( CNN ) -- Pardoned but hardly chastened , ex-President Richard Nixon defended his administration 's secrecy and wiretaps in combative testimony before a Watergate grand jury following his resignation , newly released documents reveal . Archivists released nearly 50,000 pages of records and about 45 minutes of audio recordings Thursday , including hundreds of pages of transcripts of Nixon 's June 1975 testimony . Special prosecutors were still trying to document the breadth of the scandal that had driven him from power nearly a year earlier , while Nixon did his best to defend his presidency . `` I mean it is your job , and I want the jury and the special prosecutors to kick the hell out of us for wiretapping and for the Plumbers and the rest , because obviously you may have concluded it is wrong , '' Nixon is quoted in one of the transcripts . `` But I want to say this : That if as a result of the secret negotiations that we have had we have changed the world , which we have ; if as a result , we have saved American lives , which we did in Vietnam by shortening a war -- the secret Cambodian bombings saved at least 10,000 lives , as I have told you ; if as a result , we 'll have made some progress in reducing the threat of nuclear destruction by arms limitation with the Russians ; and if the other choice is to have what we call total openness , with no security whatever , then the United States is finished as a great power . Maybe a lot of people do n't care , but I care a great deal . I think all of you care a great deal . '' The material includes Nixon 's recollection of one of the most unusual moments of his presidency -- a pre-dawn meeting at the Lincoln Memorial with student demonstrators outraged by his 1970 invasion of Cambodia . Nixon said he realized he could not convince them the move was needed to shorten the Vietnam War , but told them he hoped they would `` give us a hearing on some other issues where we might agree . '' Nixon left office August 9 , 1974 , as Congress considered whether to impeach him over the Watergate scandal . The debacle began with a bungled burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices by Nixon campaign operatives before the 1972 election . The investigations that followed led to the exposure of a wide-ranging White House plan to sabotage political opponents , efforts to stop leaks by a White House squad known as the `` Plumbers '' and Nixon 's orders to cover up the effort . Nixon 's successor , Gerald Ford , issued him a blanket pardon about a month after the resignation , foreclosing any prospect that the former president would ever face the prison terms many of his aides served . Nixon dodged questions about the mysterious 18Â½-minute gap in his Oval Office tapes that has fascinated historians for more than three decades , telling prosecutors that he `` practically blew my stack '' when he learned of it . He suggested it happened while his secretary , Rose Mary Woods , was transcribing the tape , but characterized it as an accident . He mocked others in the White House who suggested other causes as `` amateurs '' and `` clowns . '' He recounted ordering then-White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig to `` find out how this damn thing happened , '' then apologized to the grand jurors for swearing . `` I am sorry , I was n't supposed to use profanity , '' he said . `` You have enough on the tapes . '' CNN 's Mike M. Ahlers and Bill Mears contributed to this report .
`` We have changed the world '' despite Watergate , Nixon told grand jurors . Transcripts are among nearly 50,000 pages of documents released Thursday . A recording describes Nixon 's talk with anti-war demonstrators . Nixon says he `` practically blew my stack '' when he learned of tape gap .