WI Nixon Has A Toggle Switch For His Taping System?

According to Curt Gentry in J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, Nixon did not have a toggle switch on his taping system.
1.PNG
 
He had a voice activated system because he was too uncoordinated to operate the switch or least that is how I remember at the time of the discovery that there was a taping system in the Oval Office.
 
He had a voice activated system because he was too uncoordinated to operate the switch or least that is how I remember at the time of the discovery that there was a taping system in the Oval Office.

Looked this up and your memory is spot on.
Carlin: It was a voice-activated system, was it not?

Butterfield: Oh yes, it was voice activated, yes.

Carlin: So, the cleaning lady got her share of time—[laughter].

Butterfield: [Laughs]. No, I don’t want to belabor this because it’s somewhat technical, and I’m not a technical person, but it was voice-activated only when the president was in the Oval Office. And, the president—the way the Secret Service knew that the president was in the Oval Office is by a locator box, and there were a few of us—about five of us, that had locator boxes, that had to know where the president was from minute to minute. I was one. Steve Bull, who was a staff assistant on the other side of the Oval Office, was another, Haldeman was a third, Rose Mary Woods, a fourth, and I can’t think who else. Possibly Dwight Chapin, the appointment secretary. And this box looked similar to these cards, about 14 inches long, and there were little windows in it. Seven little windows. One said “Barber Shop,” for instance; one said “out,” meaning the president was out, away from the White House complex; one said “Oval Office”; one said “Executive Office Building,” “Camp David,” that type of thing. When the president was in the Oval Office, the Secret Service knew that. They had little things in the wall, and when the president moves, they open the cabinet in the wall and let that information be known to the White House situation room, which is sort of under the Oval Office, under the Cabinet Room actually. And, and they’d say, “The president’s going to the EOB office,” or “The president’s now in the Oval Office.” And these guys flicked the light in the—so, when the light was on for Oval Office, this thing was operating. So, no one was in there—
 
Without the smoking gun tape, Nixon doesn't resign. But that doesn't necessarily mean Nixon wouldn't be impeached. If he is impeached, then it's possible that he'd survive conviction in the Senate. His legacy would still be tarnished by Watergate, though not to the extent of OTL.
 
Top