The letters were prompted by the library’s March 4 cancellation of a scholarly conference on Nixon and the Vietnam War, scheduled for April 28–29, that would have included historians who have written critically about the 37th president’s actions, the New York Times reported March 11.
“The issue here is not so much the conference itself,” ALA Office of Government Relations Director Lynne E. Bradley wrote March 10, “but the appearance that the Nixon Library is willing to abrogate commitments. This is of great concern because there appear to be no publicly available legally-binding commitments on the part of the Nixon estate or the Nixon Library and Birthplace to a collection controlled by the National Archives.”
Nixon Library Executive Director John H. Taylor denied that any political consideration led to the conference cancellation, saying that as of the end of February only seven people had signed up for the $180-per-person event, and that the library is “unwaveringly committed to free, full, total, and unmediated access” to all the Nixon records.
Bradley’s letter pointed out that the Nixon Library had requested $3 million in public funds to underwrite the transfer, although President Bush has not included that amount in his proposed budget. She added, “We believe the requested funds will be better utilized by a continued processing of the Nixon tapes and papers to expand public access to these important historical materials.”
Posted March 11, 2005.