Watergate tape mystery could be solved

A secretary is said to have 'accidentally' erased tape

By the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt

Officials from the US National Archives are meeting on Thursday to decide whether to try recovering lost sections of the Watergate Tapes by using new technology.

The tape recordings - nearly 30 years old - were made in the White House during the Watergate scandal, which brought down President Nixon.

But more than 18 minutes of the tapes, covering a crucial meeting, were found to have been erased.

If there is a chance of recovering the recordings, without damaging the historic tapes, then the project is likely to go ahead.

Buzzing noise

In 1972, just three days after the fateful break-in at his opponents' Watergate headquarters, President Richard Nixon met his Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman.

President Nixon was forced from office in disgrace

We know from Haldeman's notes that they discussed the break-in; we know that, like all President Nixon's meetings, the conversation was recorded on tape.

But when the tape was examined to see whether it would yield evidence to connect the president to the burglary, 18-and-a-half crucial minutes were found to be missing.

There was nothing on the tape but a few clicks and a buzzing noise.

The official explanation was that the president's secretary had accidentally erased it by pressing the wrong foot-pedal while answering the phone.

New techniques

The tapes, now in the National Archives, have not been examined since the 1970s, and since then sound technology has moved on.

Now the archives advisory committee is meeting to hear whether new techniques might be able to find some faint trace of the original magnetic pattern and recover the lost sounds.

Whatever is found is unlikely to change history: President Nixon eventually resigned in disgrace.

But it could clear up one of the most discussed mysteries of modern times.