White House decree that he fire Cox. Richardson resigned instead, further arousing national indignation.
A Trio of Global Actors
The Watergate drama in Washington could not, of course, completely obscure the principal actors elsewhere on the world stage. Three were particularly notable for their roles during 1973. Egypt's President Anwar Sadat skillfully courted alliances among Arab leaders, then launched the coordinated Yom Kippur attack by his armies and those of Syria on Israeli-occupied territories. Although the strike was ultimately unsuccessful, the fact that the invading armies were not instantly crushed by the Israelis restored a measure of Arab pride that may help make a Middle East settlement possible. Saudi Arabia's King Feisal responded to the urgings of militant Arab leaders and curtailed oil shipments to nations that the Arabs deemed too friendly with Israel. The immediate impact was devastating. The long-term repercussions could prove beneficial, however, as a grim reminder that industrialized nations have for too long wasted energy and recklessly failed to develop alternate sources of it.
Most important of the three men was Henry Kissinger the U.S. Secretary of State and presidential adviser. As Nixon was engulfed by Watergate, Kissinger became, in effect, America's president for foreign affairs. He ranged the world in a virtuoso performance of solo diplomacy. He twice toured major capitals of the Middle-East, first to help achieve a ceasefire, then to complete arrangements for a Geneva conference seeking a long-range settlement. Twice he flew to Moscow to bolster detente or ease