“The president wants a taping system installed,” Higby told Butterfield. “And Bob wants you to take care of it.” The move was a remarkable turnabout for Nixon; in the days after his election in 1968, he’d been shown on a transition-focused tour of the White House the private taping system used by Lyndon Johnson and squirmed. He’d ordered the Army Signal Corps to rip it out once he arrived in office.
