Under the terms of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974, the National Archives and Records Administration is required "to provide the public with the full truth, at the earliest reasonable date, of the abuses of governmental powers popularly identified under the generic term "Watergate".

In an effort to comply with this mandate, the then-Nixon Presidential Materials Staff released the Abuse of Governmental Power (AOGP) tapes in October 1996.

Available AOGP Conversations

• First AOGP Tape Release:   May 17, 1993, – provides details about the release history and the tapes of conversations that took place between May 1972 - June 1972.
  
  
• Second AOGP Tape Release:   November 18, 1996 – provides details about the release history and the tapes of conversations that took place between February 1971 - April 1972 and July 1972 - July 1973.
  
  
• Third AOGP Tape Release:   February 1999 – provides details about the release history and the tapes of declassified conversations that took place between February 1971 and July 1973.
  
  

AOGP Finding Aids

There are no transcripts for these conversations.

Researchers can

1. View the Tape Subject Logs
   
   
2. Use the AOGP Conversation List
   
   

About the Tapes

• The AOGP segments are defined by 10 statutory categories.
  
  
• There are approximately 204 hours of excerpted conversations from the Nixon White House Taped Conversation relating to "Abuses of Governmental Power".
  
  
• The individual segments range from a few seconds to over an hour in length.
  
  
• There were 3 tape releases.
  
  
• This group of tapes does not include those tapes and conversations acquired by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force for use in its investigations.