Summary
July 28, 2009: New technologies and a new discovery stand a chance at finally revealing what happened during the infamous missing 18.5 minutes of the Nixon tapes. The tapes were the then-President's secret recordings of all meetings in his offices. The 18-minute gap that was "accidentally" erased involved a conversation between Richard Nixon and his Chief of Staff, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, about the Watergate break-in.
The new tech seeks not to analyze the tapes, but rather to analyze Haldeman's notes from the meeting. New evidence has surfaced that the notes in the National Archives are incomplete, missing one or more pages that were taken during the time of the 18-minute gap. A new machine / process will be used that is essentially a high-tech version of the old detective's trick of rubbing a pencil on a piece of paper to read what was written on the pages above it. Only time will tell whether or not Haldeman's notes further incriminate the ex-president in the Watergate scandal.
Source
Game and Story Use
- If the stuff on those tapes was incriminating enough to erase, the potential notes might still be damaging enough for somebody to try and stop this.
- The PCs might be tasked with protecting and supervising the process, or in a darker campaign, they might be hired to steal or destroy the notes.
- It may turn out that the 18 minutes weren't just about the Watergate break-in. Some conspiracy theories have Nixon involved in the JFK Assassination, along with other political figures such as later President George Herbert Walker Bush.
- If knowledge reached the public confirming that two of the men who killed one President later became President, it might inspire massive government reforms.
- …or be the nail in the coffin that turns the public completely apathetic and inspires future tyrants to completely ignore the U.S. Constitution in their grabs for power.
- …or spark a Second American Revolution.
- "CSI Watergate" just sounds like a fun title for an adventure or campaign, with the PCs being the investigators of such a major crime with the potential to create an Alternate History if you're successful. It'd take a lot of research on the part of the GM, but could be loads of fun to play in.