Whoops. oh crap.

On this day in 1973 Rose Mary Woods told a federal court that she was the one who erased eighteen and a half minutes from one of the tapes that recorded President Nixon's Whitehouse conversations.

The taping system was installed during Johnson's presidency as a memory aid to help recall conversations and to use, no doubt, to settle arguments and remind visitors of promises not yet kept. Johnson found the system useful and hoped one day to use it to write memoirs. He also understood that its implememtation was secret; how could he tell visitors he taped everything and expect a straight amswer? He also knew that he himself was all over the tapes and should be careful that he behave. He encouraged Nixon to keep it installed and use it for the purpose it was intended.

Like the modern Whitehouse e-mails that have mysteriously been deleted from the server(who the heck talks like this? the average layman doesn't know or care what an e-mail server is)the Whitehouse of the Nixon era had a server malfunction just at the right time.

No one doubted Woods' loyalty to her boss. They had been together since 1951 when an up and coming young senator admired her attention to detail and efficiency and asked her to stay on after a temp assignment.

Her claim that she accidently erased the tape during routine transcription has never been misproven. I have transcibed hours of audio recordings of interviews for school assignments, probably no where near as many as she must have done during her time as a secretary, but I have to say its quite easy to lose your place and jump over portions, sometimes in a blink of an eye.

Irony of ironies, Woods herself was a victim of a break in at the Watergate when she had an apartment there in the late 60's. Thats her up above demonstrating the famous "stretch".