Experts

Ken Hughes

Fast Facts

  • Bob Woodward called Hughes "one of America's foremost experts on secret presidential recordings"
  • Has spent two decades mining the Secret White House Tapes
  • Expertise on Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Secret White House Tapes, abuses of presidential power, Watergate, Vietnam War

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • Governance
  • Leadership
  • Political Parties and Movements
  • Politics
  • The Presidency

Bob Woodward has called Ken Hughes “one of America's foremost experts on secret presidential recordings, especially those of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.” Hughes has spent two decades mining the Secret White House Tapes and unearthing their secrets. As a journalist writing in the pages of the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, and Boston Globe Magazine, and, since 2000, as a researcher with the Miller Center, Hughes’s work has illuminated the uses and abuses of presidential power involved in (among other things) the origins of Watergate, Jimmy Hoffa’s release from federal prison, and the politics of the Vietnam War. 

Hughes has been interviewed by the New York Times, CBS News, CNN, PBS NewsHour, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and other news organizations. He is the author of Chasing Shadows: The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate and Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War and the Casualties of Reelection.

Hughes is currently at work on a book about President John F. Kennedy’s hidden role in the coup plot that resulted in the overthrow and assassination of another president, Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam. 

 

Ken Hughes News Feed

While Collins and other Republicans accuse Democrats of underhandedness and of rewriting impeachment history, Ken Hughes, an expert on Watergate with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said Thursday that anyone who thinks closed-door sessions are unprecedented in the process is “just making history up.” “Most of the evidence for Nixon’s impeachment was presented to the committee behind closed doors in executive session,” Hughes said. “The head of the inquiry, House Judiciary Committee chairman Peter Rodino, said secrecy was necessary to avoid prejudicing the rights of defendants in ongoing criminal trials related to Watergate and to avoid defaming the president and prejudicing his impeachment case and potential Senate trial.”
Ken Hughes Courthouse News Service
Nixon sought help from a foreign government 50 years ago. Trump is trying the same thing, and it may cost him the presidency.
Ken Hughes The Conversation
Trump's efforts to lean on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reminiscent of the way Nixon created a team of secret investigators, known as "the plumbers," to find incriminating or embarrassing evidence about his enemies, said Ken Hughes, a leading Watergate authority and research specialist at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.
Ken Hughes USA Today
“This is nothing like a conversation between Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger and a foreign leader,” said Ken Hughes of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, an expert on Nixon during the Vietnam War and Watergate. “Nixon had very detailed knowledge when he spoke to foreign leaders. He could be subtle in negotiations and still get his point across,” Hughes said. But “when he wanted to dig up dirt on his political adversaries,” Nixon did it at home, he said.
Ken Hughes The Washington Post
Thursday marked the 45th anniversary of President Richard Nixon announcing that he would be resigning — and today, Friday, is the anniversary of that historic move actually happening. With our recent conversation with former “Slow Burn” podcast host Leon Neyfakh in mind, we honored Fridays’ anniversary by speaking with University of Virginia Miller Center expert Ken Hughes. He lives and breathes all things Watergate and impeachment, and told us about its impact today.
Ken Hughes Katie Couric Media
Exactly 45 years ago President Richard Nixon resigned. RFL’s Andrew Whitman speaks with Ken Hughes, a historian at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, about the country reacted, and might react if it happened again.
Ken Hughes RNN TV