“There was a sense that what we were doing was extremely dangerous to the Nixon administration,” Heymann told The Crimson last week.

Despite accusations that Cox, a registered Democrat, was out to get Nixon, Heymann said Cox had a “strong sense of duty” and always followed his conscience.

“Cox was not partial,” Heymann said. “It was a job that had to be done for the nation.”

Surprisingly, Cox had no experience as a prosecutor in a criminal law case before Watergate, Heymann said.

“He was a law professor. This was a very different world and everybody’s eyes were on him,” Heymann said.

According to Heymann, Richardson’s appointment of Cox “led the Democrats who hated Nixon and feared Nixon to be very much afraid that [the man] Richardson had appointed was too unprepared for the rough and tumble of Nixon’s Washington” and that he would not be capable of “satisfactorily investigating all of the issues that came up.”

“They were wrong about that,” Heymann said, “and Nixon was wrong about that.”

On Oct. 20, 1973, when it had become clear that Nixon would not obey the court order to relinquish the tapes, Cox threatened to ask a federal court to hold Nixon in contempt.

Later that day, in a string of events that would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Nixon instructed Richardson to dismiss Cox.

Citing his promise to the Judiciary Committee that Cox would keep his job unless he was guilty of “extraordinary improprieties,” Richardson resigned. William D. Ruckelshaus, the deputy attorney general, also resigned rather than follow Nixon’s command.

Shortly before Cox was finally dismissed by Solicitor General Robert H. Bork, he issued a one-line statement: “Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.”

The American people responded by sending millions of telegrams and letters to Congress, which, in turn, drafted several resolutions for impeachment.

Nixon eventually released the tapes to Cox’s successor, Leon Jaworski. The content of the tapes and the full results of Cox’s investigation were so damaging that Nixon stepped down as president on Aug. 8, 1974, becoming the only American president to resign from office. Cox was immediately embraced as a hero by Nixon’s foes.

“With Watergate, he became a symbol of lawyers at their best,” Heymann said. “He became the symbol of the person who had the combination of the highest ethical standards and the courage to live by them.”

Heymann added, “People felt like he saved the country.”