Welcome to the National Press club. I covered as a very young reporter, a baby good evening. Welcome to the National Press club. I covered watergate as a very young reporter, a baby reporter, they just let me come in diapers. I covered from the hearings to the trials. I am especially elated to be here this evening i went like to welcome cspan and the cspan audience. This is being filmed for cspans American History tv. Our program tonight marks the 50th anniversary of the saturday night massacre that ultimately led to president nixons resignation in the scandal. It was a significant event in the nations political history to say the least. The National Press club played an Important Role on it, special prosecutor cox, who i would later be lucky enough to become friends with held his News Conference here on the afternoon of october 20th, right in the clubs ballroom. It was at that Historic Press conference that he insisted that president nixon turn over the tapes. We will see a clip later
It was also determined the capsule door design made rescue difficult. And that crew escape had not been adequately considered. Announcer this is a cbs news special report. Mike wallace this is mike wallace at the cbs newsroom in new york. Americas first three apollo astronauts were trapped and killed by a flash fire early tonight during a launchpad test at cape kennedy in florida. Virgil gus griffin, 40 years old, one of the original mercury astronaut. The First American astronaut to go twice into space. Edward white, 36 years old. The First American to walk in space. And rookie astronaut roger chaffee, 31 years old, training for his first spaceflight apollo one scheduled february 21. These three astronauts were aboard for 10 minutes before off imulated lift for a simulated lift off when the fire hit at about 6 30 tonight. They were inside the spaceship, pressurized, buttoned up inside their spacesuits with a fire hit. A closed Circuit Television camera with relaying pictures of the as
It was also determined the capsule door design made rescue difficult. And that crew escape had not been adequately considered. Announcer this is a cbs news special report. Mike wallace this is mike wallace at the cbs newsroom in new york. Americas first three apollo astronauts were trapped and killed by a flash fire early tonight during a launchpad test at cape kennedy in florida. Virgil gus griffin, 40 years old, one of the original mercury astronaut. The First American astronaut to go twice into space. Edward white, 36 years old. The First American to walk in space. And rookie astronaut roger chaffee, 31 years old, training for his first spaceflight apollo one scheduled february 21. These three astronauts were aboard for 10 minutes before off imulated lift for a simulated lift off when the fire hit at about 6 30 tonight. They were inside the spaceship, pressurized, buttoned up inside their spacesuits with a fire hit. A closed Circuit Television camera with relaying pictures of the as
Gus grissom, one of the original mercury astronauts, First American astronaut to go twice into space, edward white, 36 years old, the First American to walk into space, and rookie astronaut rogerok chaffee, trainingni for his first space spa space flightu n31st. The fire hit at about 66 30 xd tonight. They were5a inside the spaceshi pressurized, buttoned up inside u qmwhen the firen hit. A Closedcircuit Television camera was relaying pictures of the astronauts lying on their ram the two state saturn one. It according to a nasa spokesman watching the televisionni scree in the block house a few hundred yards away from launchpad 34. The screen went blank and he saidxd there was noxd cgm unica from the astronauts. Silently and apparently swiftly. Their bodies have beenxdni lpa the spacecraft, according to the latest information from theq cape, pending an investigation president johnson tonight mourned the death of the three astronauts, he said they gave service, our brave men in uniform, w
Let me go back. Pres. Roosevelt [indiscernible] prof. Dean you get a sample there. Let me give you that is amazing when you think of somebody today, that we have cell phones, just talking about the breakthrough in that presidency of a walkietalkie that was so heavy they had to carry it on their back. Anyway, nixon got the idea of taping from Lyndon Johnson predecessor, during the transition between the two presidencies. He said, i have several of the offices wired for recording, including several telephones. He said, i strongly recommend you do the same. Nixon had exactly the opposite reaction and had them all taken out. But this is the first time he had heard of president s recording. So what were the reasons that he does install . Back in the nixon white house, as we have discussed in prior lectures, there was a pretty efficient Management System, except in the instances like watergate and a few others where the Management System did not come into play. But the Management System on a