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Nixon Estate Permits Early Release of White House Tape Copies

P.R.Newswire, 4/17/2001 11:03

YORBA LINDA, Calif., April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers will be able to get copies immediately of hundreds of hours of recordings made in President Nixon's White House thanks to a decision announced today by President Nixon's estate.

Under an agreement negotiated in 1996 among the Nixon estate, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and Professor Stanley Kutler, nearly half the tapes have already been opened to scholars and researchers at the NARA facility in College Park, Maryland, which houses the Nixon Project. Opened tapes include the so-called "abuse of power" tapes, those made in the Cabinet Room, and -- by far the largest cache -- those made in the President's offices and on his telephones between February - July 1971 (the first chronological segment) and August 1971 - January 1972 (the second chronological segment).

But until now, even though the tapes had been opened, researchers could only listen to them at the Nixon Project in Maryland. With the exception of the so-called "abuse of power" tapes, opened recordings could not be copied or played outside the NARA facility. Under the 1996 agreement, NARA would have had to wait until January 1, 2003 before any of the chronological segments would have been available for copying.

Thanks to this decision, which the Nixon estate made after consultation with officials at NARA, the Nixon Project can make copies of the Cabinet Room tapes and those from the first two chronological segments available as soon as it wishes. Copies of tapes from the last three chronological segments will be permitted as soon as they are opened.

"History won't fully appreciate the immense accomplishments and equally immense pressures of President Nixon's wartime White House, nor will it understand the way the Vietnam war and the passions it aroused colored virtually every aspect of the President's work, until historians have a chance to study these recordings in detail," said John H. Taylor, Nixon estate co-executor and Nixon Foundation executive director. "We trust that today's decision will encourage that process."

William E. Griffin is also a co-executor of President Nixon's estate. SOURCE Nixon Foundation

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001