A letter by Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States:
Mr. Weinstein’s letter appears in today’s Washington Post, commenting on a Post story by reporter Christopher Lee of March 20. Lee’s story is on our website under News, Reviews & Commentary (click here to read Lee’s story):
I would like to add to Christopher Lee’s March 20 news story, “Nixon Library Joins the Club.”
For the first time, all of Richard M. Nixon’s public papers and tapes will be brought under one roof — prepresidential, political and presidential materials. Under the terms of the deed of gift to be signed at the time of transfer of the library, the political materials, which would have been returned to the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation, will be reviewed and made available to the public. These papers will be processed according to the same review standards incorporated in the regulations used by the National Archives to review Nixon’s presidential materials.
Further, the Nixon Library will be held to the same high standard and rules to which all other presidential libraries are required to conform.
Finally, the “Vietnam and the Presidency” conference held earlier this month at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston was the first conference sponsored by all the presidential libraries. I did not order it as a replacement for the conference canceled by the Nixon Library.
The presidential libraries are unique in their ability to bring together policymakers, journalists, historians and participants in forums that examine events and issues of the past century. The inclusion of the Nixon Library in this system gives us an uninterrupted timeline of presidential history for the past 75 years.