Federal Archivists Take Control of Nixon Library
Claims of coup by Nixon rivals over Watergate end
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
Thursday, July 12, 2007; C09
YORBA LINDA, Calif. -- The privately operated Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace was officially handed over to federal archivists yesterday, and researchers can pore over documents and tapes detailing "the good, the bad and the ugly" on the 37th president and his legacy.
After a simple opening ceremony, library officials and docents shared champagne and cake before moving to the research room to view 78,000 newly released Nixon papers and listen to 11 1/2 hours of audio tape.
"This is a great day for history. The hallmark of this new institution will be true acceptance and love for history -- the good, the bad and the ugly," said Timothy Naftali, the museum's new federal director.
"The challenge is to present a controversial, traumatic and important story in a fair and historically accurate way," he said.
For nearly 20 years, library visitors were told that the Watergate scandal was really a "coup" by Nixon's rivals and that the investigative reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein offered bribes for their nation-shaking scoops.
The new library director is taking some of the whitewash off the scandal resulting from the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington and the subsequent White House cover-up. The revised account is a precondition for receiving 42 million pages of the former president's papers and nearly 4,000 hours of tapes, which will be moved to California in several years.
(Continued here.)
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
Thursday, July 12, 2007; C09
YORBA LINDA, Calif. -- The privately operated Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace was officially handed over to federal archivists yesterday, and researchers can pore over documents and tapes detailing "the good, the bad and the ugly" on the 37th president and his legacy.
After a simple opening ceremony, library officials and docents shared champagne and cake before moving to the research room to view 78,000 newly released Nixon papers and listen to 11 1/2 hours of audio tape.
"This is a great day for history. The hallmark of this new institution will be true acceptance and love for history -- the good, the bad and the ugly," said Timothy Naftali, the museum's new federal director.
"The challenge is to present a controversial, traumatic and important story in a fair and historically accurate way," he said.
For nearly 20 years, library visitors were told that the Watergate scandal was really a "coup" by Nixon's rivals and that the investigative reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein offered bribes for their nation-shaking scoops.
The new library director is taking some of the whitewash off the scandal resulting from the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington and the subsequent White House cover-up. The revised account is a precondition for receiving 42 million pages of the former president's papers and nearly 4,000 hours of tapes, which will be moved to California in several years.
(Continued here.)
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