CONTROVERSY OVER DESTRUCTION OF CIA WATERGATE TAPES (W/ATTACHMENTS)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01474433
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2017
• Case Number: F-2007-00094
• Publication Date: January 30, 1974

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`RADIO-TV MONITORING SERVICE, INC.
3408 WISCONSIN AVENUE, N. W. -:- WASHINGTON, D. C. 20016 244-8682
PROGRAM:
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS'
DATE:
JANUARY 30, 1974
STATION OR NETWORK:
NBC TELEVISION
TIME:
6:30 PM, EDT
CONTROVERSY OVER DESTRUCTION OF CIA WATERGATE TAPES
TOM BROKAW: Tape recordings are back in the news from
Washington., tonight, this time from the Central Intelligence
Agency... Apparently the CIA destroyed some tapes on Watergate
after Senator Mansfield asked it not to....
* * * * * * *
BROKAW: The Central Ingelligence Agency had tape
recordings of telephone conversations about Watergate involving
high CIA and White House officials, possibly even some with
President Nixon. All but one of those tapes now has been de-
stroyed. CIA Director William Colby said today, the CIA routine-
ly destreys such recdrdings. The one recording that was kept was
a talk between E. Howard Hunt and General Robert Cushman, mice
the Deputy CIA Director, and as we learn from Carl Stern, the
destruction of the CIA tapes may not have been at all that
routine.
CARL STERN: There is now the possibility, although
the agency denies', it, that someone at the Central Intelligence
Agency purposely ordered the destruction of Watergate evidence. �
At issue are conversations that were tape recorded in the month
that followed the break-in, between then-CIA Director Richard .
Helms and his deputy, Vernon Waiters, and Pat Gray, John Ehrlichman,
John Dean, and possibly even the President. Dean has testified
that the White House tried to enlist the CIA in the Watergate
cover-up.
It was disclosed yesterday that the tapes no longer
exist. The CIA said they were made routinely and destroyed
routinely, on January 1S, 1973. But on January 16, 1973, Senate
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield sent this letter to the various
agencies that might have Watergate evidence, askinK them to make
sure to hold onto it.
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2
When we asked about that, a GIA spokesman said the
Mansfield letter didn't arrive until January 22, four days too
late. We then checked with Senatdr Mansfieldls office and
found this receipt for the letter. It shows the CIA received it
on the 17th, the day before the tapes' destruction. It does
make quite' a difference.
When we again called the CIA, the spokesman acknow-
ledged that the Mansfield letter arrived on 'the 17th--not the
22nd. The agency has withdrawn its earlier statements and
tonight pledged to. try diligently to pin down what happened.
Carl Stern, NBC News, Washington.
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4435 WISCONSIN AVE. N.W., WASt-.NGTON. D. C. 20016. 244-3540
FOR
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM 'The Today Show
DATE
January 30, 1974 7:00 AM
TAPES DESTROYED
STATION
CITY .
WRC TV
NBC Network
Washington, DC
FRANK BLAIR: Senator Howard Baker, the ranking Republi-
can 'on the Senate Watergate Committee, has confirmed that he has
�asked the CIA for any tape recordings it. made during the period of .
the Watergate affair. And William Colby, the CIA Director, says he
has produced one 5uch tape -- a, record of a conversation between
Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt ancla CIA executiv.e. But
Colby says there is no indication that any other pertinent tape
recordings were made by the CIA, and he says, in any event, other
tapes made during the period have since been routinely destroyed.
Colby says the CIA regularly destroys old tapes in order
to create more storage space for new ones. .
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RADIO TV REP...,RTS, INC,
4435 WISCONSIN AVE. N.W., WASHINGTON, D. C. 20016. 244-3540
FOR
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM CBS Morning News STATION WTOP TV
.CBS Network
DATE
January 30, 1974 7:00 AM
CITY
TAPES DESTROYED ROUTINELY
Washington, DC
'HUGHES RUDD: By definition, the Central Intelligence
Agency operates in secret -- secrecy. Well, it now develops the .
Agency may have secretly been taping some Presidents of the United
States.
Dan Rather has that story.
DAN RATHER: CBS News has learned that the Central
Intelligence Agency, for many years, operated a secret system of
recording practically every conversation between ranking CIA.
officials. and anyone with whom they talked. These secret record-
ings may have included conversations with Presidents. And at least
one Senator who is investigating is known to be centering on the
question: Did the Presidents, including President Nixon, know
that they were possibly being recorded?
The whole matter came to light when the CIA reluctantly
revealed to a Senator that the Agency had destroyed numerous tape
recordings considered by some officials to be vital to unraveling
the Watergate and related cases. The CIA was asked for secret
tape recordings it made of various conversations between Agency
officials and central figures in 1,:atergate. The CIA is said to
have responded that, unfortunately, only one such tape still
exists -- the one of a conversation between Marine General Robert
Cushman, then with the CIA, and Howard Hunt, a leader of the White
House burglary unit.
High government sources, when asked by CBS News, eventually
confirmed that the CIA did have an elaborate secret recording system
from the early 1960s through most of the Nixon years. And, that many
of the secret recordings have been destroyed. They also confirmed
that it is what they called, possible, that the recordings of
presidential conversations were included. But the CIA is said to
insist there was .no deliberate attempt to destroy evidence. The
Agency story is the tapes were destroyed, quote, "routinely."
Dan Rather, CBS News, Washington.
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4435 WISCONSIN AVE. N.W.. WASHINGTON. 0. C. 20016. 244-3540
FOR
. PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM CBS Evening News
DATE
January 29, 1974 7:00 PM
SECRET TAPES
STATION
WTOP TV
CBS Network
Washington, DC
WALTER CRONKITE: Most of the news reports from Wash-
ington about tapes have concerned the White House Watergate tapes.
But there's a new tape story, this one involving the CIA. ' And
Dan Rather has it.
DAN RATHER: CBS News tonight learned that the Central
Intelligence Agency has destroyed numerous tape recordings consid-
ered vital to the Watergate investigation, recordings secretly made
by the CIA. These may have included recordings secretly made of
conversations between the President and ranking CIA officials.
At least one Senator has been tryinj to get, under what
he had hoped was strict security, the actual CIA recordings, anything
that might support the CIA's claims that it had only limited connec-
tion with such events as the Ellsberg psychiatrist break-ih, and the
spiriting away of Dita Beard in the ITT case.
The CIA Director, after considerable prodding, agreed to
let the one Senator hear the actual tape recording of conversations
but then came back to say unfortunately all but one of. the tapes had
been destroyed. The only one still in existence, the CIA reportedly
said, was a tape of a conversation between Marine General Robert
Cushman, and Howard Hunt.
. Dan Rather, CBS News, Washington.
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4435 WISCONSIN AVE. WASHINGTON. D. C. 20016, 244-3540
FOR
PROGRAM
DATE
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
CBS Radio News
January 29, 1974 8:00 PM
STATION
Crry �
CIA INVOLVED IN TAPE ERASURES
WTOP Radio
CBS Network
Washington, DC
STUART NOVINS: Disclosure tonight of more tape erasures.
Dan Rather reports.
DAN RATHER: CBS News has learned that the Central
Intelligence Agency has destroyed numerous tape recordings consider-
ed by some investigators to be vital to unravelling the Watergate
and related cases -- recordiugs secretly made by the CIA.
These may have included, investigators believe,.record-
ings secretly made of conversations between ranking CIA officials
and the President.
At least one Senator has been, trying to get,-under
what he had hoped was strict security, the actual CIA recordings
with the argument that such tapes could prove or disprove the
CIAs claims that it had extremely limited connection with such
events as the Ellsberg psychiatrist break-in, and the spiriting
away of Cita Beard in the ITT case.
The CIA, afte considerable prodding, agreed to let
the one Senator hear the actual tapes, but then came back to
say that unfortunately all but one of the tapes had been destroyed.
The only one still in existence, the CIA reportedly said, was
a tape of conversation between Marine' General Robert Cushman
and --with the CIA, and with Howard Hunt, a member of the White
House burglary team'.
Dan Rather, CBS News, Washington.
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