New Nixon Files and Tapes Made Public
On Tuesday, the National Archives made public more than 150 hours of tape and tens of thousands of pages of previously unreleased documents from the Nixon administration. Some of the gems include new details into Watergate and Vietnam as well as three newly declassified pages on Israel’s secret plans to build a nuclear weapon.
The New York Times:
On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down state criminal abortion laws in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.
Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.
“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.”
Some of the recordings can be heard here, and some documents can be read here.