Alexander Butterfield

Alexander Porter Butterfield was born on April 6, 1926, in Pensacola, Florida, the son of Susan Armistead Alexander Butterfield and Horace B. Butterfield, a U.S. Navy pilot who rose to rear admiral. He grew up in Coronado, California, and left home in 1943. At UCLA he formed friendships with future Nixon aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman before leaving college to join the Air Force in 1948. Contrary to some later reports, he did not serve in World War II.

Butterfield attended the University of California, Los Angeles, before entering the Air Force. During his military career he attended the National War College, earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland, College Park (1956), and a Master of Science from George Washington University (1967). After retiring from government he returned to school in La Jolla, completing a Master of Arts in history at the University of California, San Diego, and pursuing doctoral work on the presidential power to pardon.

Butterfield's Air Force career included fighter-gunnery instruction in Nevada, service with the Skyblazers aerobatic team in Munich, squadron command in Okinawa, and 98 combat reconnaissance missions in Vietnam, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He reached the rank of colonel. In 1969 he became deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon and White House Cabinet Secretary functions under Haldeman. He managed what Nixon saw on paper, ran the White House when Nixon and Haldeman traveled abroad, and in 1971 directed installation of the secret Oval Office taping system. From March 14, 1973, to March 31, 1975, he served as the fifth Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Butterfield married Charlotte Maguire in 1949. They had three children, Alexander Porter Butterfield Jr., Susan Holcomb, and Lisa Buchholz, and divorced in 1985. Charlotte died in 2019. Their son, Navy CAPT (Ret.) Alexander Butterfield Jr., died July 19, 2025. Butterfield later married Kim Butterfield. From 1992 he lived in La Jolla, where he was a close friend of Audrey Geisel, widow of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss). He remained active on corporate boards into late life.

Butterfield said he decided before the Senate interview that he would not lie: if asked a direct question about the tapes, he would answer directly. He later told StoryCorps and The Washington Post that he hated being known as the man who revealed the tapes, that he had hoped no one would ask, and that he felt torn between loyalty to Nixon and honesty with investigators. He believed Nixon exploited subordinates' loyalty and that many military officers wrongly saw his testimony as disloyalty to the commander in chief. He praised Cassidy Hutchinson's willingness to tell the truth under pressure.

Butterfield's July 13 and July 16, 1973, disclosures of the White House taping system are widely judged to have transformed the Watergate investigation. The tapes produced the "smoking gun" evidence of Nixon's involvement in the cover-up and led to the only U.S. presidential resignation. Decades later, Bob Woodward's The Last of the President's Men (2015) used Butterfield's documents and interviews to deepen the historical record. Young aides facing political pressure, including Cassidy Hutchinson in 2022, cited his example of answering direct questions truthfully.

Military decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross for Vietnam combat service. He rose to colonel in the United States Air Force. As a public official he served as White House deputy assistant and as Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (1973 to 1975). His later recognition came chiefly through historical works and interviews documenting his role in Watergate rather than civilian medals.

Butterfield's televised Senate testimony on July 16, 1973, was carried live by the major networks. He appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes in 1975 to reject false claims that he was a CIA plant in the White House. He was the central living source for Bob Woodward's 2015 book The Last of the President's Men and appeared with Woodward at public events, including at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. In 2022 he was interviewed on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell and for NPR's StoryCorps.

Although never charged in the Watergate cover-up, Butterfield handled re-election cash known as "the 350" at Haldeman's direction and helped place a sympathetic agent on Senator Edward Kennedy's Secret Service detail in 1972. After leaving the FAA he was accused on national television of being "the CIA's man in the White House," a charge he called absolutely false. Some Nixon loyalists and military peers treated him as disloyal for disclosing the tapes. Transportation Secretary Claude Brinegar criticized his FAA tenure on aviation safety grounds, which Butterfield denied.

Alexander Butterfield died at his home in La Jolla, California, on March 9, 2026, at the age of 99. His wife, Kim, and former White House counsel John Dean confirmed the death to The Associated Press and other outlets. He died about a month before what would have been his 100th birthday. Wikipedia lists Arlington National Cemetery as his resting place. Cause of death was not made public in major obituaries at the time of reporting.