The Clue for Solving the 18 1/2 Minute Watergate Mystery

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On Wednsday, I reported that the National Archives is considering using a CSI-ish procedure that could produce clues as to what was said during the infamous 18 and 1/2 minutes missing on one of Nixon’s Watergate tapes. The story got much attention, and several Watergate historians–who often don’t agree on anything–told me they each are hoping that the testing yields something.

The procedure, which is rather straightforward and can be done relatively quickly, would try to determine if there are tell-tale indented impressions on one of the two pages of Nixon chief of staff Bob Haldeman’s notes from this meeting–impressions that might have come from possibly missing notes that correspond to the 18 and 1/2 minute gap.

Today, I received an image of that particular page.

Does it literally hold the key to solving this Watergate mystery?

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And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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