National Archives: Tim Naftali- 'Watergate: The 18 ½ Minute Gap and Haldeman's Notes'

Source:The National Archives- President Richard M. Nixon and his Chief of Staff Bob Haldaman. 

"Three days after the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman met in the Executive Office Building to discuss the incident. This Inside the Vaults video short examines the famous 18 ½ minute gap in the White House tapes, which occurred during this meeting. A multi-agency team under National Archives direction examined Haldeman's two pages of notes, attempting to decipher what was said in the gap in the tape.

Nixon Library director Timothy Naftali, David Paynter of the National Archives and independent researcher Phil Mellinger discuss the case and the results of the forensic analysis.

Inside the Vaults includes highlights from the National Archives in the Washington, DC, area and from the Presidential libraries and regional archives nationwide. These shorts present behind-the-scenes exclusives and offer surprising stories about the National Archives treasures. See more from Inside the Vaults at...

From The National Archives

One of the most fascinating and most unnecessary stories in American history, because President Nixon was going to get reelected overwhelmingly anyway in a landslide, because he was running against someone who was seen as a Socialist (and not just by Richard Nixon) in Senator George McGovern and President Nixon was a Moderate by comparison. But that is what Richard Nixon was always about when it came to politics which was information. 

Not saying President Nixon ordered the actual Watergate break in but it looks like it seemed like what he wanted according to the people who worked for him in the White House with his intelligence unit in the White House (the plumbers) believing that President Nixon at the very least wouldn't have a problem with the break in and thinking he might protect them if they were to get caught. 

The Plumbers got caught in 1972 because they weren't professional burglars. They were like a karaoke act at a nightclub or some dive just outside of an airport. They simply didn't know what they were doing and literally got caught on the spot at the Watergate Hotel.