"Most Presidential libraries are terrific, if sometimes inconveniently located, resources for researchers; what turns up in their archives (especially documents from the typewriter-and-ink era) can be fascinating and sometimes revelatory. Meanwhile, the adjoining museums, which draw the tourists, tend to turn these sites into temples of Presidential sanctification and sympathetic history. The Nixon Library is no temple, mainly because (Timothy) Naftali (director) was determined to give an honest picture of the Watergate scandal, which after much effort led to a smart, instructive interactive exhibit. This somewhat asymmetrical focus is part of the draw for curious visitors. But it cost Naftali any remaining support from the foundation, whose members hated the direction he was heading. Naftali finally quit two and a half years ago. He still hasn’t been replaced, which, as he recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “has disturbing implications both for how public history is approached at federal museums and for how public access is granted to crucial historical information.”"
Just like Richard Nixon.
History Investigating the politics and potential narrative manipulation inherent in his presidential library, the New Yorker asks, "Who owns Richard Nixon?"
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