This series contains sound recordings of meetings held by President Richard Nixon in the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. These recordings document many of the major events and decisions of the Nixon Administration from March 22, 1971 to June 21, 1973 and are commonly labeled the "Nixon Tapes" or "Nixon White House Tapes." The Executive Office Building taping system recorded 5,886 conversations between President Nixon and United States Congressmen and Senators, Cabinet officers, White House aides, foreign leaders and dignitaries, representatives of federal agencies, businessmen, agricultural and industry officials, labor and civil rights leaders, Republican Party leaders, Republican and Democratic legislators, and others. Recording devices also captured the President's interactions with friends and family, journalists, and celebrities. The taping system recorded meetings and telephone calls between President Nixon and such notable foreign dignitaries as President Luis Echeverria Alvarez of Mexico, Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly F. Dobrynin, and Great Britain's Prime Minister Edward Heath. Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders include Hugh Scott, Gerald R. Ford, George H. W. Bush, Allen J. Ellender, J. William Fulbright, John C. Stennis, Margaret Chase Smith, Robert J. Dole, Gordon L. Allott, Peter H. Dominick, George D. Aiken, Robert P. Griffin, Milton R. Young, Robert C. Byrd, Michael J. Mansfield, Thomas Hale Boggs, Leslie C. Arends, Robert T. Stafford, Richard H. Poff, Barber B. Conable, Jr., Robert C. Wilson, H. Allen Smith, William S. Mailliard, Frank T. Bow, F. Edward Hebert, Thomas E. ("Doc") Morgan, Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill, Jr., and George H. Mahon. The EOB recordings also include conversations with White House staff members, such as Chief of Staff H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Chief of Staff Alexander M. Haig, Jr., National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Domestic Policy Advisor and Staff Assistant John Ehrlichman, Special Counsel Charles W. ("Chuck") Colson, Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler, White House Counsel John Dean, and Secretary to the President Rose Mary Woods. United Nations ambassador George H. W. Bush, Secretary of State William Rogers, and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz also appear. Conversations include a wide variety of issues and document the daily routine of the President and his staff. The recordings include discussions on public relations, appointments, ceremonial events, polling information, speeches, the President's schedule, and domestic and foreign policy. In relation to domestic policy, conversations cover a range of issues, including, but not limited to the following: drug and crime policies, welfare reform, the Administration's anti-narcotics efforts, the environment and environmental policy, the Alaska Pipeline, the energy crisis, energy policy, Supersonic Transport funding, development of the space shuttle, railroads, campaign finance reform, and the development of a national cancer policy. The prison riot in Attica, New York and the settlement of the West Coast dock labor strike are also discussed. Topics also include the American Indian Movement and the government's response to the events at Wounded Knee. Many conversations center on economic policy, including Federal and Defense budgets, revenue sharing, wage and price controls, and the Economic Stabilization Act. The President refers to the Supreme Court's 1971 bussing decision and the 1973 decision on abortion rights in Roe v. Wade. There are also several conversations about the President's reaction to the attempted assassination of George Wallace in Maryland, efforts to find out what happened, and Nixon's decision to provide all presidential candidates with security protection. The conversations mention the memorials of Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson. There are many discussions about various presidential appointments, including: Peter G. Peterson as Secretary of Commerce, Richard Kleindienst as Attorney General, George Shultz as Secretary of Treasury, Caspar Weinberger as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Peter M. Flanigan as Director of the Council on International Economic Policy (CIEP), D. Kenneth Rush as Deputy Secretary of Defense, Marina Whitman as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors, L. Patrick Gray as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation following the death of J. Edgar Hoover, and John Connally's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury. There are also discussions regarding Supreme Court nominations as well as J. Edgar Hoover's resignation as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The 1972 Presidential campaign is also discussed, detailing the President's decision to seek re-election and to enter the New Hampshire primary. There are conversations about the various Democratic candidates (Edmund Muskie, George McGovern, and George Wallace); their statements about the President's policies, especially his Vietnam policies; and the primaries. The tapes contain many conversations about President Nixon?s second inauguration, writing his inaugural address, and the events surrounding the occasion, and the issue of reorganizing the executive branch for the second term. This series also documents the Nixon administration's abuse of governmental powers as defined by the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act and its implementing regulations. Main topics include: administration efforts to plant erroneous information in the apartment of Arthur Bremer, who shot Presidential candidate George Wallace, misuse of government agencies, illegal fundraising activities, and discussions of the Watergate break-in and cover-up. Conversations about the misuse of Federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); wiretaps; and the Huston Plan are also contained in this series. Conversations discuss the selling of ambassadorships and other illegal fundraising activities. Other conversations detail deceptive and/or illegal campaign activities, the International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) investigation, and the various Watergate investigations. Many of the 1973 conversations detail the administration's efforts to influence the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. Foreign policy conversations and meetings include in-depth conversations on the Strategic Arms and Limitations Talks (SALT), the President's trip to the People's Republic of China, the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, and the 1973 U.S.-Soviet summit between President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev. Several conversations explore Most Favored Nation (MFN) status for the Soviet Union, the emigration of Soviet Jews, and proposed legislation that would become the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. There are many conversations about the President's policies for Vietnam, including detailed discussions relating to troop deployments, planning, and peace negotiations as well as the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in Operation Lam Son, the re-election of Nguyen Van Thieu as President of South Vietnam, and the Paris Peace Talks with Le Duc Tho. Topics also include prisoners of war (POW) and soldiers deemed missing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam War. Conversations also discuss the ratification of the twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution, the anti-war movement, the 1971 May Day demonstrations, publication of the Pentagon Papers, and the Radford Affair. Other world events, such as the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, the 1973 United Arab Republic (Egypt)-Israel conflict, the United Nations vote to expel the Republic of China (Taiwan) from the United Nations General Assembly, and the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic team members, are discussed in the recordings. Conversations also include the possible impact on United States access to oil produced in the Middle East in the face of tighter controls by the Organization for Oil Producing Countries (OPEC). Such topics as free trade, trade bills, import/export controls, the world economy, the 1973 global monetary crisis, foreign economic and trade policies, foreign aid, Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR) in Europe, the end of the gold standard, and changes in the international monetary system also appear.
