Details about the newly available Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Materials and links to the online audio and finding aids are provided below. A chronology of past releases can be found here.

New Nixon Materials Available

Release Date:    January 11, 2010

Type of Material:    Textual Materials and Previously Restricted Audio

The Nixon Presidential Library opened approximately 280,000 pages of textual materials. This opening included:

• 5,500 pages declassified, in whole or in part, as the result of mandatory review requests from individual researchers. These documents essentially cover national security matters. Topics include the US withdrawal from Vietnam, President Nixon’s visit to Europe in 1969 (including his meetings with French President Charles de Gaulle), US-West German discussions on the future of a divided Berlin, the Jordanian Crisis of 1970, the Oil Embargo of 1973, and US relations with Brazil, Chile Egypt, India, Spain and the United Kingdom and the former USSR.


• Approximately 20,000 pages of formerly restricted materials from the White House Special Files and Staff Member and Office Files. These newly-opened documents comprise several memoranda by President Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Patrick J. Buchanan and H. R. “Bob” Haldeman on political materials and political appointments. Topics include liberalism and conservatism in the Nixon White House, Public Broadcasting, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Hoffa, Dan Rather, Katherine Graham, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the political investigation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Busing, the Federal Reserve, and the appointment of a new Vice President in 1973. This release also includes handwritten notes made by White House staff members in 1971-72 that provide additional details on the attempted politicization of the Internal Revenue Service, the selling of ambassadorships, the covert surveillance of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy and the creation of domestic political espionage (i.e., Operation Sandwedge) and “dirty tricks” capabilities ahead of the 1972 campaign.


• Approximately 40,000 pages from the Health, Education and Welfare and White House files of Frederic V. Malek. This important collection includes materials on Mr. Malek’s role in systematizing the staffing of the entire federal government; on the Nixon administration’s commitment to environmental protection and welfare reform; as well as documents that further detail religious discrimination and the political investigation of the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1971.


• Approximately 75,000 pages from Mr. Malek’s files from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, where he served as Deputy Campaign Manager in 1972. The Nixon Library received the CRP files as part of a large 2007 deed of gift of political and campaign materials from the Nixon Foundation.


• A small collection of Alexander M. Haig, Jr.’s Staff Member and Office Files.

Besides textual materials, the opening included significant audio-visual materials

• Approximately 12 hours (18 separate recordings) of previously restricted White House Communications Agency Sound Recordings. The newly opened recordings include future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s “farewell speech” to his White House colleagues in December 1970; a briefing by White House domestic policy adviser John D. Ehrlichman for a group of high school students visiting from Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington in the wake of the 1970 Kent State tragedy; a July 1969 meeting with the bipartisan congressional leadership and former US treasury secretaries on the surtax, which includes a briefing by President Nixon on his upcoming trip to Asia and Europe; and  various briefings for US businessmen and community leaders by the President,  Henry A. Kissinger and Herbert Stein on politics, foreign and domestic policy.


• Thanks to the generosity of Dale Adler, Oliver F. Atkins’ daughter, this release also includes the donated materials of White House photographer Oliver “Ollie” F. Atkins.  Comprising over 7,000 photographic negatives, transparencies, prints, contact sheets and related publications, this collection is an important contribution to the Library’s audio-visual holdings. It spans Atkins’ career from the early 1940's through the 1970's, when he served, successively, as a photographer for the American Red Cross in the WWII European Theater of Operations, The Saturday Evening Post’s Washington correspondent, and chief photographer for the 1968 Nixon-Agnew campaign before becoming chief White House photographer in 1969.

The Online Returned  Nixon White House Special Files

The Returned White House Special Files consist of approximately 25,000 pages designated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the 1980s, following a judicial decision, as President Richard Nixon’s personal property.  These materials primarily include documents that relate to those political activities of Richard Nixon or his staff that do not pertain to the carrying out of duties of the President as defined by constitutional or statutory powers. Returned to the Nixon estate in the 1990s, these documents were deeded to NARA by the Nixon Foundation and opened to the public in July 2007, and is now being made accessible on the web.

A representative selection of the textual materials are also available online as pdf files. Links to full finding aids for collections described above are available below.

Materials:

• White House Central Files: Subject Files
  • FG   Federal Government-Organizations
    • FG 166   National Capital Housing Authority
    • FG 167   National Capital Planning Commission
    • FG 168   National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence
    • FG 169   National Commission on Consumer Finance
    • FG 233   Veterans Administration
  • GI   Gifts (partial; from GI 2)
  • ME   Messages (partial; from ME and ME 1)
  • PR   Public Relations (partial; from PR 3)
• White House Central Files: Staff Member & Office Files
  • Frank Gannon
  • Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
  • Allen C. Hall
  • Frederic V. Malek
  • White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health
• White House Central Files: Alphabetical Name Files
  • Brewster, D.
  • Disney
  • Dodd, Thomas J. (Sen.)
  • Hoos
  • Saro
  • Sero
• White House Central Files: Oversized Attachments
  • Oversized Attachments #920, #2776, #2935, #3469, #3852, #3990, #4133, #4192, #4249, #4488, #4903, #5975, #7519, #7841, #8153, #8960, #9264, #9586, #10112, #10741, #11372, #11716, #11720, #12447, #12484, #12642, #12660, #13656, #14332, and #14398
• White House Central Files: On-the-Shelf Oversized Attachments
  • On-the-Shelf Oversized Attachments #5, #6, #9, #10, #13, #18, #25, #26, #29, #34, #35, #38, #46, #51, #52, #57, #61, #62, #64, #70, #71, #72, #74, #75, #76, #80, #85, #87, #88, #89, #92, #93, #94, #98, #103, #104, #106, #107, #108, #109, #114, #116, #117, #119, #121, #127, #128, #134, #153, #156, #164, #166, #171, #175, #184, #186, #187, #188, #191, #194, #202, #205, #207, #215, #219, #223, #226, #230, #244, #248, #249, #250, #251, #256, #257, #258, #259, #260, #261, #262, #263, #265, #266, #267, #268, #269, #270, #271, #272, #273, #274, #275, #276, #278, #279, #280, #281, #282, #283, #284, #285, #286, #287, #288, #289, #291, #292, #293, #294, #295, #297, #298, #299, #1883
• Exit Interviews
  • Lyndon K. (Mort) Allin
  • Oliver (Ollie) Atkins
  • Neal Ball
  • Sanford Fox
  • Frank Gannon
  • William Henkel, Jr.
  • Ronald H. Walker
• Committee for the Re-Election of the President Collection: Frederic V. Malek Papers
• Donated Materials of Ollie Atkins
  • Ollie Atkins Donated Photographs Slideshow
• Nixon Presidential Returned Materials Collection: White House Special Files (WHSF)
  • These materials have been available for research in Yorba Linda since July 11, 2007 (Finding Aid in pdf format). They are now available online.
• Previously restricted materials in:
  • White House Special Files: Staff Member & Office Files
  • National Security Files
    • A partial Finding Aid for these previously restricted documents, those declassified under Mandatory Review, is available online as a pdf file.
  • White House Communications Agency Sound Recordings Collection
    • Finding Aid for this supplemental release
    • P-700103 (Greetings/Hassan)
    • P-690808 (Toasts/Ceausescu)
    • P-700912 (Business briefing, 9/24/70)
    • P-710622 (Remarks/Black tie dinner, 06/22/1971)
    • P-711020 (Toasts/Tito)
    • P-711206 (Toasts/Trudeau)
    • P-720405 (Toasts/Michener)
    • P-701111 (Remarks/Ash Council)
    • B-049 (Greetings/Agnew/Singapore/70)
    • B-050 (Greetings/Agnew/Indonesia/70)
    • B-053 (Greetings/Agnew/Australia/70)
    • P-720221 (Remarks/GOP Governors/Reagan/Holton/Milliken)
    • P-710406 (Remarks/Illinois GOP/Percy, 4/8/71)
    • P-710631 (Remarks/Chowder and Marching/Kemp)
    • P-710701 (Toasts/ Velasco)
    • H-189 (Briefing/Ehrlichman/Portland and Seattle Students)
    • P-690716 (Bi-partisan Leadership Breakfast/Boggs/Mansfield, 7/22/69)
    • P-701222 (Remarks/Moynihan, 12/21/1970)
  • Nixon White House Tapes
  • Conversation No. 633-6

Location:  
Textual Materials are available:

• Nixon Library at the National Archives building in College Park, Maryland
• Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California

Audio files are available:

• Nixon Library at the National Archives building in College Park, Maryland
• Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California

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