Its taken me years to gather and find out what happened. Since its one of the most important factors in the watergate story, i think its important to get that history straight. And were going to try to do that in a very summaried fashion today. Before i start though, i would like to remind you that other president s did tape starting with Franklin Roosevelt who used a when they first went to talky movies and they had a sound track, he had a system that was put in the oval office that recorded. Im going to try a very, very quick sample. Let me go back. A quick sample of roosevelt taping. All right. You get a sample there. Let me give you a thats kind of an amazing when you think somebody today, when we have cell phones talking about the break through in that presidency of a walky talky that was so heavy they had to carry it on their back. Nixon got the idea of taping from lyndon johnson, his immediate predecessor. During the transition between the two presidencies, nixon and johnson met. And he said, i have several of the offices wired for recording, including several telephones. He said, i strongly recommend you do the same. Nixon had exactly the opposite reaction and had them all taken out. This is the first time he had heard of president s recording. So, what were the reasons that he does install . Well, back in the nixon white house, there was as we have discussed in prior lecture a pretty efficient Management System except for those instances like watergate and a few others where the Management System did not come into play. But the Management System on a dally basis was there. When somebody had a meeting with the president and brought a guest in, they prepared a talking paper that went into the president , was approved by haldeman first, then went into the president. And then after the meeting, they were prepared a summary of the meeting. Let me give you a for example. In this particular memo from bud kroeg, Elvis Presley shows up at the northwest gate. I happen to know this because bud called me and said elvis is at the gate and he wants to present the president with a gun. Its a silver gun with ivory handles, but he also wants to talk about Law Enforcement. What should i do . I said have the secret Service Handle it which they did. That meant that talking memo that memo that went into the president mentioned why elvis was there and laid it out in some detail that elvis had sent a letter. I kind of like this letter. If you read it, youll see elvis starts, dear mr. President , i would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley as if anybody in that era would have had any trouble knowing who this was and i admire you and respect the office, have Great Respect for your office. I talked to Vice President agnew in palm springs three weeks ago and expressed concern for the country. So, this is why elvis is comingg in, what he really wants to do is be deputized as a law federal Law Enforcement officer to deal with the drug problem. There is the letter, takes them into the oval office degree he should come in and elvis this is a greeting, and elvis start showing him pictures much of the meeting was recorded. Thats row in the picture there, this is one of the most requested pictures of the nixon administration. Youll notice here has battled which is solid gold, he was also showing the president his gold cuff links. But kroger was not the normal note taker of meetings, and prepared a fairly detailed account of what had happened after the meeting. This actually run several pages, ive clip just one paragraph here that notes that pressley indicated that he thought the beatles had been a real force for any american spirit. This sounds a little bit like competition, he said that the beatles came to the country, made their money and return to england where they promoted an anti american team. The president nodded in agreement and expressed some surprise. This is a good post meeting memo. This became the exception to the rule. No greater offender than Henry Kissinger who fell way behind on his meetings, and the record of it. Hallman noticed it and decided he had to do something about it. He decided were not keeping a good record of this presidency, what nixon wanted was to things. He wanted the historical record of what happened during his presidency, to get a real sense of history. Secondly, he wanted to know if he had said something or given some indication to the guest like, nodding at the beatles were doing something. He wanted a record of that. So somebody couldnt leave the office and say they that he had said something that in fact he did not say. He did not fully agree with elvis in this he just sort of nodded and showed some surprise. So elvis could not with but theyre taking notes go out and say that the president hates the beatles. Because that would have been an untrue statement. So nixon wants to protect himself, thats one of the reasons he has someone in their taking notes, particularly with outsiders. To deal with this problem and the breakdown of this recording system, the paper recording system. Haldimand and nixon discussed lets put the same sort of cyst and in that Lyndon Johnston had, or something similar, and keep our audio record of it. Haldimand calls, an aide he can trust because this will become one of the closely guarded secrets of this presidency. Because at licks butterfield, who is the Deputy Assistant to the president the person whos dealing with the president more than anyone else. Other than haldimand and more face time than haldimand because hes a person who takes documents in and out. Haldimand in return butterfield intern calls the secret service the Technical Services division theyre the people who make sure that no one outside the white house is bugging the white house. Or none of the lines were being bogged, so they had the capability in the understanding. Butterfield has told me over the years when he went to al wong the head of the Technical Services division. Wong said here we go again, that he had been there when all of this had happened in prior presidencies. He knew exactly what it was. What was different however, is that they put in a voice activating system. That annoying video what it means to have hide it a voice activated system, is that anytime nixon spoke, it triggered the recorder. And the way it worked nixon carried a small device on his belt are in his pocket, that indicated his location, it sent out to be. It was really a locators of the secret service knew if he was in a barbershop or in the oval office, or if he gone up to the residents and taken it off. They keyed the taping system to this, to the locator. So that when he was in the room where the typing system was employed, and installed, it would trigger the taping system. In other words, installing it in the oval office as nixon was there, and sent in the cleaning crews there at midnight it wont activate the system. Unless nixon happened to be there with his locator. And its very clear, that nixon and hold him in, haldimand less, forget about the recording system. Theres other times that they clearly remember the recording system, as somebody whos gone through as many as these that i have you could hear when hes trying to make a record. Even with outsiders just insiders. They start in the oval office, here the location of the microphones of the oval office as you can see theres one up here, this is down by the president s feet. You see a couple pictures where the president has a speed up on the desk, the fact that he would often be talking through his legs distorted the sound and one of the reasons its difficult to hear nixon. I tended to sit in this seat by him, my voice must have been ripe beside the microphone because its very clearly picked up. Tended to take that seat haldeman him to, and mp3. Its just bizarre how people would go back to the same places in repeated fashion. So those were the where the mics were located and there were two over here by the fireplace and the lamps. I cannot hear anything from those they tend to make the room sound rather hollow when they picked up. But thats the key system, the next place they put them were in the eco be office, same thing in the desk of the problems earlier i earlier looted to, nobody sat by the desk theres the seating arrangement over here on the far corner so these are some of the most difficult to understand. Some of the best recordings are those on the telephone almost every telephone the president used, except some in the residence that he occasionally would use, but were more often used by the family. They all were wired through the switchboard, theyre very good. This is the one recording device and the residents, in the lincoln sitting room, this Little Princess phone up here is wired because it goes through the central switchboard system. He also had actually three tapes up in camp david, two different telephones, there was one by your sofa another on his desk. And then the rumors recorded, so there were three up there. They were put it in stage is not all at once. The final place that was wired, and some of the most difficult sound because the wiring just didnt work the way was set up, was the cabinet room. This was actually controlled outside the cabinet room by alex butterfield, who had his telephone had a button result in his turning on. And when alex left, it went over to steve bowl, if alex knew he was going to be in the Cabinet Meeting himself for some reason, as the staff secretary, he would have one of the secretaries turn it on. The system starts in february 16 of 1971. That date for some reason is not easily remembered by most people who write about this. Thats when it happened. The first conversation, other than a very general one here, its actually somebody who just walked in the office before alex did. I dont have a number to speak of. The first 4 50 dash one is the First Oval Office test. Yes . Did nixon not have a way inaudible . Had no control over then theyre all voice activated. The question was, was the only way to turn them on nixon had no control over them. As i say at times hes very aware there being recorded, other times he clearly has forgotten. Anyways the first conversation this was surely explain to nixon, he tells the operation the purpose of it. The fact that the cabinet room is controlled by butterfield, the fact is being monitored. Who knows haldeman, the president , the secret service. Under haldimand also, higbie in butterfield. Higbie because he carried massive just back and forth. The recordings were being made on a sony recording system, thats what the system look like. At one point they had up to nine of these machines that were gathering information. They were gathered on very thin tape, half a millimeter. And it played at the slowest speed possible, 15 16 per inch inch per second on the six inch well. This translated into about six hours per real, one of the reasons the sound quality is so bad is because of the fact that it was played so slowly. In addition, the fact it was voiceactivated creates what they call tape whip, tape whip. Where the machine starts, it jerks at the stark, and that leaves a kind of blurry sound, audio sound that sometimes starts at the beginning of a conversation. So technically its not very sophisticated, but it lasted for many many years until anyone got any serious about listening to them. Ironically, by april 9th of 1973, nixon is talking about taking the system out. There is a taped conversation that i have in the text, the nixon defends. If you look at april nine, what he says and there he says. You know with regards to recording whats going on here in the room, i feel uneasy about that. Not an easy in terms of anybody else seeing it, because will controlled it. But an easy because of the fact that is even being done. This results in a 20 minute conversation, which i have seriously summarized here. But what he comes down on is, what i would like to do is destroyed them, in essence take them all out. Take what weve got and get rid of them. As the conversation goes on, haldeman argues with him that there might be some valuable material that here, something to do with foreign affairs. But he doesnt disagree with it that was known before i did the nixon defends. But i found another conversation where this comes up. And its on april 18th, lets listen to this. I asked you to get rid of all these tapes. Haldeman never did do that as best i can figure the reason he doesnt do anything is that he become so consumed by watergate that he absolutely doesnt have time to do it, he never on record reports back to nixon hasnt been done. And so they will stay in place and continue playing until they are revealed by butterfield, as we discussed earlier. And that happens on june 18th, is when the system is shut down. There are approximately 4000 hours, many of them are classified. I think that the official number by the archives is 3700 hours. Here is often i twisting sheet that are used at the time i was working on the book. It was released in october, of 2010. But it just shows how its interesting to see where the conversations war. This is the white house telephone, this is the cabinet room, this is camp david telephone. This is the second camp david telephone, this is called the hard wire, which covers the room in camp david or the large. This is the bureau be office, this is the oval office. Most of the conversations take place in the oval office this, and the eco be telephone. The cabinet room there all a lot of tapes, but the quality is so bad there barely discernible. But thats just kind of the great part of those that were not released yet by the time i had started on the project, resulted in finding 1000 conversations. 600 of which have never been previously released. So how was this system uncovered . How did we learn about this system . It really starts right here. But at the tape does exist, and its a complete transcript of the entire conversation that took place in the president s office, i think this committee should have that tape because i believe it would corroborate many of the things this committee has asked me. This concludes our rather lengthily statement. I apologize again, but i sought to comply with the committees requests to provide the committee with a broad overview of my knowledge on this matter. Also, there were a number of people who raised the fact that i thought i had been taped and crossexamination. Sam dash in this clip right here, why i was focusing on april 15th. Some of this is slightly repeated, i just want to make the point is. Nixon had said after we met on april 15th, that he had a tape of me claiming i had immunity. He clearly misunderstood what i was saying, when i said i would be formally in unionized by prosecutors to talk to them off the record what was going on. I was very open with my colleagues about all these things, and he just misunderstands it and tells peterson in a phone call, that he thinks he says im claiming ive been immunized, well i never made such a claim. Its just a fundamental misunderstanding, the whole word and buzz gets out and peterson starts raising my lawyer. The dean said he thinks he has immunity, that doesnt happen. Charlie my lawyer size, he doesnt think he has immunity. He has exactly what he was given, it was informal immunity to discuss this off the record basis with the prosecutors. So here is that point coming up and crossexamination. I think you testified and you may have given us information on this, did you believe that april 15th meeting with the president was taped . And you are being asked leading questions. Here i asked the white house if you are taped. I raised with my lawyer and i dont know what the he raised this with the prosecutors or not. But after i was told that i had been taped who told you mr. . My lawyer told me, that he had received word from the prosecutors that i had been taped. And i thought there was only one occasion where that have occurred were i was aware of, that i had a direct conversation with the president. Because all the circumstances seem to indicate that. And that was on this april 15th meeting. I dont know whether for a fact whether i was are not taped, it may suggest that the government will want to listen to that tape. Because if they listen dont have an idea of the dimensions of what was involved. The people who got on this issue were sam dash and Fred Thompson, Fred Thompson representing the minority. And at the request of howard baker. In fact the minority was somewhat more aggressive than the majority. But yet, that is Fred Thompson who passed away recently. Who if you didnt recognize him in his earlier incarnation as a staffer in the senate, and then leader u. S. Senator. Would have sold you a reverse mortgage. For many years. Scott armstrong, who did work for sam dash was probably the most aggressive, not knowing exactly what hes looking for. But im convinced that will ultimately run into it one way or the other. The person who asked the direct question is don sanders, who works for the minority of lawyers. And they will ask alex butterfield, to give you a little background of how that all happened, there was a memo sent to Fred Thompson from buzz hart. Buzz hart being the one half of my replacement as white House Counsel who handle nothing but watergate after i departed the white house. There was a document prepared there was pretty close to a transcript and a summary of all my conversations with nixon that was given to friend thompson by buzz hart it was remarkably accurate it goes on for several pages. This is what makes Scott Armstrong wonder where could this information have come from. So this will i think, a combination of things, theyre sort of a confluence in watergate constantly. The results in the Senate Watergate committee, uncovering the typing system. Here is a recap in the summary form. Being recalled i was a systems analyst among other things, i made an Organization Chart for the white house. And the question was, heres nixon, heres dean, we already knew from john that he didnt have notes. So there wasnt going to be paper documentation, so we had to figure out who else would know so. We made a satellite chart of all the people who are in touch with nixon and the team, and in the middle of this, literally here is dean up here. And you looked at this flow chart, effectively were information floored. There was the office of the president and there was this guy who controlled everything in and out of the president s office. Would be butterfield. Once you get alex and hear what happens . Its friday the 13th and we met in the air conditioned basement of the Senate Office building. Alexander butterfield walks and, hes not accompanied by counsel which is very rare. And then at the end of it i took out this bizarre thompson memo. I took off the front part and indicated exactly what it was, and gave him the part that describe the meetings. A summary of a transcript, but it was in a sense everything had a twist deans testimony had been. It was prepared before deans testimony. But it always had this twisted dean was the one responsible for whatever the evil act was at the end, if there was afraid to come out. I handed it to alex and said can you explain given the system you just described, how this would be reconstructed . Where is it from . And we went through all the different things, my recollection is that alex took it and looked at it. Hes been very straightforward, he continued. He said and i asked a couple questions could this have come from the president s recollection. No too detailed for that. This had come from somebody else being president at the meeting, know john would have been the only note taker. And so we went on like this, and i was like where this comes from. Alex took it and very deliberately, took it and said it down in front of himself and said well let me think about that for a minute. The questioning went off i finished up the questioning by sanders really skilled fbi agent. One other aspect i want back later and looked at the stenographers notes, and this is what she has done memory is what it is. She was just taking notes, sanders asked a number of different questions about different things. And he asked questions jumped around a bit, and then he asked the question, when dean testified, he said that at one point in one of the meetings, nixon went over to the corner of his eob office and lowered his voice when he was talking about the clemency questions i had the impression that it might have been money conversations. But at any rate, sanders said he thought the president lowered his voice and wondered, even speculated, that the president the conversations might have been recorded. Did he know what he was talking about, i forgot the exact language. And alex his answer was no. Dean would not have known. There were very few of us that new, but thats where this came from and picked up the thing. The way it affected me was, i thought he was answering my question whether until i looked at the transcript later. As soon as we heard that, this little tangle in the response, because we ask him the nature of the system. The only thing i remember differently, from what scott has had said. I remember getting that piece of paper early on shortly after 2 00 in that four hour session with the stuff. Scott was the lead investigator, i remember it is only one sheet of paper. And when they said were might this have come from, i looked at this thing, and it was in fact it looked exactly like a transcript, verbatim transcript. It had a peep prefers it in, a diversion. And it made sense i didnt follow the discussion, i thought to myself its out. This had to come from the tapes, the very thing im wearing so much about. I hand gee this looks very detailed. The president had great retentive powers, but this is too detailed for that. Anyway, i had said finally i sort of panicked, i threw it back down, it slipped out to the center of this little conference table. And i said let me think about that for a while, to migrate relieve they went on to other items. Until sanders, who until scott turned it over to sanders, representing Fred Thompson. He was the minority as i had said to my wife and breakfast that morning, i guess if they ask me i direct question, i will just have to answer. And i knew it would be the end of my career. But the question then became how do we get this to material quickly. He told us who else knew about it, how it was organized and run and we had to get to it from my point of view, before it was destroyed. We had to do something to nail it down. Anyway thats about 40 minutes boiled down to eight. What happens next is, after he has slams full attention, he says i cant do it tonight but were going to deal with it in the morning. This is friday afternoon friday evening, the 13th. Friday the 13th. Sam says the next morning, he has all of his staff in, weve got to get a hold of john dean because hes our key witness. What if everything hes told us we built this whole case on, and this is all a setup thats why butterfield is up here, in fact he finally revealed this record astounding piece of information. So sam dash, he would normally call my lawyer he called me directly, he was able to get in touch with me because he knew i was in the witness protection program. So few marshals he tracked me down, to marathon, florida, where i was staying in a friends house on a rather deserted beach. Lowering my profile as much as possible after 80 million americans were watching a week of the testimony. Sam says, you have to return, the marshals will get you back up to your house and i need to meet with you on sunday at the latest. Theres something i cant tell you about. I thought that was mysterious. But he said ive known sign for many years, long before watergate and i trusted him. So i said okay all come. The next sunday i would meet with him at my house an old town, the marshals would have no trouble arranging the travel as they were able to do for people in the witness protection program. They accompanied up there and got me when sam came out he would be accompanied by jim hamilton, who was one of his key lawyers. So in assembling this program, ive got of hold of jim handle meant to ask if he ever really discuss this issue. This is a matter of fact i have a video i did in the howard baker room of the university of tennessee. Ill be happy to send you a transcript, or video of it. So heres a little clip from what happened, Jim Hamiltons recollection of these events. When sam called me early saturday morning, july 14th. He said, lets go tell john dean what we just learned. A little later sam pickmeup, and we drove to deans town house in alexandria, virginia. John and his glamorous wife, they always well put together. Met us at the front door, and john had a quizzical look on his face because he didnt yet know what the purpose of the visit was. So we went upstairs to the living room, and john and both sat on a couch, and after some preliminary conversation, sam sat down to the left and i stood before john by the mantle piece. Where i could look directly at john, because i wanted to see jons reaction when sam told him what we had nailed him about the taping system. When sam finally did john broke into a wide smile. Four he knew that the tapes essentially were going to confer his damning testimony about president nixon. As john recount and his book he then said to sam. Sam do you know what this means if you get those conversations . It would mean my is not hanging out there all alone it it means you can verify my testimony. And ill tell you this, you will find out that i under testified rather than over testify just to be careful. On monday morning, the next monday morning july 16th, irwin baker dash and thomas met. And they decided to put butterfield understand that afternoon. On the stand. I was dispatched to someone butterfield hearings but i told butterfield that his presence was required that afternoon, he was not happy. Indeed he refused to appear he said that he was preparing to a trip to russia the next day, on business. It was just too busy to attend hearings i relayed butterfields response to senator irwin. He grew agitated his famous eyebrows contorted, his jaw turned and finally he said to me. Jim you tell mr. Butterfield that if hes not here this afternoon i will send the Senate Sergeant at arms out to fetishism and bring him to the hearing. Which, having located him in a barber chair, i did faithfully. This message changed his mind, and later that afternoon butterfield now quite contrite and deeply coif to arrived at the senate laughs . At the senate to give his electrifying testimony, the subpoena i served on butterfield still hangs in my office. The interesting and i think very clever decision that the democrats made, was rather than for sam dash to ask this question a butterfield, because it had been uncovered by john sanders who work for the minority and the republicans. They would have the republicans as butterfield requested, since john sanders had discovered this. In other words, to have Fred Thompson place the questions, this gave it a little different feel with the republicans uncovering this incredible bit of information. In the clip that follows, i believe you can see howard baker on the far side of the screen. He looks like hes ill after having found this information out. January 21st 1969, continue to be employed until march 14th of this year is that correct . Thats correct. Mr. Butterfield are you aware of any listening devices in the oval office of the president . I was aware of listening devices yes sir. When were those devices placed in the oval office . Approximately the summer of 1970. I cannot begin to recall the precise date. My guess mr. Thompson is that the installation was made between, and this is a very rough guess, april or may of 1970. And perhaps the end of the summer or early fall in 1970. Were you aware of any devices that were installed in the executive office . Yes or. At that time. Were they installed at the same time . They were installed at the same time. Actually the dates are little bit wrong, if you recall i showed you, february 16 of 71 is when the system was put in the oval office, next was a cabinet room, a little bit later after after that was the eob office. On hamiltons recollection of his meetings with me, hes nailed it hes right on. Showing the kind of tricks that memory can play, he vividly remembers my wife being there, she was not there. She remained in marathon, florida, but thats the sort of thing and then we can do. It was just myself, and then i actually return to marathon as soon as the meeting with some dash ended. Needless to stay, the fact the taping system had been uncovered was quickly conveyed to the white house. Fred thompson called fred buzz hard to let him know, found him not overly concerned, i think buzz hart had figured it out by then that the worst such a system. Because he had made the memo that was sent to thompson. So closely had the notes of my conversation today i know and you know as youve been reading the book that what happened is. Nixon himself listened to his conversations with me most of them he never listen, until years after the fact of the march 21st conversation. But he listens to the earlier conversations, because he said his defense on no information between march 21. About a coverup, so he listens to the earlier conversations to hear if theres anything in there that put the lie to the his defense. Its marginal, you could argue either way on some of the conversations. Its clear today, we know that he knew about the coverup before i came in to tell him. But then it was not quite so clear. So hes confronted with the question of what to do with the tapes once they have been revealed. Land garman, is one of the people who became white House Counsel, and the other was buzhardt. The two of them had the job together. Garment tended to handle the want non watergate matters with buzhardt handling the watergate matters. He had a long relationship to him, the man who prepared him when he gave his one argument before the Supreme Court. When he was still in private practice before he had been elected. He was a good trial lawyer buzhardt had been the general counsel of the defense department, had come from capitol here where he worked for a number of prominent and powerful senators. When addressing the question of whether nixon should destroy his tapes, lenghi armen had sent one of his assistance to the law library at the department of justice. And found the case was pretty much on point that showed if somebody destroyed evidence, that they knew would likely be subpoenaed, it was obstruction of justice. Buzhardt however, when they went out to visit nixon, who is in the naval hospital, which this is the picture of. He argues to the contrary, he says he has a case that shows that since they have not been subpoenaed, there is no obstruction of justice. Over four decades, ive never found buzhardt case. So im not quite sure what he was referring to, i have found carmens case nixon decides he doesnt want to hear about, it. By this starts the fight for the tapes. This is really where nixons defensive ends, and the rest of summary. Because once the tapes are discovered within days al hague who is now the chief of staff, having replaced alderman. He literally gives an order without the president s consent to stop the taping system, so the plug is pulled on july 18th. And that is the last conversation, or that is the last day that the system was manned. Hague knew that there was something. He thought it was controllable by nixon and thats why he had tapes that nixon had the foresight to somehow warn people when he learned it was voice activated he was dumbfounded because he knew he was on the tapes as well at that point. Which made him very unhappy. I think thats when the plug was pulled when he learned that he was voice activated. The Senate Committee immediately sends a subpoena for the tapes, and they want them. And it becomes the focus of watergate for the rest of the story. It is really the fight for the tapes. Ironically, the judge, the first to rule on this denies the senate the tapes. Says they dont have the standing to sue. It is a pivotal question, and he passes on it. However, archibald had also fired a subpoena and he said it was intent on behalf of the grand jury. Its an interesting breakdown, where the judges clearly protecting the court system. The grand jury is part of the court system, its under the jurisdiction of the chief judge, which he was. He said i will im not getting them to the Senate Committee, we will take it through the judicial process on behalf of the courts in the grand jury. So cox wins his argument that the grand jury should get them. By october of 1973, although there are earlier indications, nixon initially, was caught, he was appointed special prosecutor, he thought it was a great idea. He thought that cox was weak and didnt pursue him all the way. He was happy about him getting this appointment. As cox keeps pushing for the tapes he makes noises that they should get rid of him. He comes up with an idea after says hes entitled to the tapes which would be a middling deal. He says i will make arrangements for senator john, former judge, someone at the senate at the time that he can listen to the tapes, mate transcripts of the tapes and give them to cox. And that is what he wants cox to accept. Theres a real flaw, a couple flaws to this plan. First of all, it was wellknown that john stennis was almost deaf. A little problem to listen to these very difficult to hear tapes. And even more important force than is to make a record of them and passed them on to a special prosecutor, they were useless to the prosecutor because they were hearsay at that point. They were not the teams themselves. They were a version of what stennis had heard or not heard and passed on. Not admissible in evidence probably. As a result, cox decides to hold a press conference. At the press club, on a saturday, in october. And he says to the press, i am not going to accept the senate compromise, it is unacceptable, and he explained the reasons why he couldnt accept it. It was really kind of cox, was a mild mannered for a retiring personality, he became a National Figure as a result of this. When nixon heres this, he gives orders to fire cox, but he is a part of the executive branch, special proxy cuter, hes been appointed by the department of justice under the authority of the attorney general. What has happened, the reason we even have a special prosecutor is because when the winds left, there was a vacancy to get Elliott Richardson appointed attorney general he had to make a deal with the Senate Committee that he would appoint a special prosecutor. And he lays out all the criteria when he becomes attorney general. Pledges to them that he will honor this agreement if he becomes attorney general. So when elliott was told to fire cox he says i cant do it. Im going to resign, so he says lets call his deputy reckless house and have him do it. He says i will resign to, i want to it as a matter of principle. The next person in line at the department of justice is robert pork work will follow the order and fire cups. He will be labeled forever for doing that. What people have missed, that only chaos could ensue if he didnt act because after you leave the third man in charge of the department of justice its any mans pet who has the authority. The damage or could say hes detecting attorney general. Its a unclear situation, so they put a lot of pressure on board to do it, and he did it. It would cost him a seat on the Supreme Court leader and reagan nominated him because of hard feelings that would continue amongst democrats for decades about his action in firing cox. Here is a clip of what happened the night that cox was fired. All the networks, i happen to be watching television and learned about it that night. I had just pled guilty a few days earlier thinking that cox was going to do this right, and i had agreed to cooperate with him and proceed according lee. So im was stunned when this occurred and i was able to locate that clip. Nelson at the white house, president nixon has discharged Archibald Cox as watergate prosecutor and has a published the special prosecution office, as a result of prosecutor cox being discharged attorney general Elliott Richardson has resigned his post as attorney general and when Deputy Attorney general refused to create orders from the president he was discharged as a Deputy Attorney general. The acting attorney general now will be solicitor general who informs special prosecutor cox that he has been discharged. All this happened after a day in which special prosecutor cox has said that he could not carry at the provisions of a new position that the president took on those watergate tapes which prosecutor cops was trying to Watergate Committee was targeted for its hearings. Repeating Deputy Attorney general william has been discharged by the president. The president attorney general has resigned all of this following the discharge of the Watergate Special prosecutor. Archibald cox. This is nelson vented at the white house, this is has been a bulletin from cbs ruse. All of the announcements were pretty breathless like this. You can tell everyone was shocked, surprised, gasping and it was a stunning event. The next days headlines you can see, we are believed that nixon had forced the firing of cox. This is why it was called this saturday saturday night massacre. Which become the moniker for events that weekend, as a result, on monday, everything really changed. 44 watergate resolutions and bills were introduced on monday the 23rd. 32 of them called for impeachment proceedings. 12 of them called for the appointment of a special prosecutor. The congress had really done nothing on impeachment until this moment. This was one of those pivot points in this story. As a result of all of this, the white house is pretty shocked they did not foresee why i dont know, it was pretty predictable. Nixon decides on monday, the 23rd, that hes going to give circa nine of the subpoenaed tapes. Eight of which are with me the other one is the june 20th conversation, which will later learned had the 18 and a half minute gap. He also decides that he will select a new special prosecutor. Leondra or ski, which was i think he felt a safe selection as i alluded to before we listen to the march 21st conversation. Because that conversation would so change jaworskis view. On november 17th, nixon decided the press was getting so out of hand, that he had to try to calm the situation. He was agreeing now to turn the tapes over, and he was going to turn allude new leaf and lower the temperature by explaining what he was doing so he met with an association of news editors at all places, disney world. Heres the clip that is most memorable. I want to say this to the television audience, i made my mistakes. But in all of my years of public life, i have never profited, never profited from public service. I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, i have never obstructed justice and i think two that i could say, that in my years of public life, that i welcome this kind of examination. Because people have to know whether the president s a crook. Well im not a crook. Ive earned everything ive got. President fairly interesting body language there anyway, the plan is he was really setting up the fact that he was going to start releasing tapes. So what happens when it comes time to release the tapes . They have to go to judge circa, and tell the judge theres an 18 and a half minute gap in the june conversation. This again, a whole new round of headlines. Disposing the gap i think that her block, who is not richer nations favorite cartoons on the Washington Post captured a lot of the mood at the moment. In this particular cartoon. Again, nixon fought for a while until he realized when the House Judiciary Committee which had by then have gone very serious about impeachment proceedings. And undertaken them, sent a subpoena, that they did have jurisdiction if anybody at all had jurisdiction to get these tapes, the nixon had no defense against. Its the body who had exclusive jurisdiction to investigate potential wrongdoing by president , leading the head of the judiciary committee. So he decides to release the tapes, this is a very staged event, you see the stack of books here. Some of these only had two or three conversations, you get a little peek inside their. It didnt begin to fill, but this was done for the theater to give the impression that literally stacks of books of tapes were being released. The actual book itself was about two and a half, maybe three inches when they were all printed on both sides and released. Here is nixons statement. Good evening, i have asked for this time in order to announce my answer. To the House Judiciary Committee subpoena for additional watergate tapes. And to tell you something about the actions i should be taking tomorrow. These actions will not last, once and for all, show that what i knew and what i did, with regards to the watergate break in and cover up, were just i had describe them to you from the very beginning. The fbi in the Justice Department were used to investigate the incident thoroughly. For nine months, until march 1973, i was assured by those charged with conducting and monitoring the investigation that no one in the white house was involved. As far as what the president personally knew ended with the regards to watergate, and the coverup is concerned, these materials together with those already made available, will tell it all. Ever since the existence of the white house taping system was first made known last summer, i have tried vigorously to guard the privacy of the tapes. Ive been well aware that my effort to perform protect the confidentiality our president ial conversations, has a sense of mystery about watergate. And in fact, that has caused increased suspicions of the president. The basic question of issue today, is whether the president personally acted improperly in the watergate. Month after month of rumor, insinuation, and charges by just one watergate witness john dean. Suggested that the president did act improperly, this sparked the demands for an impeachment. This is the question that must be answered, and this is the question that will be answered by these transcripts that i have ordered published tomorrow. Despite the confusion and contradictions, what does come through clearly is this. John dean charge and sworn senate testimony, that i was fully aware of the coverup, at the time of our first meeting. On september 15th. 1972 these transcripts show clearly that i first learned that when mr. Dean himself told me about in this office on march 21st. Some six months later. Well it didnt quite work out that way. Fortunately he wasnt going to take a pass on scene the tapes, he not only read what he read including the fact that the transcripts were less than accurate. The House Judiciary Commission had a very interesting approach to how read transcript were prepared. He called in people who were blind and used them to make transcripts because they had more sensitive hearing, and came with many many improvement in the tape. So they put out a document that showed tremendous gaps in what nixon had actually put in his transcripts, but it was the jaworski case that went on to the Supreme Court for 64 additional supreme conversations that would really cause the problems for nixon because that would reach for tapes lake on june 25th, where nixon orders the cia, cut off the fbi, indeed that tape alone would put the lie to nixons defense. So after 25 months of coverup, it ended. When nixon was told by the Supreme Court, eight to zero that he had to release the tapes. It was eight zero rather than nine to zero because rehnquist was the justice who recused himself because of his relationship with john. Mitchell thinking he was too close to it. That in would result within days of nixons resignation. He would lose the support of a handful of republicans on the committee who had not voted for impeachment. It would become unanimous of the house there be impeachment. When senators goldwater and the other leaders of the Republican Party and the senate went down to advise the president of what the temperature was in the senate, goldwater said he could not find one vote for nixon, including his own. If it went over to the senate. Nixon resigned on the ninth he, i think theyll when he called his staff in the next morning as he was leaving, he got it. He understood, if any moment, what had gone wrong. I think this clip kind of captures it. noise its only the beginning, always. The young must know it, the old must know it, it must always sustain us because the greatness comes not when things always go good for you but the greatest comes when you are really tested. When you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if youve been in the deepest valley can you know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. And so i say to you on this occasion we leave. For the people have served this country, we want you to be proud of what weve done. We want you to serve in government if that is your wish. Always give your best, never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may he to, but those who hate you dont win unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself. And so, we leave with high hopes, in bid spirit, and with deep humility. Thank you very much. That however was not the end of the story. The next month, haldimand, or look men, mitchell, and several others would go on trial for the coverup. That trial would last until january one of the next year when the jury would return its verdict, convicting mitchell hall, it did acquit one of the lawyers from the reelection committee. A brilliant defensive not saying anything, and sting in the corner of the courtroom were almost he was overlooked. But like in nixons resignations, the tapes played a major role in the conviction of discovery and production of the tapes was to me inevitable to answer the question, just to many people knew about it. Sooner or later they would stumble into, it one way or another. On that note, lets and this class. Thank you. applause weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan 3. The u. S. Capital has been home to the house and senate since 1800, but its their home districts and states that sent members to washington d. C. Today she spent cities tort takes a look at pivotal politicians as we travel the nation in search of their stories. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern. Enjoy American History tv this weekend every weekend on cspan three. Next on lectures in history. University of texas and austin professor,