bonus
BONUS: Why Didn't Nixon Destroy the Watergate Tapes?
In this bonus episode, UCL's Professor Iwan Morgan, author of Nixon, discusses why the President refused to destroy the Oval Office tapes - the most incriminating piece of evidence that ultimately led to his resignation from the White House.
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Special guest for this episode:
- Iwan Morgan, an emeritus professor of US Studies at University College London, and an expert on the US Presidency. His most recent books are Reagan: American Icon and FDR: Transforming the Presidency and Renewing America
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Highlights from this episode:
- Nixon's downfall was significantly influenced by his desire to maintain a favorable legacy, which ironically led to his undoing.
- The investigation into Watergate involved many key figures beyond Woodward and Bernstein, including the FBI and Congress.
- Nixon's reluctance to destroy the incriminating tapes stemmed from his aspirations for greatness and historical legacy.
- The role of the FBI in uncovering the Watergate scandal was crucial, as they were pivotal in tracing the hush money involved.
- Deep Throat's identity remained a secret for over thirty years, revealing the complexities of the investigation into Watergate.
- Ultimately, Nixon's actions during the Watergate scandal overshadowed his significant achievements in foreign policy and environmental protection.
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Additional Resources:
Nixon (Reputations Series) by Iwan Morgan
John Dean's Watergate Testimony 50 Years Later | Teaching American History
Burdick v. United States | 236 U.S. 79 (1915) | Justia U.S. Supreme Court Cente
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And if you like this episode, you might also love:
What Was the Constitutional Convention?
Why Does the President Only Serve Two Terms?
Is the President Above the Law?
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of America History, recorded straight after our recently published episode, why did Nixon Resign?
Speaker A:I'm joined now by the guest from that episode, Ewan Morgan from ucl, to discuss this a little more.
Speaker A:Ewan, thanks for hanging on.
Speaker B:Pleasure.
Speaker A:There's a couple of big questions that we didn't actually get around to answering in the main episode, so let's tackle them head on right now.
Speaker A:So you gave us a full timeline of what happened, why he resigned, and the circumstances around that.
Speaker A:But you mentioned these tapes in the Oval Office that recorded everything that happened in the Oval Office.
Speaker A:And there was a big, big legal battle to get those tapes handed over by Nixon.
Speaker A:I guess the question is firstly, who was Nixon hiding all of this from?
Speaker B:Well, the COVID up that is caught on the tapes, the initial cover up is intended to hide the connection between the White House and the burglars.
Speaker B:Now, who is looking into this?
Speaker B:Everybody thinks that it was the David and Goliath story of the two Washington Post reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, against the big bad wolf in the White House, Richard Nixon.
Speaker B:But it wasn't quite as simple as that because the agency that was investigating the Watergate break in because it transgressed federal law was the FBI.
Speaker B:And the whole purpose of the initial cover up was hide it from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Speaker B:Now, what happens very famously is that Woodward and Bernstein, the two reporters who are the first to smell a rat over the Watergate break in, are being fed information by a mole whom they call Deep Throat.
Speaker B:Now, it took 30, more than 30 years before the identity of Deep Throat was revealed.
Speaker B:And who should he be but Associate Director of the FBI Mark Felt.
Speaker B:The FBI smelt the rat and Felt was taking it on himself to feed information to these journalists.
Speaker B: n't reveal his identity until: Speaker B:But that was critical in keeping the investigation going.
Speaker B:And the FBI also was responsible for tracing the money that had found its way to hush money that had found its way in to the Watergate burglars.
Speaker B:When you think about who was responsible for the downfall of Richard Nixon, anybody who's seen the film all the President's Men or read the book would say Bernstein and Woodward.
Speaker B:Well, no, there were many more people involved in it.
Speaker B:The FBI was critical.
Speaker B:John J. Sirica, who handed the Watergate burglars huge prison sentences to force them or to force one or other of them into talking.
Speaker B:He was important, Congress was important in setting up the investigatory machinery of the Senate Select Committee and then the Special Prosecutor.
Speaker B:Both Cox and Jaworski played an important role and the figures in the media were also very important.
Speaker B:So it wasn't just Benson and Woodward as popular history might demand it.
Speaker B:So that's the first thing.
Speaker B:It's also interesting, the question I've always asked myself, why did Nixon not just destroy the tapes?
Speaker B:They were his downfall, that if he'd have destroyed them, there wouldn't have been any evidence against him.
Speaker B:The first thing is Nixon was very reluctant to destroy the tapes because.
Speaker B:Because they were going to be the source for his Churchill style memoirs that he would write after his presidency to extol his greatness as a leader to the world.
Speaker B:And Nixon famously, once famously quoted Churchill and Nixon said, well, you know, Winston Churchill once told a critic, history will treat me well.
Speaker B:And the critic responded, how do you know?
Speaker B:And Churchill then said, because I intend to write it.
Speaker B:And that's what Nixon decided he would do, use his memoirs to protect greatness.
Speaker B:And the tapes were there as a source for it.
Speaker B:Nixon was such a klutz that he couldn't have switched on the taping system himself.
Speaker B:He couldn't even open a bottle of aspirin properly.
Speaker B:And they were voice activated.
Speaker B:That's why the in say, you know, he could have switched them off when the incriminating stuff was being discussed, but he couldn't.
Speaker B:It was voice activated.
Speaker B:Now why didn't they destroy them?
Speaker B:Anybody thinking of tapes will immediately think of cassette sized tapes.
Speaker B:They were huge fools.
Speaker B:Get rid of all the tapes would have required a van to come outside the White House and for trolleys to be a full trolley of tapes to be put on the band to take away.
Speaker B:Nobody was going to do that, to incriminate himself on Richard Nixon's behalf when the tapes became such significant documents in the investigation.
Speaker B:So Nixon was caught out by his own desire to become a great man in history and to use recordings that would eventually undermine his place in history and his concerns about the FBI.
Speaker B:He tried to hide everything from the.
Speaker B:He was trying to prevent the FBI closing in around where the hush money was coming from.
Speaker B:And that's why Mark felt Deep Throat came into play, to feed Bernstein and Woodward little tidbits about what was going on.
Speaker B:Bernstein and Woodward's importance.
Speaker B:They were important, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker B:But their importance was to keep the Watergate boiling in terms of a press story because it had faded quickly after the break in.
Speaker B:And they were the ones who kept plodding away at it and coming up with stuff.
Speaker B:And that is their real significance while everybody Else their attention with was elsewhere.
Speaker B:They kept their focus on Watergate.
Speaker A:It feels from everything that we've.
Speaker A:We've spoken about that when you consider Nixon setting up CREEP in the first place, the COVID up the tapes, then not wanting to destroy the tapes and how he acted throughout this entire thing, it's almost like he was so preoccupied thinking about his legacy that it was this sort of narcissism that was really his undoing and actually destroyed his legacy anyway.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Yes, it is.
Speaker B:Nixon has Shakespearean qualities, There's no doubt about that.
Speaker B:He'd make a fine subject for a Shakespearean play where the great man is undone by his flaws.
Speaker B:And certainly Nixon was.
Speaker B:There is more to Watergate than Richard Nixon, and it would take too long to explain what it was.
Speaker B:But, you know, Nixon is responsible for detente with the Soviet Union, with the opening up of China, for the desegregation of the public schools, however reluctantly he did that, and for being in many ways the first green president, through his cooperation with Congress to establish the Environmental Protection Administration.
Speaker B:If you look at Nixon in the round, there's a lot more to him than Watergate, but Watergate will always be central to the evaluation of, of his presidency and its legacy.
Speaker B: s following the revolution of: Speaker B:Nixon brought it back in and that begins the process by which the China of today emerges.
Speaker B:So that's what Nixon wanted to be remembered for.
Speaker B:But he said, I know I won't be remembered for that.
Speaker B:I will be remembered for Watergate and having resigned the office.
Speaker A:Yeah, and.
Speaker A:And I mean, that's precisely what we're talking about in this episode and in the main one as well.
Speaker A:So he was.
Speaker A:He was correct.
Speaker A:But it's a, it's a good note to end on as well.
Speaker A:So, Ewan, as always, thank you for joining me.
Speaker A:And for those listening to this, if you haven't yet heard the main episode, do go back on the feed and listen now.
Speaker A:And as always, if you enjoy the podcast, do rate review, follow the show and support us if you feel you want to do so.
Speaker A:All the links to everything we discussed in this episode in the moment are in the show notes.
Speaker A:And Ewan, a quick reminder where people can connect with you.
Speaker B:They can email me at I.morgancl.ac.uk.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:And it's a pleasure as always having you on the podcast.
Speaker A:To everyone listening, thank you so much and goodbye.
Speaker B:Thank you.
