So as I sit here, I just opened the book Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals and Reagan’s Rise to Power to continue reading, the paragraph that I began with started: H.R. Haldeman was having a dinner party... That took my mind quickly back, to what I had read earlier, about famous events that happened on this date in 1973.
The existence of the White House taping system was first confirmed by Senate Committee staff member Donald Sanders, on July 13, 1973, in an interview with White House aide Alexander Butterfield. Three days later, it was made public during the televised testimony of Butterfield, when he was asked about the possibility of a White House taping system by Senate Counsel Fred Thompson.
On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee that Nixon had ordered a taping system installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations; it was possible to concretely verify what the president said, and when he said it. Only a few White House employees had ever been aware that this system existed. Special Counsel Archibald Cox, a former United States Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy, asked District Court Judge John Sirica to subpoena eight relevant tapes to confirm the testimony of White House Counsel John Dean.
The revelation of the presence of these tapes consumed the nation for the next two years, leading us to things like: the 18 1/2 minute gap, the Stennis Compromise, and the Saturday Night Massacre. Of course, the whole tragedy came to an end after the release of the “smoking gun” tape on August 5th of 1974, which lead to Nixon’s resignation three days later. The smoking gun” tape was among 42 tapes subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee in April of 1974
In late July 1974, the White House released the subpoenaed tapes. One of those tapes was the so-called “smoking gun”[17] tape, from June 23, 1972, six days after the Watergate break-in. In that tape, Nixon agrees that administration officials should approach Richard Helms, Director of the CIA, and Vernon A. Walters, Deputy Director, and ask them to request L. Patrick Gray, Acting Director of the FBI, to halt the Bureau’s investigation into the Watergate break-in on the grounds that it was a national security matter. The special prosecutor felt that Nixon, in so agreeing, had entered into a criminal conspiracy whose goal was the obstruction of justice.
Once the “smoking gun” tape was made public on August 5, Nixon’s political support practically vanished. The ten Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee who had voted against impeachment in committee announced that they would now vote for impeachment once the matter reached the House floor. He lacked substantial support in the Senate as well; Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott estimated no more than 15 Senators were willing to even consider acquittal. Facing certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction in the Senate, Nixon announced his resignation on the evening of Thursday, August 8, to take effect noon the next day. Read More
I can still remember being in a Political Science class at the University of Florida, when the tapes were first released. My professor came in slam the paper on his desk and said “Damn the son of a bitch knew all along. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that’s gone now!”
So on this day, I like to thank Mr Butterfield for letting us know about those tapes! You know, the sad thing is that the whole mess really didn’t even have to happen. While I wished it could have been otherwise George McGovern never really had a chance to win that election anyway. H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and the rest of Nixon’s staff had though had just created an “Us against Them” mentality in the White House opening the doors for this type of action, that eventually led to their downfall.
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Newly Released Tapes Show Nixon Maneuvering as Watergate Unfolds
