Watergate, the 18 Minute Gap | 1974

For those who follow American politics, "Watergate" was one of the seminal moments in 20th Century American political theater. It is well known that in 1972, during the American presidential re-election campaign of President Richard Nixon, members of his Republican Party engineered a burglary of the rival Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, in Washington D.C., in order to steal information which would give them an advantage in the up coming election. It is now widely accepted that this crime was in fact authorized by President Nixon himself.

At that time, when the story was being investigated, it was found that there was an 18 and 1/2 minute erasure in the official audio taping system in the Presidents executive office at the White House, which had occurred, coincidentally, right around the time of the Watergate break in. Given the overwhelming evidence already collected which implicated many of the presidents closest associates, it was presumed that this '18 minute gap ' provided the self incriminating verbal evidence of the president's prior knowledge and personal invlovement in the crime.

As every one knows, President Nixon very soon thereafter resigned, under threat of impeachment, without admitting any guilt whatsoever. Many, many years later, the journalist David Frost, while interviewing the ex-president, essentially got him to admit complicity in the affair. There has since been a stage play, "Frost / Nixon", and now a movie, by the same name created about those interviews.

Since 1974, there have been many attempts, by many of the worlds best audio engineers, to try and find out just what was contained in those multiple erased 18 and 1/2 minutes. Even though they employed some of the most advanced techniques available, successively throughout almost 30 years, they failed to find out just exactly what was contained therein.

But, NOW WE KNOW! I believe I have solved the riddle of just what was originally contained in that 18 and 1/2 minutes., and it is in this videotape. It tells, essentially, the entire story of Watergate, and it was was right under our noses the WHOLE TIME! The truth was standing right in front of us all the while, therefore we were completely unable to see it. Tom Zafian

It took many years, and many edits, and the addition of many successively available bits of footage in order to complete this video. Even though it was screened both formally and informally several times over the years, I believe that this is the most complete version I can come up with. It was originally intended to be viewed on many ( possibly different sized) monitors at once. I would like to believe that it can be just as easily viewed on a single screen, of any size.

That is up to the viewers, isn't it?

Tour

01-07-2000 Premier Exhibition, The New York Avant Garde Festival, Fall 1974


Director, Camera, Editor :
Tom Zafian
Addtl. Camera, Voice Over :
Ira Sibulkin
Special Effects :
Hearn/Etra Colorizer, courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix
Original News Footage :
courtesy; every American Television Network