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

Join Harry as he speaks with author Ken Hughes about his book, Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War, and the Casualties of Reelection and the recent passing of Henry Kissinger.
Ken Hughes Le Show
As secretary of state, Kissinger helped Richard Nixon delay withdrawal from Vietnam to win re-election
Ken Hughes The Messenger
This conversation with University of Virginia Miller Center historian Ken Hughes aired on C-SPAN's American History TV on Nov. 25. Hughes discusses his new research into President John F. Kennedy's role in the coup d'état and assassination of South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem in early Nov. 1963, just three weeks before JFK was assassinated in Dallas.
Ken Hughes History As It Happens
November 22 marks the 60th anniversary of a dark day in American history. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Less well remembered is what happened 20 days earlier. In South Vietnam, opponents of the autocratic president Ngo Dinh Diem ousted him from power and murdered Diem and his brother. University of Virginia Miller Center historian Ken Hughes discusses his new research revealing President Kennedy’s central role in the coup that toppled a U.S. ally in Southeast Asia.
Ken Hughes Washington Times
University of Virginia presidential recordings expert Ken Hughes talked about President Kennedy’s mystique and his White House tapes with Martin Di Caro, host of the Washington Times' “History As It Happens” podcast.
Ken Hughes C-SPAN
Historian Ken Hughes, a renowned expert on secret presidential recordings and author of two books on Richard Nixon’s criminality, talks about the ongoing fascination with Watergate, and whether comedy or satire is as effective as drama in portraying the extraordinary events that wrecked Nixon's presidency.
Ken Hughes History As It Happens