Originally Released By The National Archives in 2002, the Complete Nixon Cabinet Room Tapes Can Be Heard Online For The First Time

For the first time, the recordings from the Nixon White House Cabinet Room are made available to the public in an accessible format. These recordings include every meeting, tour group, briefing, and private conversation that occurred in the Cabinet Room, as captured on the Nixon recording system between February 16, 1971, and July 11, 1973. Remarkably, these audio files were originally released by the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Archives II at College Park, Maryland, in 2002, but were made available to onsite researchers only, and only in analog cassette format. With the assistance of the National Security Archive, these files are now available here, on nixontapes.org, and at the time of the creation of this page, these tapes, in whole or in part, are not available anywhere else outside of the reading room at NARA's Archives II.

What makes the Cabinet Room recordings unique is that the room itself could accommodate more participants than the average meeting recorded on a White House Telephone, in the Lincoln Sitting Room, or in the president's Executive Office Building retreat. Thus, these recordings often captured larger meetings with Congressional leaders, various domestic councils, presidential commissions, task forces, meetings of the National Security Council, an occasional Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting, top secret briefings by Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms, an international summit meeting--such as the U.S.-Soviet meetings during June 1973, and, of course, Cabinet meetings, along with many other types of gatherings. Also, while taping at other White House locations was ended earlier in 1973 by Watergate-era Chief of Staff Al Haig, the Cabinet Room recordings continued until July 1973, even after the revelation of the taping system before the Watergate investigating committee by presidential aide Alexander Butterfield.

Below is a complete list of all Cabinet Room tapes, the range of dates that each tape recorded, a NARA-prepared summary of the conversations contained on the respective tape, and the audio files available for download, free of charge, as a service to researchers and the public. While it will be years more before scholars and researchers transcribe these recordings, this release marks the first time they have been made readily accessible to the public.

Note: there is one conversation summary for each tape reel, e.g. there is one summary for reel 47, which includes tapes 47a and 47b. Likewise, the dates recorded refer to all conversations taped on a reel, e.g. reel 48, which includes tapes 48a and 48b, includes conversations recorded between 2/23/71 and 2/26/71. Also, a "full" tape recorded approximately 2 hours, and the corresponding mp3 size of a full tape is generally between 110 and 115 megabytes. Tapes smaller than 110 to 115 megabytes contain less than two hours of recordings.

Also of interest may be the President's Daily Diary, for:

February 12-28, 1971 (5.2m)

March 1-31, 1971 (8.7m)

April 1-30, 1971 (8.0m)

May 1-15, 1971 (4.7m)

May 16-31, 1971 (4.2m)

June 1-15, 1971 (3.9m)

June 16-30, 1971 (4.4m)

July 1-31, 1971 (8.4m)

August 1-31, 1971 (6.4m)

September 1-20, 1971 (3.9m)

September 21-30, 1971 (3.7m)

October 1-31, 1971 (7.2m)

November 1-30, 1971 (6.8m)

December 1-31, 1971 (8.0m)

January 1-31, 1972 (6.2m)

February 1-16, 1972 (3.4m)

February 17-29, 1972 (9.6m)

March 1-31, 1972 (5.9m)

April 1-30, 1972 (7.7m)

May 1-19, 1972 (4.6m)

May 20-31, 1972 (4.3m)

June 1-30, 1972 (7.1m)

July 1-31, 1972 (6.1m)

August 1-31, 1972 (5.7m)

September 1-21, 1972 (4.8m)

September 22-30, 1972 (4.5m)

October 1-15, 1972 (4.4m)

October 16-31, 1972 (5.3m)

November 1-30, 1972 (5.3m)

December 1-31, 1972 (5.4m)

January 1-31, 1973 (5.3m)

February 1-28, 1973 (6.3m)

March 1-31, 1973 (8.4m)

April 1-30, 1973 (6.2m)

May 1-31, 1973 (7.6m)

June 1-30, 1973 (6.9m)

July 1-31, 1973 (4.6m)

Features*: This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Rather, it meant to serve as a guide for the more frequent types of gatherings in the Cabinet Room that may attract the greatest amount of researcher interest.