Nixon Presidential Library and Museum to Open Final Installment of Tapes and Additional Textual Materials August 21
Press Release · Monday, August 19, 2013

Yorba Linda, CA… The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, one of thirteen Presidential Libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, will open to the public more than 140,000 pages of textual materials and the last 340 hours of White House Tapes.

WHEN:

WHERE:

White House Tapes

The final installment of 94 Nixon White House Tapes cover the period from April 9 – July 12, 1973. The tapes cover discussions of foreign policy issues including: implementation of the Vietnam peace settlement and the return of Prisoners of War (POWs); tensions over Most Favored Nation tariff status for the Soviet Union; and the historic 1972 “Soviet Summit” between the United States and the USSR. Domestic conversations include presidential appointments and personnel management, energy policy, wage and price controls, campaign finance reform, Wounded Knee, and Watergate.

The tapes also include excerpts from President Nixon’s meetings and calls with Heads of State including Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Giulio Andreotti of Italy, Willy Brandt of Germany and Pierre Trudeau of Canada. The taping system captured the June 1973, Oval Office meeting between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and President Nixon, the only summit meeting ever recorded on an American Presidential taping system.

Notable figures heard on the tapes include White House staff members Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger, and Brent Scowcroft, Cabinet officers William Rogers and George Shultz, and future presidents George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Public figures include Billy Graham; Vera Clemente, the widow of Roberto Clemente; and soccer superstar Pelé.

Textual Materials

More than 30,000 pages of the 140,000 page release are records that were declassified -- in whole or in part – under mandatory review requests from individual researchers and as a consequence of the 25-year systemic review program. They cover national security issues including:  U.S. intelligence analysis of Vietnam; Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker’s negotiations with South Vietnam President Thieu; Henry Kissinger’s meetings with Chinese leaders in advance of President Nixon’s February 1972 trip; and U.S. policy toward Latin America. They also contain some National Security Council files, Kissinger’s office files and transcripts of his telephone conversations, and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board records.

White House Central Files: Staff Member and Office Files
Office files of Special Assistant for Urban Affairs John Price and Staff Assistant Barbara Franklin comprise the bulk of the newly-released textual records. Franklin was hired to recruit qualified women for high-level government positions, and her files outline her efforts. Price’s records include correspondence with Ken Cole and John Ehrlichman on domestic policy and document his work with Daniel Patrick Moynihan on welfare reform and the development of the Family Assistance Plan.

White House Central Files: Name Files
These files hold correspondence from the general public to the White House, and include suggestions, support, and protests on topics including the Vietnam War, the draft, the environment, school desegregation, capital punishment, gun control, inflation, and campus unrest. The files also include correspondence with Lionel Hampton, David Rockefeller, Robert Sargent Shriver, and George Shultz.

# # #

For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300 or the Richard Nixon Library, Archivist Meghan Lee-Parker at 714-983-9120 (for textual materials) or, Tapes Supervisory Archivist Cary McStay at 301-837-3290.

Connect with the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum:
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/NixonPresidentialLibrary
YouTube:  www.youtube.com/user/RichardNixonLibrary

Connect with the Presidential Libraries of the National Archives:
Tumblr:  http://ourpresidents.tumblr.com/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/OurPresidents
Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/ourpresidents

Connect with the National Archives on:
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/@USNatArchives
Facebook:  USNationalArchives
Tumblr:  http://usnatarchives.tumblr.com

13-122