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He knew i worked with lyndon johnson on the memoirs. he said when nixon first came into power, he asked kendall to go to the ranch to talk to johnson about some sensitive matter. johnson is working on the memoir. he says, how can i remember what happened ten years ago, five years ago? the only chapters that are good, i had a tape machine in the oval office, i had verbatim conversations, and those chapters are very good. tell nixon nothing is better than a taping system, and there it begins. you have them on record. they say things. is that great? i couldn't wait to tell you that story. >> oh, ...

Obscure white house official named alexander butterfield appeared as a surprise witness before the senate watergate committee. >> are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president? >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> when i got the confirmation that there was a taping system, i was elated. they would tell much more than i would remember in those conversations. >> my mind is not tape recorder. it does recall impressions of conversations very well. >> everybody realized that this was a major breakthrough in the case. >> what would be the...

Devices in so many different areas. >> nixon installed the taping system so he could write the greatest memoirs of any president of the united states. and nixon was fascinated by the memoirs of people like de gaulle and others and wanted to show himself as a great world leader. >> the president did tell me at one point, along with haldeman, that no one was to ever learn about this taping system. >> alex butterfield had indeed confirmed my suspicion that i had been recorded. but more than my conversations had been recorded. everybody's conversations had been recorded. i was delighted to learn t...

Once we learn about the existence of a taping system, we had the obligation to try to get them. >> without the prosecutors getting possession of key tapes, it would be my word against everyone else. and i had no doubt these people were going to lie. >> after months of talks, the president and the congress tonight are actually on a collision course. the issue is executive privilege, which mr. nixon today invoked when he told both the ervin committee and prosecutor archibald cox that he will not give them any white house recordings. >> cox had requested nine tapes. nixon didn't want him to get a...

Devices, yes, sir. >> did he say there were tapes? what? >> yeah. talk about a bombshell. >> in february of 1971, the president told bob haldeman, his chief of staff, that he wanted to install some listening devices around the white house. haldeman said it was up to me to decide who should install these devices. i chose the secret service. >> the system was designed only to tape conversations in which nixon participated. and so when he would enter a room where there was a taping system, they would flip the on switch for that room. when he left the room, they flipped it off. >> why didn't he wa...