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==The Tapes==

==The Tapes==

Nixon was caught by a recording system whose installation he had himself ordered. It transpired during the course of the investigation that all conversations in the President's office had been secretly recorded for years, as an historical record.<ref>Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson also made secret recordings: [http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK+Library+and+Museum/News+and+Press/JFK+Library+and+Museum+to+Host+Presidential+Tapes+Conference+in+February.htm JFK Library and Museum to Host Presidential Tapes Conference], JFK Library, February, 2003</ref> During the investigation the White House was forced to release transcripts of Watergate-related tapes. These transcripts showed that at the very least Nixon was participating in near-daily, ongoing discussions of how to manage the spreading Watergate scandal. Many dubious actions, such as the payment of "hush money" to the defendants, were openly discussed and, seemingly, considered.

Nixon was caught by a recording system whose installation he had himself ordered. It transpired during the course of the investigation that all conversations in the President's office had been secretly recorded for years for historic purposes.<ref>Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson also made secret recordings: [http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK+Library+and+Museum/News+and+Press/JFK+Library+and+Museum+to+Host+Presidential+Tapes+Conference+in+February.htm JFK Library and Museum to Host Presidential Tapes Conference], JFK Library, February, 2003</ref> During the investigation the White House was forced to release transcripts of Watergate-related tapes. These transcripts showed that at the very least Nixon was participating in near-daily, ongoing discussions of how to manage the spreading Watergate scandal. Many dubious actions, such as the payment of "hush money" to the defendants, were openly discussed and, seemingly, considered.

Tension was heightened when a tape with a key conversation, recorded a week after the burglary, turned out to have an eighteen-minute gap. To date the gap has not been explained, nor has anyone managed to recover the erased material. White House chief Alexander Haig provoked derision by a suggestion that the erasure had been caused by "some sinister force." Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods told the press that she could have erased the tape by accident while talking on the phone; when the press asked her to demonstrate, it became clear that this explanation was literally a long stretch.<ref>[http://www.ford.utexas.edu/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/content.php?section=3&page=a&zoom=2  Rosemary Woods demonstrating how she may have erased tape recordings].</ref> Later analysis by acoustics firm Bolt, Baranek and Newman concluded that the gap was the result of at least five separate erasures; since the tape recorder had a two-button interlock to prevent accidental erasure, the conclusion was that it must have been a deliberate action.<ref>[http://foi.missouri.edu/destructiondocs/natarchives.html National Archives Has Given Up on Filling the Nixon Tape Gap], New York Times, 2003</ref> If the conversation had involved Watergate, then it might have proved that Nixon learned of the burglary earlier than he had admitted.

Tension was heightened when a tape with a key conversation, recorded a week after the burglary, turned out to have an eighteen-minute gap. To date the gap has not been explained, nor has anyone managed to recover the erased material. White House chief Alexander Haig provoked derision by a suggestion that the erasure had been caused by "some sinister force." Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods told the press that she could have erased the tape by accident while talking on the phone; when the press asked her to demonstrate, it became clear that this explanation was literally a long stretch.<ref>[http://www.ford.utexas.edu/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/content.php?section=3&page=a&zoom=2  Rosemary Woods demonstrating how she may have erased tape recordings].</ref> Later analysis by acoustics firm Bolt, Baranek and Newman concluded that the gap was the result of at least five separate erasures; since the tape recorder had a two-button interlock to prevent accidental erasure, the conclusion was that it must have been a deliberate action.<ref>[http://foi.missouri.edu/destructiondocs/natarchives.html National Archives Has Given Up on Filling the Nixon Tape Gap], New York Times, 2003</ref> If the conversation had involved Watergate, then it might have proved that Nixon learned of the burglary earlier than he had admitted.