Easy Nixon is an independent, publicly accessible archive of the Richard M. Nixon administration’s White House tapes. The site is designed to provide scholars, journalists, students, and researchers with an easy-to-use interface for exploring one of the most significant primary source collections in modern American history.
Several years ago, the National Archives released metadata for all 22,723 cataloged conversations drawn from the 949 labeled White House tapes. In combination with MP3 audio files released into the public domain by the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, this made it possible to assemble a basic, searchable archive.
In many cases, individual conversations have not been fully spliced from the original two-hour tape segments. Where possible, Easy Nixon provides start and end times for individual conversations derived from spreadsheets made available by the Nixon Library. However, these timing records are incomplete, and even when available they can require careful calculation to locate specific conversations within longer audio files.
A long-term goal of the project is to make all conversations available as clearly segmented, easy-to-use audio files. Achieving this would require substantial labor and coordination, and may ultimately depend on collaboration among researchers, archivists, or the broader public. Until then, some conversations will require additional effort by users to identify their precise location within the original recordings.
For many researchers, transcripts are as important as audio. While Easy Nixon does not currently host full verbatim transcripts for all recordings, users are encouraged to consult the published volumes produced through the painstaking editorial work of Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter. Making complete tape transcriptions freely available in the public domain remains a worthwhile aspiration, though it would require significant resources and sustained effort.
Easy Nixon is an independent project and is not affiliated with the United States government, the National Archives, the Nixon Presidential Library, or any academic institution. The site exists to promote open access, historical inquiry, and public engagement with presidential history outside restrictive institutional frameworks.
Easy Nixon was created by Todd Fine, a historian and Ph.D. graduate of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The project originated during his graduate coursework and has since been expanded as an independent public history resource.
Todd Fine has completed a doctoral dissertation on the intellectual biography of Samuel P. Huntington and is a founder of the Washington Street Historical Society and the Washington Street Advocacy Group. He has also advocated for the creation of a memorial in Lower Manhattan commemorating the writers of the historic “Little Syria” neighborhood, scheduled for unveiling in 2026.
Suggestions, corrections, or collaboration inquiries are welcome. Please contact Todd Fine at tdfine@gmail.com.