Richard M. Nixon: Smoking Gun Tape

Audience

The Smoking Gun Tape was intended for only two men: Nixon and Haldeman. A record of this private conversation exists only because Nixon installed a voice-activated system to record conversations in the Oval Office. The taping system remained a secret until the White House aide Alexander Butterfield revealed its existence on July 13, 1973, during the Senate Watergate investigation. The tape recording was not heard by individuals outside Nixon's private circle of advisers until the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the president on July 24, 1974, to turn over sixty-four White House tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.