Nixon White House Tapes: January 1973 PODCAST MP3

The Nixon Presidential Library has opened approximately 154 hours of tape recordings from the Nixon White House recorded in January and February 1973 and consisting of approximately 994 conversations. The conversations cover topics such as the conclusion of a peace settlement between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the return of American POWs, President Nixon’s second inauguration, the U.S. and Europe, the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, energy policy, the reorganization of the executive branch, the creation of a “New Majority” for a reinvigorated Republican Party, and the first Watergate trial.

Candid photo of President Nixon at his desk in the Oval Office. Date: June 23, 1972, Roll-Frame number: WHPO C9461(18)

This release comprises conversations involving the President and a variety of participants primarily in January 1973. The most frequent participants are White House staff members H. R. Haldeman, Henry A. Kissinger, Charles W. Colson, Ronald L. Ziegler, John D. Ehrlichman, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Stephen B. Bull, and Richard T. Kennedy.

Others include members of the Cabinet, foreign dignitaries, members of Congress, the President’s friends and family, journalists, celebrities, and members of the White House staff and federal agencies.

While the conversations document the entire scope of issues in which the Nixon White House engaged in early 1973, these conversations particularly concern the peace settlement ending United States involvement in the Vietnam War and the return of American prisoners of war from Southeast Asia. Other major topics include visits from foreign dignitaries for former President Harry S. Truman’s memorial services, maintaining US access to oil produced in the Middle East in the face of tighter controls by the Organization for Oil Producing Countries (OPEC), and the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion rights in Roe v. Wade.

Tape Number	Location	Tape Subject Log	Conversations
36	White House Telephone	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
43	White House Telephone	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
112	Cabinet Room	PDF	not yet online
113	Cabinet Room	PDF	not yet online
160	Camp David Study Table	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
239	Camp David Hard Wire	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
240	Camp David Hard Wire	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
393	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
394	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
395	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
396	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
397	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
398	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
399	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
400	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
401	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
402	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
403	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
404	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
405	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
406	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
407	Old Executive Office Building	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
829	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
830	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
831	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
832	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
833	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
834	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
835	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
836	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
837	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
838	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
839	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
841	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
842	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
843	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
844	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio
845	Oval Office	PDF	Conversation List/Audio

The opening also consists of approximately 10.5 cubic feet of previously restricted materials from the White House Special Files, Staff Member and Office Files; the National Security Files; and the Henry A. Kissinger Files, and 12,000 newly released pages from the White House Central Files, Staff Member and Office Files of Kenneth Cole.

The Nixon Library has scanned and posted 41 documents that represent the variety of subjects and wealth of historical information included in the new textual release.The release includes significant material on the formulation of the Nixon administration’s foreign and domestic policy, covering subjects such as the environment, Title IX, Detente, US-Israeli relations, the standoff at Wounded Knee, the invasion of Cambodia, the so-called Plumbers unit, the Saturday Night Massacre, the geo-political consequences of the opening to China, and the investigation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. View representative documents from the textual collections.