An Evening with Alexander Butterfield, 6 p.m., Wednesday, October 5, 2005, LBJ Auditorium
In 1969, Colonel Alexander Butterfield had finished his tour of duty in Vietnam, where he had commanded all of the U.S. Air Force's low and medium-level aerial reconnaissance operations (for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross) and was serving as the senior U.S. military officer in Australia. In early January, a friend from college, H. R. Haldeman, asked him to come work in the new Nixon White House as his deputy-what today would be the Deputy White House Chief of Staff.
In this capacity, Butterfield was asked to install and elaborate secret taping system. Unlike President Johnson, who controlled what was taped through his telephone, President Nixon had microphones placed in his desk, in the wall lamps by the fireplace, at his hideaway in the Old Executive Office Building, in the Cabinet Room, and at Camp David. The tapes didn't catch just some things - they caught everything.
In preparation for his testimony to the Senate Watergate Committee, Butterfield held off the Watergate staffers as long as possible until they asked the direct question four hours later about whether there was taping system in the Oval Office. At that point, Butterfield uttered the much-quoted words: "I was hoping you fellows wouldn't ask me that. The rest is history.
We have the rare treat of hosting Alexander Butterfield for a candid insider's portrait of a president.