Alexander Butterfield’s revelation of Nixon’s secret taping system delivered the evidence that forced a president to resign—a defining moment in American history that reshaped executive power and accountability.
Alexander Butterfield, the former White House aide whose disclosure of President Richard Nixon’s secret audio taping system provided the “smoking gun” in the Watergate scandal, has died at age 99, a month shy of his 100th birthday, according to Reuters.
Butterfield served as deputy assistant to Nixon from 1969 to 1973 and oversaw the installation of the voice-activated recording system that captured conversations in the Oval Office, Nixon’s Executive Office Building office, the Cabinet Room, and four White House telephones. The system, intended for historical purposes, would later become the central piece of evidence in the Watergate investigation.
In July 1973, while serving as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Butterfield was called to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee. During a private preliminary session, when asked if the White House had a recording system, he reluctantly acknowledged its existence. Three days later, in a televised hearing, he famously told the committee, “I was aware of listening devices, yes, sir,” sending shockwaves through the nation.
The tapes, particularly one recorded six days after the June 1972 Watergate break-in, revealed Nixon’s involvement in the cover-up. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to reject Nixon’s claim of executive privilege marked a turning point, demonstrating that even the president is subject to the rule of law. With his political support evaporating and the “smoking gun” tape proving his knowledge of the cover-up, Nixon resigned just over a month later, on August 9, 1974. The tapes, made possible by Butterfield’s oversight, became the irreversible evidence that ended a presidency.
Butterfield maintained he did not volunteer the information and disliked being characterized as the man who “exposed” the tapes. In a 1975 interview with People magazine, he said Nixon “often forgot about the recorders” and never thought he would have to surrender them. He later told Bob Woodward of The Washington Post that he believed Nixon should have resigned sooner, stating, “I don’t feel awful about the president’s resignation. Not at all.”
Butterfield became the focus of Woodward’s 2015 book “The Last of the President’s Men,” for which he provided thousands of documents he had secretly removed from the White House. He described the Nixon administration as a “cesspool” and painted Nixon as odd, isolated, and resentful. He faced vilification from Nixon loyalists; Rose Mary Woods, Nixon’s longtime secretary, called him a “son of a bitch” who had “destroyed the greatest leader this country ever had.”
After the scandal, Butterfield worked as an adviser to director Oliver Stone on the 1995 film “Nixon” and made a cameo appearance. His first marriage, to Charlotte Maguire, ended in divorce in 1985. He had also previously dated Audrey Geisel, the widow of children’s author Dr. Seuss.
Butterfield’s quiet act of truth-telling altered the course of American history, proving that even the highest office is not above the law. His legacy endures as a reminder of the power of individual conscience in the face of governmental overreach.
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