NIXON TAPES

Just as the new movie "Frost/Nixon" opens around the country this week with a possibly Oscar-nominated portrayal of President Richard Nixon, we get to hear Nixon himself and read his actual words.

In this Nov. 25, 1972, file photo, President Richard Nixon confers with Henry A. Kissinger in New...
(File/AP Photo)
Nearly 200 hours of tapes and 90,000 pages of text released today by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and the National Archives offer a glimpse into Nixon's views on the Vietnam War and his colleagues.

The tapes, which include more than 1,300 conversations, were recorded between November and December 1972, after Nixon was re-elected president and months after the first few arrests were made in the Watergate scandal. The collection of texts is from November 1968 -- when Nixon was elected the 37th president of the United States -- to January 1969.

The records reveal discussions that took place between Nixon and Henry Kissinger about the Vietnam War and how and why they decided to escalate the already-unpopular conflict.

LISTEN TO THE TAPES

TRANSCRIPT

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