Thirty years later …

This debate has continued since Nixon left office more than 30 years ago. The first time it was presumed settled was in 1974.

From the report in The New York Times:

The director of Richard M. Nixon’s presidential library, under fire from historians for canceling a conference on the Vietnam War, has agreed to eventually make public hundreds of hours of tapes that have been kept secret because they involve Mr. Nixon’s political rather than governmental work.

The library director, John H. Taylor, also agreed that the Nixon estate would make public most of Mr. Nixon’s papers from before and after his presidency. He said the library would work with the National Archives to revise its exhibit on the Watergate scandal, which some historians have said minimized Mr. Nixon’s responsibility, and would help plan a new Vietnam conference.

Mr. Taylor made the promises in an exchange of letters this week with Allen Weinstein, head of the National Archives and Records Administration, who said in an interview yesterday that he would hold the Nixon Library to its word.

NewMexiKen was custodian of Mr. Nixon’s pre-presidential archives for many years (as an employee of the National Archives). Many of those papers were donated to the United States while Mr. Nixon was president. Nice to see that most will be made public soon.