Nixon White House tapes

== History of the Nixon White House taping system ==
[[File:Tape recorder from President Nixon's Oval Office.jpg|thumb|left|[[Richard Nixon]]'s [[Oval Office]] tape recorder]]
Just prior to assuming office in January 1969, Nixon learned that his predecessor, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], had installed a system to record his meetings and telephone calls.<ref name=":1" /> According to his [[White House Chief of Staff|Chief of Staff]] [[H. R. Haldeman]], Nixon ordered the system removed, but during the first two years of his presidency he came to the conclusion (after trying other means) that audio recordings were the only way to ensure a full and faithful account of conversations and decisions.<ref name=":1" /> At Nixon's request, Haldeman and his staff—including Deputy Assistant Alexander Butterfield—worked with the [[United States Secret Service]] to install a recording system.<ref name=":1" />

On February 16, 1971, a taping system was installed in two rooms in the White House, the Oval Office and the [[Cabinet Room (White House)|Cabinet Room]].<ref name=":1" /> Three months later, microphones were added to Nixon's private office in the [[Old Executive Office Building]] and the following year microphones were installed in the presidential lodge at Camp David.<ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://nixon.archives.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/learn/history.php|title=History of the White House Tapes|access-date=February 14, 2012|publisher=Richard Nixon Presidential Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015061225/http://nixon.archives.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/learn/history.php|archive-date=October 15, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The system was installed and monitored by the Secret Service, and the tapes were stored in a room in the White House basement.<ref name="history" /> Significant phone lines were tapped as well, including those in the Oval Office, Old Executive Office Building and the [[Lincoln Sitting Room]], which was Nixon's favorite room in the White House. Telephone conversations were recorded by tapping the telephone lines from the White House switchboard and relaying the conversations to recorders in a closet in the basement of the residence.<ref name="history" /> All audio equipment was sound-activated, except in the Cabinet Room.<ref name=":1" /> All locations in the White House were activated by the [[United States Secret Service|Executive Protective Service]]'s "First Family Locator" system: when an officer notified the system that the president was in the Oval Office, the taping machinery switched on, ready to record when triggered by sound.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB95/|title=The Nixon Tapes: Secret Recordings from the White House|last1=Doyle|first1=Kate|last2=Sodano|first2=Ron|last3=Rushay|first3=Sam|date=August 18, 2003|publisher=The National Security Archive|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=August 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805111534/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB95/|url-status=live}}</ref>

By design, only very few individuals (apart from Nixon and Haldeman) knew of the existence of the taping system: Butterfield, Haldeman's assistant [[Lawrence Higby]], and the Secret Service technicians who had installed it.<ref name=":1" /> The recordings were produced on as many as nine Sony TC-800B machines using very thin 0.5 mil (12.7&nbsp;µm) tape at the slow speed of {{convert|15/16|in|mm}} per second.<ref name="history" />

The tapes contain about 3,700 hours of conversation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Nixon's Secret White House Tapes |url=https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/secret-white-house-tapes/about-nixons-secret-white-house-tapes |access-date=December 14, 2023 |website=[[Miller Center]], [[University of Virginia]]|date=February 2, 2017 }}</ref><ref name="content">{{cite news|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-04-26/news/9404260236_1_watergate-office-building-scholars-or-journalists-national-archives|title=Nixon Lawyer Balks At Releasing Tapes|access-date=February 14, 2012|date=April 26, 1994|work=The Chicago Tribune|archive-date=August 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812101726/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-04-26/news/9404260236_1_watergate-office-building-scholars-or-journalists-national-archives|url-status=live}}</ref> Hundreds of hours are of discussions on foreign policy, including planning for the [[1972 Nixon visit to China|1972 visit to China]] and subsequent visit to the Soviet Union. Only 200 of the 3,500 hours contain references to Watergate<ref name="content" /> and less than 5% of the recorded material has been transcribed or published.<ref name="untappedsecrets">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/the-untapped-wealth-of-secrets-in-the-nixon-tapes/374868/|title=The Untapped Secrets of the Nixon Tapes|magazine=The Atlantic|author=Evan Thomas|date=July 29, 2014|access-date=September 10, 2014}}</ref>