William Bart Saxbe (/ˈsæksbiː/ SAKS-bee; June 24, 1916 – August 24, 2010) was an American diplomat and politician affiliated with the Republican Party, who served as a U.S.

[1] He received a bachelor's degree, from The Ohio State University, Class of 1940, where he was a member of Chi Phi fraternity.

During his campaign, he became a prominent supporter of a national health insurance system, co-sponsoring the Kennedy-Griffiths universal healthcare program in 1971 alongside fellow Republicans Jacob Javits (New York), Clifford Case (New Jersey) and John Sherman Cooper (Kentucky).

[6] Saxbe was the permanent replacement for Elliot Richardson, who had been dismissed by Nixon during the Watergate scandal's so-called "Saturday Night Massacre".

Nixon addressed the problem by having Congress reduce the salary of the Attorney General to $35,000,[7] as it was before Saxbe's term in the Senate began.

As Attorney General for Nixon, Saxbe supervised the antitrust suit that ultimately ended the Bell System telephone monopoly.

[9] Gilligan, who had been elected Governor of Ohio during 1970, appointed Howard Metzenbaum to serve Saxbe's vacated term.

Saxbe served as U.S. Attorney General for the first few months of the President Ford Administration, before resigning in early 1975, when he was appointed United States Ambassador to India.