press release
The Nixon Library web site release will occur simultaneously with the release in audiotape format at the National Archives and Records Administration facility at College Park, Maryland. Finding aids, but not transcripts, will be available at College Park.
A total of more than 3,600 hours of tapes will eventually be released. By order of Congress in 1975, the so-called "abuse of power" tapes had to be released first. These will be followed by the chronological release of tapes relating to other far-reaching foreign and domestic policy work of the Nixon Presidency recorded between February 1971 and July 1973, when the system was removed.
The February 25 release includes previously classified segments with discussions concerning the CIA, the assassination of President Diem of South Vietnam in 1963, the Bay of Pigs, the 1971 India- Pakistan war and the so-called Moorer-Radford affair, E. Howard Hunt, the Huston Plan, John Dean, Henry Brandon, and ambassadorial appointments.
About 201 hours of so-called "abuse of power" tapes were released in 1996 after the Nixon family and estate agreed to the release despite the National Archives' refusal to comply with a Supreme Court-ordered return of private and personal tape segments. Under a negotiated segment, the parties agreed that the remaining 3,400 hours of tapes would be released in chronological segments.
Following this negotiated release, NARA informed the estate in mid-1997 that it planned to release additional "abuse of power" tapes that had been declassified. The Nixon estate objected on the basis that NARA should have raised the matter during the year-long mediation. The estate argued that the new "abuse of power" segments should be added to the chronological releases. At first, NARA agreed with the Nixon estate's position. But in late 1998, it decided to go ahead with this release.
MEDIA LOGISTICS SUMMARY:
On Thursday, February 25, Nixon Library representatives will be
available beginning at 8 a.m. (EST).
-- For additional information contact Evie Lazzarino at (714)993-5075.
-- For interview arrangements with John H. Taylor, executive director
of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation and co-executor
of the Nixon estate, call the Library at (714)993-5075. Mr. Taylor
will be available for interviews beginning at 8:30 a.m. EST.
-- For transcripts, and transcripts with historical commentary, visit
the Nixon Library web site, www.nixonfoundation.org, beginning at
9 a.m. (EST) on Thursday, February 25.
-- To fax or e-mail the Nixon Library:
Fax: (714)528-0544
e-mail: stedman@nixonfoundation.org
Contact:
The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Yorba Linda
Evie Lazzarino, 714/993-5075