Featured Content / Listening to the Presidency

Listening to the Presidency

Candid, unscripted glimpses of American presidents

Explore audio recordings along with contextual materials from several presidential administrations. Miller Center scholars have selected and edited each recording to help visitors gain insights into the presidency.  

 

You can filter Listening to the Presidency conversations by president, topic, and keyword.  
Richard Nixon campaigning
Secret White House tapes

Hear conversations from the secret White House tapes. The Presidential Recordings Program lets users listen in on presidents and their advisers at critical historical moments.
Madeline Albright portrait
Oral histories

Review key excerpts from the Presidential Oral History Program as senior decision-makers reflect on their time in the White House.
LBJ at his desk
Sample conversation

President Johnson asks his mentor, Senator Richard B. “Dick” Russell Jr. [D–Georgia], for advice on the Vietnam War. “It’s the damned worst mess I ever saw,” Russell declares. 
President
Conversation Topics
President Nixon talking to Haldeman
Richard M. Nixon
'I Want the Brookings Institute Safe Cleaned Out'
Richard M. Nixon | H. R. “Bob” Haldeman
President Nixon
Richard M. Nixon
Horrible Things
Richard M. Nixon
H.R. "Bob" Haldeman
Richard M. Nixon
'I Really Need a Son of a Bitch'
Richard M. Nixon | H. R. “Bob” Haldeman
President Nixon in Oval Office
Richard M. Nixon
'The Jews Are Born Spies'
Richard M. Nixon | Ronald L. “Ron” Ziegler | H. R. “Bob” Haldeman
President Nixon with Ted Kennedy
Richard M. Nixon
'Finance a Little Kennedy Write-In'
Richard M. Nixon | Charles W. “Chuck” Colson
President Nixon with copies of edited White House transcripts
Richard M. Nixon
The Smoking Gun
Richard M. Nixon | H. R. “Bob” Haldeman
The Watergate complex
Richard M. Nixon
'How Much Money Is Involved?'
Richard M. Nixon | H. R. “Bob” Haldeman
Watergate burglar's address book with E. Howard Hunt's contact
Richard M. Nixon
'If It Blows, It Blows'
Richard M. Nixon | H. R. “Bob” Haldeman
President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger talking at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Richard M. Nixon
'No One Will Give a Damn'
Richard M. Nixon | Henry A. Kissinger
Nixon family portrait
Richard M. Nixon
'A Valentine’s Dinner'
Richard M. Nixon | Julie Nixon Eisenhower
President Nixon meeting with aides in Oval Office
Richard M. Nixon
'A Cancer within . . . the Presidency'
Richard M. Nixon | John W. Dean III
President Ford speaks with Donald Rumsfeld in the Oval Office
Gerald Ford
That Sense of Fairness
James T. Lynn | Herbert J. Storing
President Ford meets with staff in the Oval Office
Gerald Ford
'A Better Feeling'
Jerry H. Jones
President Ford in the Oval Office
Gerald Ford
'He Liked to Make Decisions'
Brent Scowcroft | Donald H. Rumsfeld
President Ford with Betty Ford at a 1976 campaign event
Gerald Ford
'Not a Bad Record'
Donald H. Rumsfeld
President Ford speaks with reporters in the Oval Office
Gerald Ford
'Free and Open and Easy Access'
John O. Marsh Jr.