ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 5, 1997 TAG: 9704070081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST|
The agreement does not change the rules and timetables governing public access to the materials.
In a proposed settlement that is another chapter in the tortuous history of the Watergate tapes, the U.S. government would pay the estate of former president Richard Nixon $26 million in compensation for his White House papers and records.
Under the still-tentative agreement, details of which were confirmed by both government sources and those close to the Nixon family, the estate has agreed to turn over to the National Archives control of the privately run Nixon library in Yorba Linda, Calif. All the materials seized by the government as Nixon attempted to spirit them from the White House following his resignation in 1974 will be shipped to California as well.
The Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation would use part of the payment, reportedly about $8 million, to build a new facility to house the huge collection of more than 44 million items. The partially underground structure would be built to the Archives' specifications on the nine-acre Yorba Linda property. The Nixon collection is now held in the National Archives annex in College Park, Md.
Nixon lawyer R. Stan Mortenson said he was ``not in a position to confirm or not to confirm'' any of the major points. He suggested there were inaccuracies, but declined to be more specific.
The agreement leaves unchanged the complex network of rules and timetables governing and restricting the public's access to the materials.
The proposed settlement would bring the Nixon library, which opened in 1990 with the unique distinction of having no original presidential documents, in line with other presidential libraries around the country. Although all of them are run by the National Archives, they also usually function as image-polishing institutions for their presidents and bear the personal stamp of the chief executives whose collections they house.
That is precisely what disturbs critics of the plan, both in and out of government. They contend that public access to the materials would be diminished by the arrangement even as public funds are being spent to pay for them. They point out that presidential libraries are heavily influenced by the desires of the former presidents and their families and devoted to enhancing their reputations. The ``smoking gun'' tape that forced Nixon's resignation, for instance, was heavily edited when it was played for visitors at the opening of the Nixon library in 1990.
``This is unconscionable,'' University of Indiana historian Joan Hoff, a longtime student of Nixon's records, said of the plan. ``If this goes through, I think you'll see a firestorm from the academic community.''
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