White House Tapes
October 8, 2005 1:06 PM   Subscribe

White House Tapes has audio files and transcripts of presidental conversations between 1940 and 1973, including FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
posted by kirkaracha (16 comments total)
 
Wow.

That's all I can say. Thanks.
posted by troutfishing at 1:11 PM on October 8, 2005


I think all government business should be public record. If you're saying something that can't be heard by the public you're not doing the public's business. The exceptions to this are few and far between.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 1:45 PM on October 8, 2005


Awesome.
posted by jsavimbi at 1:49 PM on October 8, 2005


This is neat but these are primary sources, totally unsorted and uncategorized. This is basically a dump of all the presidential tapes into various MP3 files. Nixon's was voice activated so anyone who was talking near the tape recorder was picked up. This is not really condusive to casual browsing, but research -- and what a great tool it is.

Nixon believed that recording conversations and meetings was an excellent way of ensuring historical accuracy and was the one way of ensuring that people he met with were on record.

That's why I think tapes should still be used. For the historical accuracy and they should be released after the President's death.

Complete transparency like Heywood suggested would inhibit what a government can do. Can you imagine conversations about "What-if" scenerios and political manuevering being available to anyone in the world? Impossible.
posted by geoff. at 1:55 PM on October 8, 2005


Oh my God. LBJ was a complete loony.
posted by snoktruix at 2:03 PM on October 8, 2005


Oh my God. LBJ was a complete loony.

Sounds like he had a pretty good idea what kind of pants he wanted. I'd like some of those too. But I probably wouldn't mention my bunghole.
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:08 PM on October 8, 2005


geoff. : "Complete transparency like Heywood suggested would inhibit what a government can do."

There's a deeper issue involved. How would human interactions and actions change if there were no secrets or private thoughts?
posted by Gyan at 2:08 PM on October 8, 2005


Come to think of it, maybe there was another reason LBJ wanted extra deep pockets.
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:15 PM on October 8, 2005


Complete transparency like Heywood suggested would inhibit what a government can do

Good.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 3:18 PM on October 8, 2005


We had a lot of fun with LBJ's pants in August 2004.

MetaFilter: I probably wouldn't mention my bunghole.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:37 PM on October 8, 2005


sorry to be a newb, but what is the purpose of these posts that are preceded by "MetaFilter: "?
posted by snoktruix at 8:58 PM on October 8, 2005


snok, just a way to amp the snark up to 11.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 9:40 PM on October 8, 2005


They're proposed taglines, snok, like whatever's up in the left corner right now under the "Metafilter" logo.

(Little bit of a triple post, by the way, but Lyndon Johnson's pants always amuse.)
posted by soyjoy at 10:07 PM on October 8, 2005


Thank you thank you thank you kirk! I've been looking for something exactly like this. What a find.
posted by clicktosubmit at 11:02 PM on October 9, 2005


You're welcome!

Little bit of a triple post, by the way

Well, I knew the LBJ pants thing (as it were) had been posted, as well as the American RadioWorks site, but this site adds tapes from FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower, which American RadioWorks doesn't have. (I would've linked to American RadioWorks in my post, but I was on my way out the door and didn't have time.)
posted by kirkaracha at 9:19 AM on October 10, 2005


Surrounded by a ton of lawyers, I can't believe nobody raised their hand with Nixon and said, "maybe we shouldn't tape this".....
posted by Todd Lokken at 7:29 PM on October 10, 2005


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