Nixon Tapes: 1971–1972 (With Audio Clips)

An enhanced edition of this “fascinating” collection of White House transcripts, including audio clips of some of the most newsworthy conversations (San Francisco Chronicle).

This “treasure trove” of transcripts documents two years of Richard Nixon’s presidency and takes you directly inside the White House, through the famous—and infamous—Nixon White House tapes that reveal for the first time the president uncensored, unfiltered, and in his own words (TheBoston Globe).

President Nixon’s voice-activated taping system captured every word spoken in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, other key locations in the White House, and at Camp David—3,700 hours of recordings between 1971 and 1973. Yet less than five percent of those conversations have ever been transcribed and published. Now, thanks to historian Luke Nichter’s massive effort to digitize and transcribe the tapes, the world can finally read an unprecedented account of one of the most important and controversial presidencies in US history.

This volume of The Nixon Tapes offers a selection of fascinating scenes from the period in which Nixon opened relations with China, negotiated the SALT I arms agreement with the Soviet Union, and won a landslide reelection victory. All the while, the growing shadow of Watergate and Nixon’s political downfall crept ever closer. The Nixon Tapes provides a never-before-seen glimpse into a flawed president’s hubris, paranoia, and political genius—“essential for students of the era and fascinating for those who lived it” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).