System, was it lucky or inevitable, is this lecture. The whole story of the nixon tapes has been only partially told, taking years to gather and find out what happened. Since it is one of the most important factors in the watergate story, its important to get that history straight. And we are going to try to do that in a very summary fashion. Id like to remind you that other president s did tape, starting with Franklin Roosevelt who used when they first went to talking movies and had a soundtrack, 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. Let me go back. [video clip] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] all right, all right, to give a sample, thats kind of amazing when you think of somebody today, when we have cell phones talking about the breakthrough in that presidency of a walkietalkie that was so heavy they had to carry it on their back. Nixon got the idea of
News special report from that evening, leading into president nixons Oval Office Address to the nation. This is a cbs news special report. Here again is walter cronkite. President nixon makes what it seems will be his last address from the white house. He goes on the air, and it is reported he will announce his resignation as president of the United States. That has seemed to be the fact in the last nine and a half hours at any rate, as he called the Vice President into the oval office for a one hour and 10 minutes have a conversation with him this morning. He reportedly told him he has decided and will announce tonight on his resignation. George herman is at capitol hill for the senate view on the question which now is being asked on whether some sort of immunity might be offered to the president against prosecution for any wrongdoing in the white house during his administration. George . The legal discussion between my colleague dan and fred graham went on with some interest. Up here
Up next on booktv after words with guest host bob woodward of the Washington Post. This week former white House Counsel john dean and his latest book the nixon defense what he knew and when he knew it. In the book the man his congressional testimony led to president nixons resignation presents a more indepth look at the watergate scandal based on newlyreleased audio tapes. This program is about an hour. Host hello. Its great to be here with john dean. I was recalling coming in here today at the studios which are on capitol hill. It was 39 summers ago when you it held the country and the world mesmerized with four days of sworn testimony before the Senate Watergate committee and there has really been no news story like that sense. One of the things that happened when the secret taping system was disclosed in the nixon offices and phones which you didnt know about,. Guest suspected. Host you suspected that you didnt know and in those tapes came out and they vindicated almost 100 exactly
Put on hold by the request of marias mother because of her age, and the two honored that. It was if you read theq letters, youll know that the tone of the letters has the kind of effect of a tutor and a student. Maria had actually been in bohnhoffers confirm make class when she was 12 or 13 and ufailed the confirmation class, and eventually was passed by someone else. And they had very different termerments, very different tastes. He found quite bizarre some of the rather provincial practices of the rural aristocracy that her family maintained, and its impossible to say what would have come of that engagement had he survived the war. I just dont know. This will be the final question. You guys are wonderful. I have one question. What did you think of Adolph Hitler . What did you think of him . What did what did you what did i thick of thick of him . Right. Well, what did i thick i think of him . Yes. Bohnhoffer called him the antichrist without a hint of irony. And bohnhoffer, as you ma
Seems will be his last address from the white house. He goes on the air, and it is reported he will announce his resignation as president of the United States. That has seemed to be the fact in the last nine and a half hours at any rate as he called , the Vice President into the office for a private conversation. He reportedly told him he has decided and will announce tonight on his resignation. George herman is at capitol hill for the senate view on the question which now is being asked on whether some sort of immunity might be offered to the president against prosecution for any wrongdoing in the white house during his administration. George . The legal discussion between and fred graham went down with some interest. Up here, i guess you would have to say it is not viewed so much as a legal question as it is as a political question. I think the members of the senate i talked to were more concerned with what they would call the practical political realities of the situation. Some of t