Nixon White House tapes

This article is part of a series about Richard Nixon
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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; President Franklin D. Roosevelt recorded Oval Office press conferences for a short period in 1940.^[4]

The system was mentioned during the televised testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield before the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee in 1973.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7]