Federal Archivists Take Control of Nixon Library
Source: By Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press, Thursday, July 12, 2007
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.
......[Federal Museum Director Timothy] Naftali recently oversaw the demolition of the revisionist Watergate gallery, including a section that said the scandal was a coup plotted by Democrats. The museum also told visitors that the infamous 18 1/2 -minute gap in one important White House tape -- a conversation three days after the break-in -- was because of a mechanical malfunction.
"No serious historian believes in that," said David Greenberg, a Nixon scholar at Rutgers University. "It's the opposite of truth. There was a lot along those lines in the library, which was not a matter of interpretation, but was flat wrong, a lie."