Impeach Nixon...Support Congress

WE HAVE CALLED for Nixon's impeachment in the past, for reasons which we continue to believe are even more important than his insistence that no independent person can legitimately investigate his administration's apparent crimes. But the firings of Cox and Ruckelshaus, and Richardson's resignation mean that for the first time impeachment may be a political possibility. It is therefore of crucial importance that people apply pressure to Congress, whose evident fear of any bold act seems to be the chief obstacle to impeachment.

People who share our belief that Nixon should have been impeached years ago because his conduct of the Indochina war was unconstitutional, repressive, and murderous, should write to their representatives to call for impeachment.

People who share our belief that Nixon should have been impeached months ago because of his assaults on civil liberties and democratic procedures--the Huston plan for burglaries and illegal wiretappings, the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, the apparent attempt to influence the judge in the Ellsberg case, his lies to Congress and the American people about the bombing of Cambodia--people who detested these actions should write to their representatives to call for impeachment.

And people who have opposed impeachment in the past, but who don't think Nixon can act simultaneously as investigator, judge, jury, prosecuting attorney, court of appeals, and defendant--these people, too, should write to their representatives to call for impeachment. By emasculating the Justice Department and refusing to obey the courts, Nixon has left these people with no recourse other than through their elected representatives in Congress.

With these editorials, The Crimson joins the seven other Ivy League newspapers in calling for the impeachment of President Nixon. The Brown Daily Herald, The Columbia Daily Spectator, The Cornell Daily Sun, The Dartmouth, The Daily Pennsylvanian, The Daily Princetonian and The Yale Daily News have issued similar positions in the aftermath of the departures of Cox, Richardson and Ruckelshaus.