What’s a Presidential Library to Do?

[groovedaddy]

(under the Nixon model, will Monica Lewinsky's dress be installed at the Clinton Library? ;-)
and I still think Reagan was evil. gd)

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — When Republicans gathered at the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum here for the presidential debate last week, the backdrop was an overhauled exhibition on the Reagan presidency, done under the watchful eye of Nancy Reagan. It is intended, in part, to be a more complete depiction of the Reagan presidency, replacing one that many had seen as a bit too worshipful and airbrushed.

But another exhibition that just opened at yet another presidential museum not far away — the Watergate installation at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda — has offered a stark challenge to the Reagan tribute here, exposing both the different ways that these two museums have chosen to remember their subjects and the different positions that the two former presidents hold in the nation’s and the Republican Party’s memory.

“The Reagan library is the way presidential libraries have been in the past,” said Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine. “The Nixon library represents the new kind of museum that presents more of an historic view, warts and all.”

The Watergate exhibition is so detailed, searing and unapologetic — “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” asks a panel that greets visitors — that it was shunned by Nixon loyalists. They did not attend the opening ceremony this year and provided it no financial support, and last week, one museum docent resigned his post in protest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/us/13libraries.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

[MADem]

1. The Nixon Library was originally a private concern as he resigned in disgrace.

There wasn't much motivation for the National Archives to throw money at his building to burnish his tarnished legacy. They made ends meet for many years by renting the place out for all kinds of meetings/parties, etc.

The National Archives funding came later; and while some people may gripe about the Nixon exhibit, there's been nearly four decades to get used to the idea that Watergate was an "issue" in his presidency. A few diehards on the board may complain, but they agreed to let the NA in, so they can't weigh in with any authority after-the-fact. Also, Nixon had no children who still bear the last name "Nixon." His daughters took their husbands' names, so it's not like the grandkids are going to get teased for their connection to the guy.

As for Reagan, you're never going to see heavy "critiques" at his library so long as concerned friends/relatives live and are determined to block the painful sunlight. I also think the National Archives people--quite sensibly--are unwilling to shit all over an ancient old lady, Nancy Reagan, just to make a point. History can wait. After Nancy shuffles off this mortal coil, the truth will out--and odds are the Reagan kids will just let it ride, so long as it's not egregiously meanspirited.

[Turbineguy]

2. The Reagan Library

could not go anywhere near that. Iran hostage/1980 election scam? Iran Contra? Voodoo economics? Beirut cut and run?

I would argue that Reagan will ultimately do far more harm than Nixon who was more liberal than Clinton. Sure, Nixon screwed up with Watergate but compared to Reagan and both Bush's he was a Prince.

Of course if any any of the current crop of GOP candidates get into the WH,DU'ers will be getting together to pay for these:

[izquierdista]

3. Docent doesn't know decent

I think the Nixon Library should be run by all the local Orange county Nixon haters. They would do it up right, like putting a huge urinal right over the grave site to accommodate all the well wishers. :evilgrin:

[struggle4progress]

4. It's so damn unfair that everybody concentrates on the bad stuff that Nixon did,

like using the IRS to harass his political enemies, and using the FBI to spy on and disrupt groups that opposed him, and running illegal burglary operations from the White House, and invading or launching bombing campaigns against neutral countries, and replacing the oldest democracy in Latin America with a military dictatorship, and redirecting concerned citizens' phone calls from government agencies to private lobbying firms, and ...

... oh, really, don't get me started. What's the point? Everybody was just out to kick poor Nixon around. The saintly man was hounded out of office by a small group of bra-burning draft-dodging black panther extremists in Congress, and most of America bitterly wept their eyes out in sorrow when he resigned

It's time to set the story straight and remember his accomplishments: Nixon gave us one of our most beloved vice-presidents, Spiro Agnew, and the Saturday Night Massacre was one of the top moments in American television history

[Demeter]

6. +15 Trillion Brazillians

The Venezuelans told him where to get off in 1958

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-attacked-by-angry-venezuelans

of course, Kissinger took care of Allende in Chile...and brought in Pinochet...but Watergate short-circuited the push into Latin America...

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

7. Thanks

I needed a laugh today.

[struggle4progress]

5. expletive deleted