Nixon White House tapes

This article is part of a series about Richard Nixon
Birthplace Electoral history Depictions Pre-vice presidency House of Representatives 1946 election Senate 1950 election Checkers speech 36th Vice President of the United States Eisenhower administration 1st inauguration 2nd inauguration Motorcade attack Kitchen Debate Post-vice presidency 1962 California gubernatorial bid "Last press conference" 37th President of the United States Presidency Timeline Transition Inaugurations first second Judicial appointments Appointed federal judges Supreme Court candidates Appointment controversies Policies Economic Nixon shock Foreign International trips Nixon Doctrine Vietnamization Environmental EPA Clean Water NOAA Legacy of Parks Cannabis war on drugs Native American First term End of the draft Visit to China Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty War on cancer Philadelphia Plan Minority Business Enterprise OSHA Apollo program Second term Paris Peace Accords decent interval 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War airlift Mideast Peace Process Marine Mammal Protection Act Endangered Species Act Impeachment process Watergate scandal timeline Tapes United States v. Nixon Resignation speech Pardon Post-presidency Nixon interviews Foundation Presidential Library and Museum Center for the National Interest Bibliography Six Crises Death and state funeral Presidential campaigns 1960 election primaries convention debates 1968 election primaries convention "Bring Us Together" 1972 election primaries convention Vice presidential campaigns 1952 selection convention election 1956 convention election
v t e

Audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff surfaced during the Watergate scandal in 1973 and 1974, leading to Nixon's resignation.^[1]

In February 1971, a sound-activated taping system was installed in the Oval Office, including in Nixon's Wilson desk, using Sony TC-800B open-reel tape recorders^[2] to capture audio transmitted by telephone taps and concealed microphones.^[3] The system was expanded to include other rooms within the White House and Camp David.^[3] The system was turned off on July 18, 1973, two days after it became public knowledge as a result of the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee hearings.^[3] Nixon was not the first president to record his White House conversations; some taping was done by every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Nixon, starting in 1940.^[4][5][6]

The system was mentioned during the televised testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield before the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee in 1973.^[7] Nixon's refusal to comply with a subpoena for the tapes was the basis for an article of impeachment against him, and led to his resignation on August 9, 1974.^[8]

On August 19, 2013, the Nixon Library and the National Archives and Records Administration released the final 340 hours of the tapes that cover the period from April 9 through July 12, 1973.^[9]