Nixon White House tapes

=== 18½-minute gap ===
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According to Nixon's secretary [[Rose Mary Woods]], on September 29, 1973, she was reviewing a tape of the June 20, 1972, recordings,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://watergate.info/burglary/burglars.shtml |title=Watergate Burglars |publisher=Watergate.info |date=June 17, 1972 |access-date=June 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420103446/http://watergate.info/burglary/burglars.shtml |archive-date=April 20, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> when she made "a terrible mistake" during transcription. While playing the tape on a [[Uher (brand)|Uher 5000]], she answered a phone call. Reaching for the Uher 5000 stop button, she said that she mistakenly hit the button next to it, the record button. For the duration of the phone call, about five minutes, she kept her foot on the device's pedal, causing a five-minute portion of the tape to be rerecorded. When she listened to the tape, the gap had grown to {{frac|18|1|2}} minutes. She later insisted that she was not responsible for the remaining 13 minutes of buzz.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,908267,00.html|title=The Crisis: The Secretary and the Tapes Tangle|magazine=Time|date=December 10, 1973|access-date=March 29, 2022}}</ref>

The contents missing from the recording remain unknown, though the gap occurs during a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman three days after the Watergate break-in.<ref name=":2"/> Nixon claimed not to know the topics discussed during the gap.<ref name=Pelofsky/> Haldeman's notes from the meeting show that among the topics of discussion were the arrests at the Watergate Hotel. White House lawyers first heard of the gap on the evening of November 14, 1973, and Judge Sirica, who had issued subpoenas for the tapes, was not told until November 21, after the president's attorneys had decided that there was "no innocent explanation" they could offer.<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/120773-1.htm | title=Haig Tells of Theories on Erasure | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=December 7, 1973 | access-date=May 31, 2013 | archive-date=November 11, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111173125/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/120773-1.htm | url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Rose Mary Woods.jpg|thumb|Rose Mary Woods attempting to demonstrate how she may have inadvertently created the gap]]
[[File:Uher_5000.jpg|thumb|Uher 5000 with evidence tags]]
Woods was asked to demonstrate the position in which she was sitting when the accident occurred. Seated at a desk, she reached far back over her left shoulder for a telephone as her foot applied pressure to the pedal controlling the transcription machine. Her posture during the demonstration, dubbed the "Rose Mary Stretch", caused many political commentators to question the validity of the explanation.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30678-2005Jan23.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Rose Mary Woods Dies; Loyal Nixon Secretary | first=Patricia | last=Sullivan | date=January 24, 2005 | access-date=May 27, 2010 | archive-date=May 13, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513234018/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30678-2005Jan23.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In a grand jury interview in 1975, Nixon said that he initially believed that only four minutes of the tape were missing. He said that when he later heard that 18 minutes were missing, "I practically blew my stack."<ref name=Pelofsky>{{cite news |title=Nixon nearly 'blew my stack' over Watergate tape gap |author1=Jeremy Pelofsky |author2=James Vicini |date=November 10, 2011 |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nixon-tapes-idUSTRE7A96DR20111110 |access-date=November 10, 2011 |archive-date=March 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310105637/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nixon-tapes-idUSTRE7A96DR20111110 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In his 2014 book ''The Nixon Defense'', Nixon's White House Counsel John Dean suggests that the full collection of recordings now available "largely answer the questions regarding what was known by the White House about the reasons for the break-in and bugging at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, as well as what was erased during the infamous 18 minute and 30 second gap during the June 20, 1972, conversation and why."<ref name="justia.com">{{cite web |url=https://verdict.justia.com/2014/08/10/thoughts-nixons-resignation |access-date=April 7, 2015 |title=Thoughts on Nixon's resignation |date=August 10, 2014 |archive-date=April 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412140515/https://verdict.justia.com/2014/08/10/thoughts-nixons-resignation |url-status=live }}</ref>

A variety of suggestions have been made as to who could have erased the tape. Years later,  [[White House Chief of Staff]] [[Alexander Haig]] speculated that the erasures may conceivably have been caused by Nixon himself. According to Haig, the president was "spectacularly inept" at understanding and operating mechanical devices, and in the course of reviewing the tape in question, he may have caused the erasures by fumbling with the recorder's controls, though Haig could not say whether the erasures had occurred inadvertently or intentionally. In 1973, Haig had speculated aloud that the erasure was caused by an unidentified "sinister force."<ref>Slansky, Paul. ''Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots: Not-So-Great Moments in Modern American Politics.'' Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. p. 30 {{ISBN?}}</ref> Others have suggested that Haig was involved in deliberately erasing the tapes with Nixon's involvement, or that the erasure was conducted by a White House lawyer.<ref name="Truth in a Lie">{{cite web|last1=Robenalt|first1=James|title=Truth in a Lie: Forty Years After the 18½ Minute Gap|url=http://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2014/05/robenalt.html|website=Washington Decoded|access-date=December 1, 2015|archive-date=December 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208082808/http://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2014/05/robenalt.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Cracking Watergate's Infamous 18 1/2 Minute Gap">{{cite web|last1=Mellinger|first1=Phil|title=Cracking Watergate's Infamous 18 1/2 Minute Gap|url=http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2011/02/cracking-watergates-infamous-18-1-2-minute-gap|website=Forensics Magazine|access-date=December 1, 2015|date=February 18, 2011|archive-date=December 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208094151/http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2011/02/cracking-watergates-infamous-18-1-2-minute-gap|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Investigations ====
Nixon himself launched the first investigation into how the tapes were erased. He claimed that it was an intensive investigation but came up empty.<ref name=Pelofsky/>

On November 21, 1973, Sirica appointed a panel of persons nominated jointly by the White House and the Special Prosecution Force. The panel was supplied with the evidence tape, the seven tape recorders from the Oval Office and Executive Office Building and the two Uher 5000 recorders. One recorder, labeled as Exhibit 60, was marked "Secret Service" and the other, Exhibit 60B, was accompanied by a foot pedal. The panel determined that the buzz was of no consequence and that the gap was the result of an erasure<ref>Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) page 4</ref> performed on the Exhibit 60 recorder.<ref>Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) p. 11</ref> The panel also determined that the recording consisted of at least five separate segments, possibly as many as nine,<ref>Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) p. 36</ref> and that at least five segments required hand operation; that is, they could not have been performed using the foot pedal.<ref>Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) p. 44</ref> The panel was subsequently asked by the court to consider alternative explanations that had emerged during the hearings. The final report, dated May 31, 1974, found that these other explanations did not contradict the original findings.<ref>Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) p. iv</ref>

The [[National Archives and Records Administration]] owns the tape and has tried several times to recover the missing minutes, most recently in 2003, but without success.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watergate-tape-gap-still-a-mystery/|title=Watergate Tape Gap Still A Mystery|access-date=December 30, 2016|archive-date=February 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209042434/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watergate-tape-gap-still-a-mystery/|url-status=live}}</ref> The tapes are now preserved in a climate-controlled vault in case future technology allows for restoration of the missing audio.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/09/us/national-archives-has-given-up-on-filling-the-nixon-tape-gap.html|title=National Archives Has Given Up On Filling the Nixon Tape Gap|last=Clymer|first=Adam|date=May 9, 2003|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=December 30, 2016|archive-date=May 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527231832/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/09/us/national-archives-has-given-up-on-filling-the-nixon-tape-gap.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Corporate security expert Phil Mellinger undertook a project to restore Haldeman's handwritten notes describing the missing {{frac|18|1|2}} minutes,<ref>{{cite magazine|author=David Corn |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/csi-watergate |title=CSI: Watergate |magazine=Mother Jones |access-date=June 7, 2012}}</ref> but that effort also failed to produce any new information.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2011/nr11-142.html |title=National Archives Releases Forensic Report on H.R. Haldeman Notes |publisher=Archives.gov |access-date=June 7, 2012 |archive-date=June 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601005525/http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2011/nr11-142.html |url-status=live }}</ref>