John F. Kennedy Assassination   White House - Air Force One – LBJ  Nixon Audio Recordings - Download

John F. Kennedy Assassination  
White House - Air Force One – LBJ  Nixon Audio Recordings

Twenty-one hours and twenty-one minutes of Air Force One and White House recordings,  Nineteen hours and fourteen minutes of LBJ  telephone recording  dealing with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  Plus,  ten hours of President Nixon audio recording of conversations with cursory mention of the John F. Kennedy assassination


Air Force One/White House Audiotapes from November 22, 1963

Two hours and seven minutes of Air Force One audiotapes from November 22,1963. The Air Force One tapes commence when the Presidential aircraft (Special Air Mission, or "SAM" 26000) is still on the ground at Carswell AFB near Fort Worth, Texas on the morning of November 22,1963; as the tape begins, President Kennedy has not yet boarded the aircraft following the Fort Worth breakfast event, so the aircraft is not yet referred to as "Air Force One." The recordings include the flight from Carswell AFB to Love Field outside Dallas before the assassination, and the flight from Love Field to Andrews AFB outside Washington DC after the assassination. 

The various parties, or "patches," to use military communications jargon, on recordings include the following:

SAM 26000: The Presidential aircraft, when the President is not onboard.

Air Force One: The Presidential aircraft, when the President is embarked.

SAM 86972: The State Department aircraft carrying Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, Secretary of State Rusk, Secretary of Agriculture Freeman and other Cabinet members and Administration officials. When the assassination occurred, this aircraft was enroute from Hawaii to Japan; subsequent to the assassination, the aircraft returned to Hawaii to refuel, and then flew directly from Hickam AFB in Hawaii to Andrews AFB near Washington DC.

Andrews: An "Airman Gilmore" answers for Andrews AFB throughout the tape and appears to be the central player attempting to facilitate all "patches."

Crown: White House Situation Room

Includes notes from the Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board on the Air Force One tapes. The U.S. Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The Act mandated that all assassination-related material be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration



President Lyndon B. Johnson White House Recordings

Nineteen hours and fourteen minutes of President John Kennedy assassination related phone conversations. Audio recorded by President Lyndon Johnson. Conversations date from November 1963 to 1967.

Participants include: Jacqueline Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Martin Luther King Jr., Edward Kennedy, Everett Dirksen, Mrs J.D. Tippit, Lady Bird Johnson, John Connally, Nellie Connally, Adam Clayton Powell, Roy Wilkins, Bill Moyers, Pierre Salinger, Hubert Humphrey, House majority leader John McCormack, James Eastland, Edmund "Pat" Brown, Gerard Ford, Robert McNamara, Allen Dulles, John McCone, Ramsey Clark, Dean Rusk, Hale Boggs, Abe Fortas, Richard Russell, William Fulbright, Joseph Alsop, Katherine Graham, McGeorge Bundy, Walter Jenkins, Nicholas Katzenbach, George Meany, and A. Philip Randolph.

Topics include: Aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. Transition between administrations. Secret Service protection of LBJ. President Johnson asks FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover if he should have a bullet proof car. Continuing JFK's agenda. Tributes to JFK. Formation of the Warren Commission. Hoover and Johnson discuss the make-up of the Warren Commission. The Warren Commission Report. Controversy over the serialization in Look magazine and the publication of William Manchester's book, "Death of a President". Jim Garrison's investigation and subsequent trial of Clay Shaw.

Recordings includes searchable log sheets.



Richard Nixon Presidential Recordings

In addition to the material above are ten hours of President Nixon audio recording of conversations with cursory mention of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Fifteen recording segments of conversations taking place between August 2, 1971  and October 24, 1972. The recordings were made in the Oval Office, at the Executive Office Building,  the Old Executive Office Building and Camp David. Short comments are made several times about the Kennedy Assassination, when conversations turn toward presidential security and the Secret Service.

Many of the comments were made during the hours and days following the attempted assassination of Governor George Wallace by Arthur Bremer, in May of 1972. In the aftermath, Nixon is concerned that same mistakes would be made with Bremer, as were made with Lee Harvey Oswald, that allowed Jack Ruby to kill Oswald. In a discussion about the attempted assassination of George Wallace. Nixon comments on the performance of the Secret Service during the Kennedy Assassination.

Other comments concern Nixon riding in a motorcade during a trip to Dallas. On the ninth anniversary of the assassination, Nixon mentions the date to his secretary Rose Mary Woods. Later that day Nixon asks H.R. Haldemen if he should lay a wreath on JFK's grave.  Nixon at several times expresses lack of trust in the Secret Service. He is critical of the Secret Service's  handling of the Kennedy assassination. A Nixon aide comments that the Secret Service drank the night before JFK assassination. Nixon says the make-up of  the Secret  Service has improved since the Kennedy Administration.  Nixon mentions what life is like for a Secret Service agent during his administration.

Other topics of conversation of historical note in these particular recordings include: the escalation of air strikes in North Vietnam; Vietnam War Paris peace talks; relations with the Soviet Union and China; and the 1972 presidential election strategy

Recordings includes searchable log sheets.