During the summer of 1940, tired of being misquoted, President Roosevelt had a recording machine installed under the Oval Office, which he sometimes turned on before press conferences and turned off after capturing conversations. The device was also connected to his telephone.
Like President Roosevelt, Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower recorded conversations, but President John F. Kennedy installed the White House’s first secret recording network to protect himself against officials who told him one thing in private and said something different in public. A pen and pencil set on his desk turned the network of microphones on and off.
