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Does anyone remember Watergate and the taped conversations that ultimately caused the Nixon resignation?

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  • 3 years ago

    I still remember the day that he resigned, as though it happened yesterday.

    Nixon climbed onto the Presidential helicopter and waved goodbye to Ford and his supporters amongst the crowd.

  • 3 years ago

    I should but don't remember but it's on wikipedia: The Nixon White House tapes are audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff, produced between 1971 and 1973.[1]

    In February 1971, a sound-activated taping system was installed in the Oval Office, including in Nixon's Oval Office 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 Senate Watergate Committee hearings.[3]

    Nixon was not the first president to record his White House conversations; the practice was initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt[4] in 1940.

    The tapes' existence came to light during the Watergate scandal of 1973 and 1974, when the system was mentioned during the televised testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield before the Senate Watergate Committee.[5] Nixon's refusal of a congressional subpoena to release the tapes constituted an article of impeachment against Nixon, and led to his subsequent 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]

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