Alexander Butterfield, the former aide to US President Richard Nixon, known for revealing the secret White House wiretapping system that led to Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal, has died at the age of 99.
His death was confirmed to the Associated Press by his wife, Kim, and John Dean, a former Nixon White House adviser during the Watergate scandal who, along with Butterfield, helped expose the abuses.
Dean said: "He had the grave responsibility of revealing something he had been sworn to keep secret, the installation of Nixon's recording system. He stood up and told the truth."
As deputy assistant to the president, Butterfield oversaw the recording system connected to voice-activated devices that were secretly placed in four locations, including Nixon's office in the Executive Office Building and the presidential retreat at Camp David.
This revelation shocked public opinion and became the main evidence that exposed Nixon's role in covering up the burglary of the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building in 1972.
He later said that, besides himself and the president, only Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, an aide, and a few Secret Service agents knew about the system.
To avoid impeachment by Congress, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, less than a month after the Supreme Court ordered the records to be turned over.
Butterfield believed he had influenced the president's fate. "I didn't like being the cause of this, but I felt like I was, in many ways," he said in a 2008 interview.
Butterfield served as Nixon's aide from 1969 to 1973, working under Haldeman and overseeing White House operations. He was an Air Force veteran and later became administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
It was during a routine Senate questioning session on July 13, 1973, that he admitted to the existence of the registration system, shocking Nixon's friends and opponents.
The recordings, now preserved by the National Archives, revealed an unusual portrait of Nixon: a bad temper, vulgar language, racial and religious prejudice, and harsh opinions about national and international figures.
Butterfield later said he was convinced that Nixon knew about the theft before it happened and was the architect of the cover-up. He called his former boss “dishonest” and “a fraud.” The day Nixon resigned, Butterfield said he felt a great sense of joy because “justice had prevailed.”
Alexander Porter Butterfield was born on April 6, 1926, in Pensacola, Florida. He served 20 years in the Air Force, retiring with the rank of colonel. After leaving the FAA, he worked as a business executive in California and received a master's degree from the University of California, San Diego, in 1994.
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