Nixon Tapes Reveal Internal White House Struggles During Second Term

June 23, 2009— -- Papers and secret audio recordings released today by the Nixon Presidential Library present a complicated picture of Richard Nixon as sharp-witted and paranoid, combative and compassionate, and supporting equal rights for women even as he cynically pushed for the GOP to try to recruit attractive women candidates.

The tapes and papers document a time during Nixon's second term when he faced a rising tide of criticism as more and more of his connection to the Watergate break-in was being revealed and when he was struggling with the war in Vietnam.

More than 150 hours of taped audio, primarily recorded during January and February 1973, were released online. In addition, some 30,000 pages of documents were published at the National Archives in College Park, Md., and the Nixon library in Yorba Linda, Calif.

Taped six months after the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office complex, Nixon was recorded speaking about the brewing scandal that would eventually lead to his political downfall.

"I am not going to comment on the case while it is still in the courts and on appeal, do you get my point?" he said.

Speaking to a press aid, he worked out possible answers to Watergate questions.

"I've already stated that I don't approve of espionage and burglary and all that," he said.

Included with the released documents is an Oct. 21, 1973, handwritten note in which Kenneth Cole, Nixon's domestic policy adviser, outlined a possible strategy to connect with Southern Democrats and GOP lawmakers to quell thoughts of impeachment.