Haldeman Calls Nixon Too Inept to Handle Tapes

While the infamous White House taping system was being planned, President Richard M. Nixon suggested that he have a button for turning it on and off, but he was dissuaded by an aide who says he thought the President was too clumsy and would probably be “shouting” if it wasn’t turned on when he wanted to use it.

Therefore, a voice-activated system was installed and Nixon quickly lost awareness that his every conversation was being recorded, said former White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman in an article for the National Archives publication, Prologue.

The tapes led to Nixon’s resignation in August, 1974, when they provided damning evidence that he had consented to the White House cover-up of the Watergate break-in.

Haldeman said Nixon had resisted the idea of taping conversations but reluctantly agreed that it was the best way to get an accurate record of meetings.

“He suggested we might install the same kind of switch- or button-operated machine that (Lyndon) Johnson had used,” Haldeman wrote. “That would allow him to turn the system on or off as he thought best.

“I responded, ‘Mr. President, you’ll never remember to turn it on except when you don’t want it, and when you do want it you’re always going to be shouting--afterwards, when it’s too late--that no one turned it on.’

“I added, silently, in my own thoughts, that this President was far too inept with machinery ever to make a success of a switch system.”

Haldeman said he eventually talked Nixon out of the idea.