Stanley Kutler - Abuse of Power

THE TAPES OF RICHARD NIXON

THE PENTAGON PAPERS AND

OTHER WHITE HOUSE HORRORS

JUNE 1971 JUNE 1972

WATERGATE:

BREAK - IN AND COVER - UP

JUNE 1972 DECEMBER 1972

WATERGATE:

THE UNRAVELING OF THE COVER - UP

JANUARY 1973 APRIL 1973

THE PRESIDENT UNDER SIEGE

MAY 1973 JULY 1973

THE FINAL YEAR: THE FALL OF

THE PRESIDENT

JULY 1973 AUGUST 1974

T he logistics of preparing these conversations for publication have been complicated and difficult. There are no transcriptions and the tapes cannot be removed from the National Archives at this time. Professional court reporters and transcribers prepared the initial transcripts. My research assistant and I then listened to the tapes to fill in significant gaps of unintelligibles and to insure accuracy as far as possible. The process of deciphering the tapes is endless. Different ears pick up a once-unintelligible comment, or correct a previous understanding. Such is the nature of the material. I am aware of my responsibility for accuracy, knowing I have compiled a historical record that others will use. Some might find occasional errors in the rendering of particular words, but I am confident that there is no distortion of the thrust or intent of the passages.

I edited the conversations with an eye toward eliminating what I believe insignificant, trivial, or repetitious. I have used ellipses to telescope many conversations and often have omitted dutiful choruses of agreement by those present unless I believed them particularly important. The dialogue of innumerable uses of right, yeah, okay often has been dropped. I have retained many of Nixons phrases to reflect his manner of speaking, such as you get my point and you know what I mean. That is the authentic Nixon, I believe. The uhs and ahs usually have been eliminated, except when I think that they reflect the uncertainty in various voices, particularly Nixons. Unintelligible is used when I think that something important was said, but I could not capture it. Certain bracketed identifying references come from the official logs at the National Archives of the United States.

The rendition of spoken words into written ones has been a special challenge. Others have noted that there is nothing quite like Richard Nixon in his words; to listen to him on tape gives those words an even greater human, dramatic quality. I have tried to capture those qualities as much as possible by using italics, exclamations points, and, sometimes, bracketed phrases to describe emphasis and nuance.

When the first transcripts were published nearly a quarter-century ago, few could comprehend their meaning. Conversations were cryptic and vague, and some of the material was incomprehensible because of the lack of accompanying editorial apparatus. I hope that the headnotes, the identification of the various characters, and other editorial aids in this volume will help the reader.

There are three conversations in this volume that were previously published, and are included here because of their importance: June 23, 1972 (the smoking gun conversation), September 15, 1972 (a meeting with John Dean that gave the lie to Nixons later version of events), and March 21, 1973 (the cancer on the presidency conversation). All three conversations are newly transcribed and edited.