PRESIDENT REFUSES TO GIVE UP WATERGATE TAPES
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 4, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon refused to hand over audio tape recordings* that had been subpoenaed by the United States Senate Select Committee investigating the Watergate affair.
Watergate became public with the break-in of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel here in the Nation's capital in the summer of 1972 by members of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP).
Mr. Nixon's decision to not handover the tapes to the Watergate committee has been described as "the beginning of the end" of the Nixon Presidency.
*These recordings were of conversations between Nixon, his advisers, family members and White House staff between 1971 & 1973. A sound-activated recording system was installed in the Oval Office in Feb 1971 & later expanded to other White House rooms & Camp David.
The practice of recording presidential conversations was begun by FDR & continued by other POTUS including JFK. The public learned of the Nixon tapes on July 16, 1973 while watching the televised hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Watergate.
