Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words 2014

On Aug. 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign from office. From 1971 to 1973, he secretly recorded his private conversations, reportedly to keep a historical record, but the existence of these 3,700 hours of tapes would eventually topple his presidency. After leaving office, he sought to prevent their public release for the rest of his life, a move that underscored the gravity of the tapes’ content. Yet in the years following his death in 1994, the government began releasing the recordings, gradually lifting the veil on a presidency defined by secrecy and controversy. The final tapes were made public on Aug. 20, 2013, closing a chapter that had haunted American politics for decades.

In 1982, John Ehrlichman voiced a concern that history might misread a single hour of tape in isolation. “The problem is that historians are going to grab an hour of tape—and if you listen to a snippet of tape, you’re going to form an impression of this man that’s going to be wrong. Sometime, hopefully, there will be a committee of historians who will listen to all the tapes and go into all the archives and then come out and say Richard Nixon was the strangest collection, the strangest paradoxical combination of any man I ever heard of. And they’ll be right.” Only a handful of insiders knew of the recordings: [H.R. Haldeman], the Chief of Staff; [Alexander Butterfield], the Deputy Assistant; and [Stephen Bull], a Special Assistant, all of whom were aware that the conversations were being recorded. Those who did not know included other key figures such as Henry Kissinger, John Mitchell, and Secretary of State William Rogers, among others, highlighting the breadth of the administration’s compartmentalization and the risk of uncontrolled leaks.

The declassified tapes reveal Nixon’s opinions on a wide range of topics, from the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers leak to his Supreme Court appointments and broader state matters. In private discussions with [Henry Kissinger], Nixon disparaged anti-war protesters, telling a confidant it “really burns me up.” He even directed harsh words toward the young Vietnam veteran [John Kerry], calling him “quite a phony,” a remark that would later complicate perceptions of his presidency. He also insisted that despite growing anti-war sentiment in Congress and among the media, that sentiment did not reflect “the voice of America” and instead argued for the notion of a “silent majority.”

The tapes also betray a deep tension with the press. After the New York Times published thousands of secret Pentagon documents detailing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Nixon’s reaction was fiery: “This is treasonable action on the part of the bastards that put it out,” he exclaimed to Kissinger. Daniel Ellsberg, the source of the Pentagon Papers, became a frequent target of Nixon’s derision and even anti-Semitic outbursts; in one personal remark, he referred to “The Jews” as “born spies.” The tone of these exchanges reveals a president who believed that the press posed an existential threat to his agenda and legacy, and who urged colleagues to undermine media credibility at every turn.

On the topic of a potential Supreme Court lineup, Nixon discussed candidates with internal confidence and privately admitted reservations about pursuing “the woman kick,” a remark attributed to his discussions with [John Mitchell], though the public record shows he occasionally highlighted women nominees such as Mildred Lillie and Sylvia Bacon. In other moments, Nixon boasted that the appointment of Supreme Court justices was among his most significant domestic achievements, even as his international diplomacy—most notably his famed 1972 visit to China and subsequent arms-control talks—figured as major foreign policy milestones.

The crowds of tapes also capture the tense atmosphere around the press and political accountability. “The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy,” Nixon can be heard saying in one private moment, a line that has reverberated through decades of media analysis and presidential history. After the Watergate break-in, Nixon discussed with [H.R. Haldeman] the possibility of bailing out the five burglars, remarking, “Well, they took a hell of a risk. And they have to be paid.” Later, he confided in Pat Buchanan, a trusted speechwriter, that “The Watergate thing… well, that’s going to pass. They’ll indict a few people, and then the goddamn thing’s over,” illustrating a propensity to minimize the scandal’s significance in real time.

Even as Nixon achieved electoral success and asserted that he had secured “peace with honor” in Vietnam, Watergate would endure as an enduring stain. The Senate Watergate hearings brought further revelations: at the July 16, 1973 hearing, [Alexander Butterfield] revealed the existence of the president’s secret electronic listening devices, a disclosure that underscored the depth of the White House’s surveillance and the erosion of trust between the executive branch and Congress. Facing the likelihood of impeachment, [Richard Nixon] ultimately resigned, ending a presidency defined by tapes, secrecy, and an enduring confrontation with the limits of presidential power.

This documentary presents a measured, balanced view of a presidency that shaped American political culture. It juxtaposes private bravado with public consequences, showing how a web of recordings, loyalties, and political calculations can alter a nation’s trajectory. The story is not just about a single man or a single scandal; it is about how power, the press, and historical memory intersect—and how, in the end, the truth emerged through a process that kept turning over the same damning questions, even as the chapters closed.