Kissinger’s tapes reveal Nixon too ‘loaded’ to govern

AS his US presidency unravelled, Richard Nixon was too “loaded” to take an urgent call during the Arab-Israeli war from British Prime Minister Edward Heath, according to transcripts of Dr Henry Kissinger’s phone calls.

With Watergate bearing down and resignation just months away, Nixon also pushed ideas that Kissinger feared could start a war, and joked darkly about bombing Congress during impeachment hearings, according to transcripts released yesterday by the National Archives.

Kissinger, who was Nixon's national security adviser and then secretary of state, withheld the records for three decades before making them public.