Watergate Becomes Sore Point at Nixon Library

[SecularMotion]

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — The sign at the entrance to the largest exhibition room devoted to a single subject at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum reads “Watergate.” But on Friday, the exhibit was nearly empty, dominated by a 30-foot blank slate of a wall that is testimony to a new battle set off by this still-polarizing former president: how to mark the scandal that forced him from office 36 years ago.

Officials at the National Archives have curated a searing recollection of the Watergate scandal, based on videotaped interviews with 150 associates of Richard M. Nixon, an interactive exhibition that was supposed to have opened on July 1. But the Nixon Foundation — a group of Nixon loyalists who controlled this museum until the National Archives took it over three years ago — described it as unfair and distorted, and requested that the archives not approve the exhibition until its objections are addressed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/politics/07nixon.html?_r=1&hp

[Ken Burch]

1. What Nixon's loyalists will, at some point, have to come to terms with

Is that the wiretapping, the taping and the break-in that Richard Nixon insisted were precisely, and solely, the cause of his own disgrace.

Nixon had no practical need to green-light the break-in at all: He was certain to be re-elected by the time it occurred.

After all the sabotage the regular Democrats had done to George McGovern, the man they had known would be their nominee for months, McGovern's chances for victory were already gone. There was nothing McGovern could possibly due to close the gap in the polls. The China trip(which the Nixon people were already planning)would have guaranteed that ANY possible Democratic nominee was doomed to a landslide defeat.

Had the break-in not happened, Nixon would have served out his entire second term and left office with the support of the vast majority of the American electorate. In all liklihood(and yes, the thought sickens me as much as anyone else here who remembers those days)he would have turned over the presidency to Spiro Agnew.

All he had to do was trust the voters and the process.

But Richard Milhous Nixon simply COULD NOT do that.

And that's why he destroyed himself.

Only Nixon could defeat Nixon.

[JVS]

3. I was under the impression that Nixon had not authorized the break in, but upon being informed...

of it decided that he sure as hell was going to make sure that it got covered up.

[Cassandra]

4. Jeb Magruder said Nixon authorized the break in.

In the Watergate Plus 30 DVD, he says it on camera.

[JVS]

5. Oh, ok.

[david13]

9. Nixon was personally and regularly involved in everything they

were doing, and going to do. He knew exactly what the situation was. He didn't work for them, they worked for him.
dc

[david13]

8. Good analysis. And the irony of it. It wasn't necessary. dc

[aquart]

2. Still lying after all these years, fellas?

[tanyev]

6. Just wait until the idyllic fantasyland known as the GWB Library opens.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. "Watergoat."

[saltpoint]

10. Yep, Watergate is proving to be a bit controversial,

and the Board of Directors is reportedly balking as well at the re-enactment theater component in which a guy playing Nixon crawls around on all fours, drunk, babbling paranoid racist slurs and profanities.

[Ken Burch]

11. Well, it's very telling that, thirty-six years after the man's resignation

And sixteen years after his death, Richard Nixon's family is STILL fighting in the courts to block the release of the remaining White House tapes.

[saltpoint]

12. LOL. Good point. They'll just be damned if they're

gonna release those tapes!

The ghost of Rosemary Woods haunts the new Nixon library...

:hi:

[snot]

13. They never sleep.

If they did, they might dream.

[Initech]

14. Sweet! My hometown is on DU!

But yeah... the Nixon Library is a definite void of history and conservatism. They never talk about Nixon's social policies or anything like that. Oh and O'Reilly spoke there once.

[winstars]

15. Got my car at the Honda in Yorba Linda

Went to pick it up and had to kill a couple of hours so we went to "Library" with a loaner car... Man, I guess you don't get to keep too much when YOU RESIGN!!!! Some presidential BS, an old Caddy, the helicopter he split in that August day, the "boyhood home" BS... Ray-gun got the fucking plane!!! (AS DOES ELVIS ACROSS THE STREET IN GRACELAND)

When I of course asked where are the listening rooms for the tapes, I got blanked like I had asked for some China White. So this new/old BS sounds totally predictable.

ps In the gift shop the biggest item, as in how many different products it was on, was of course the ELVIS/NIXON photo. Postcards, pens, posters toilet paper, literally at least 2 dozen items I SWEAR!!!!

[Wilms]

16. Great postcard.

Thanks!

[Initech]

17. One of the funniest things about the library...

The biggest exhibit there is a huge piece of the Berlin Wall. And what's funny is that if you go to Berlin, they tell an entirely different story than what you're used to hearing. That was a total eye-opener.