Comments on: White House Tapes

White House Tapes

kirkaracha — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 13:06:15 -0800

White House Tapes has audio files and transcripts of presidental conversations between 1940 and 1973, including FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 13:11:56 -0800

Wow. That's all I can say. Thanks.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 13:45:15 -0800

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.

By: jsavimbi

jsavimbi — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 13:49:10 -0800

Awesome.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 13:55:27 -0800

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.

By: snoktruix

snoktruix — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:03:56 -0800

Oh my God. LBJ was a complete loony.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:08:11 -0800

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.

By: Gyan

Gyan — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:08:57 -0800

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?

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:15:19 -0800

Come to think of it, maybe there was another reason LBJ wanted extra deep pockets.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:18:59 -0800

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

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:37:11 -0800

We had a lot of fun with LBJ's pants in August 2004. MetaFilter: I probably wouldn't mention my bunghole.

By: snoktruix

snoktruix — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 20:58:48 -0800

sorry to be a newb, but what is the purpose of these posts that are preceded by "MetaFilter: "?

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 21:40:22 -0800

snok, just a way to amp the snark up to 11.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 22:07:10 -0800

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.)

By: clicktosubmit

clicktosubmit — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 23:02:10 -0800

Thank you thank you thank you kirk! I've been looking for something exactly like this. What a find.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 09:19:24 -0800

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.)

By: Todd Lokken

Todd Lokken — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 19:29:59 -0800

Surrounded by a ton of lawyers, I can't believe nobody raised their hand with Nixon and said, "maybe we shouldn't tape this".....