On June 23, 1972, the “Smoking Gun Tape” of President Richard Nixon was recorded in the Oval Office at the White House. A few days earlier, on June 17, 1972, five men employed by Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) had been arrested at the Democratic Party’s national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. At the time of their arrest the burglars were attempting to replace defective listening devices they had installed previously on the Democrats’ telephones in an attempt to gather information they could use against Nixon’s opponent in the 1972 general election, Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota.

Although it appears that Nixon did not directly order the Watergate break-in, he quickly understood the potential political damage it could do to his reelection campaign. Thus, within six days of the break-in, in a June 23 Oval Office meeting with chief of staff H. R. Haldeman, Nixon initiated an effort that included key members of his administration to cover up any White House connection to the crime. Over the next twenty months, however, the cover-up steadily unraveled. Because the June 23 meeting—like all Oval Office conversations in Nixon’s administration—was recorded, it provided proof of Nixon’s role in the cover-up when it was released to investigators in July 1974 via an order from the Supreme Court. Ultimately, to avoid impeachment on charges of obstruction of justice, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 8, 1974.

Read the transcript of the Smoking Gun Tape

View a time line of related events

See essential quotes from the tape

For immediate download: Expert analysis of the tape by John W. Malsberger