Elliot Richardson

Elliot Lee Richardson (July 20, 1920 – December 31, 1999) was an American lawyer and politician who was a member of the cabinet of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. As U.S. Attorney General, he was a prominent figure in the Watergate Scandal, and resigned rather than obey President Nixon's order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Richardson is the only individual to serve in four United States Cabinet positions within the United States government: Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1970 to 1973, Secretary of Defense from January to May 1973, Attorney General from May to October 1973, and Secretary of Commerce from 1976 to 1977.

Early life and military service
Richardson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Clara Lee (née Shattuck) and Edward Peirson Richardson, a doctor and professor at Harvard Medical School. He attended the Park School in Brookline, Massachusetts, and then obtained his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he resided in Winthrop House, graduated cum laude in 1941, and was an editor of the Harvard Lampoon.

In 1942, following America's entry into World War II, Richardson entered the combat medical corps in the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. He participated in the June 6, 1944, Normandy Invasion as a platoon leader, where he crossed a minefield to rescue a fellow officer whose foot was blown off.

He was among the first troops of the "Big Ivy" to come up Causeway No. 2 from Utah Beach, which had been under fire from German artillery at Brécourt Manor. He was among the many who noticed the guns ceasing their firing after (unbeknownst to him), paratroopers of the 101st under Lieutenant Richard Winters had knocked them out. After Stephen Ambrose's book Band of Brothers was published, Richardson wrote to Winters and thanked him.

He continued on in the war in Europe with the 4th Infantry Division and received numerous decorations, including the Purple Heart medal. He was discharged in 1945 with the rank of first lieutenant.

In 1947, he graduated with a law degree from Harvard Law School. He also became editor and president of the Harvard Law Review.

After his graduation from Law School, Richardson clerked for United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge Learned Hand, and then for Justice Felix Frankfurter of the Supreme Court of the United States. Richardson then served as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts from 1959 to 1961, and was later elected the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and Attorney General of Massachusetts. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.

Richardson's son, Henry S. Richardson, is a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, where he focuses in moral and political philosophy.

Richardson was also an active Freemason as a member of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a 33rd Degree Freemason in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.

Cabinet career
Richardson had the nearly unique distinction of serving in three high-level Executive Branch posts in a single year—the tumultuous year of 1973 – as the Watergate Scandal came to dominate the attention of official Washington, and the American public at large.

Richardson served three relatively uneventful years as the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for a popular sitting President, so few would suspect the pivotal role he would play in the chaos that would soon ensue.

Richardson was appointed United States Secretary of Defense on January 30, 1973. When President Nixon selected Richardson as Secretary, the press described him as an excellent manager and administrator, perhaps the best in the cabinet. In his confirmation hearing, Richardson expressed agreement with Nixon's policies on such issues as the adequacy of U.S. strategic forces, NATO and relationships with other allies, and Vietnam.

Although he promised to examine the budget carefully to identify areas for savings, and in fact later ordered the closing of some military installations, he cautioned against precipitate cuts. As he told a Senate committee, "Significant cuts in the Defense Budget now would seriously weaken the U.S. position on international negotiations—in which U.S. military capabilities, in both real and symbolic terms, are an important factor." Similarly, he strongly supported continued military assistance at current levels. During his short tenure, Richardson spent much time testifying before congressional committees on the proposed FY 1974 budget and other Defense matters.

Richardson would serve as Secretary of Defense for only a few short months before becoming Nixon's Attorney General, a move that would soon put him in the Watergate spotlight.

In October 1973, after Richardson had served just five months as Attorney General, President Nixon ordered him to fire the top lawyer investigating the Watergate scandal, Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson had promised Congress he would not interfere with the Special Prosecutor, and, rather than disobey the President or break his promise, he resigned. President Nixon subsequently asked Richardson's second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, to carry out the order. He too had promised to not interfere, and also tendered his resignation. The third in command, Solicitor General Robert Bork, also planned to resign, but Richardson persuaded him not to in order to ensure proper leadership at the Department of Justice during the crisis. Bork carried out the President's order, thus completing the events generally referred to as the Saturday Night Massacre.

Just prior to the resignation of Vice-President Spiro Agnew, Richardson was portrayed as a cartoon figure with Agnew and Nixon on the cover of Time Magazine dated October 8, 1973. Agnew was quoted as saying: "I am innocent of the charges against me. I will not resign if indicted!" Agnew later claimed that he believed that the prosecution which eventually drove him from office was being zealously pushed by Richardson for the specific reason that the Attorney General wished to be nominated as the next vice-president, which would either give him the inside track for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, or, should Nixon resign over Watergate, elevate Richardson to the presidency. Richardson denied then and later taking any extraordinary steps in the investigation of Agnew, instead leaving the task up to the U.S. Attorney in Baltimore.

During the Gerald Ford administration, Richardson served as United States Secretary of Commerce from 1976 to 1977, and as ambassador to the United Kingdom. Although Richardson had been frequently discussed in the early 1970s as a likely candidate for President in 1976, Richardson's acceptance of the appointment to Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, as it is formally titled, effectively eliminated him from the domestic scene during the pre-election period. In departing for that position, he indicated to reporters that he would not run unless Ford decided against running.

From 1977 to 1980, he served as an Ambassador at Large and Special Representative of President Jimmy Carter for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and head of the U.S. delegation to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.

Later life and death
In 1980 Richardson received an honorary degree from Bates College. In 1984, he ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Paul Tsongas. Although Richardson was favored to win the seat, he was defeated in the GOP primary by conservative candidate Ray Shamie, who lost the general election to John F. Kerry. Richardson was a moderate-liberal Republican, and his defeat at the hands of the very conservative Shamie was seen as symbolizing the decline of the moderate wing of the GOP, even in a section of the country where it was historically strong.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Richardson was associated with the Washington, D.C., office of the New York City law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, of which John J. McCloy was a founding partner. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Richardson was the attorney for Inslaw, Inc., an American software company which alleged that its software had been pirated by the U.S. Justice Department.

In 1994, Richardson backed President Bill Clinton during his struggle against Paula Jones' charge of sexual harassment. In 1998, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

On December 31, 1999, Richardson died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 79. Major media outlets, such as CNN, recognized him as the "Watergate martyr" for refusing an order from President Nixon to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Author
Richardson was the author of two books, The Creative Balance: Government, Politics, and the Individual in America's Third Century published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1976 and Reflections of a Radical Moderate published by Westview Press in 1996.