On 14 February 1971, President Richard Nixon surreptitiously installed a covert taping system in the White House, an act that would later play a pivotal role in his downfall.
The recording apparatus, discreetly wired into the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and key locations within the Executive Mansion, was intended to capture conversations for historical documentation and personal reference.
However, this clandestine surveillance would ultimately expose the Watergate scandal, leading to Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
What began as a tool for self-preservation turned into the very mechanism of his undoing, etching his presidency into history as a cautionary tale of power, paranoia, and political scandal.