NIXON LIBRARY : THE OTHERS : Critics Label Libraries as Shrines by the Presidents, for the Presidents

Carolyn Husbands was never keen on LBJ. But then she spent one sweltering afternoon here visiting the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential library.

From the moment she crossed the threshold of the gleaming white building perched on a grassy knoll at the edge of the University of Texas campus, Husbands sensed her old impressions beginning to erode.

First there was the short biographical film on the late President’s life, a heart-tugging presentation that had Husbands dabbing at tears. Then the resident of Jackson, Miss., strolled the museum corridors and gazed at the carefully preserved documents and artifacts chronicling Johnson’s rise from poverty in the Texas Hill Country to the Oval Office.

Finally, she mounted a wide marble staircase to the “Great Hall,” a lofty atrium featuring a glass wall exposing floor upon floor of bookshelves, each holding scarlet boxes with gold presidential seals packed with more than 35 million letters, memos and other weighty documents of the Johnson Administration.

It was a bit overwhelming.

“I feel better about him after seeing all this,” Husbands confided as she wandered through the library, soaking in the artfully crafted story of the nation’s 36th President. “I know this accentuated the positive, but it changed my feelings.”

Accentuating the positive, it seems, is something presidential libraries do rather well. And now another is joining the fold. Along with the fanfare of the Richard M. Nixon presidential library grand opening comes criticism that the privately operated, $21-million complex in Yorba Linda will present a one-sided glorification of a President best known for his resignation in the midst of the Watergate scandal.

Nixon’s is not the first presidential library to suffer such barbs. From the Eastern Seaboard to the cornfields of Iowa, presidential libraries have long been under attack by those who see them as little more than shrines to the select few who have held the reins of power in America.

The Johnson library has been dubbed a “Pharaoh’s monument,” while John F. Kennedy’s library overlooking Dorchester Bay has been criticized for providing too much Camelot and not enough substance about that Administration’s darker days. Some wags, meanwhile, note that Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower were so smitten by their respective libraries that both chose to be buried on the grounds.

To fans, presidential libraries represent a fitting tribute to America’s leaders, a lasting record of their lives and their administrations.

But critics--among them politicians and scholars of all stripes--argue that the museum displays contained in the eight presidential libraries run by the the National Archives offer a glorified picture of their namesakes, a portrayal that robs visitors of a balanced perspective on history.

“It’s always true that there’s a certain amount of distortion in the museums,” said Stephen E. Ambrose, a political historian from the University of New Orleans and author of two volumes of biography on Nixon. “They always glorify the President. I’m sure (the Nixon library) won’t be any exception.”

Even some partisans agree that a presidential library would be hard pressed to offer a portrait that is anything but celebratory.

“There’s an obvious tendency to think in shrinelike terms when you begin one of these,” said Harry Middleton, director of the Johnson library and a former speech writer for Nixon’s predecessor. “But that kind of thinking flattens after a while, and very likely the death of the President whose name adorns the building has something to do with it.”

From the day in 1939 that Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for his library in the Upstate New York community of Hyde Park, presidential libraries have been at the center of a tussle over their role as emblems of power in a democratic nation.

Before Roosevelt, Presidents routinely removed their papers upon leaving office, and their preservation was largely a matter of luck. The bulk of George Washington’s papers, for instance, were recovered by the government only after a relative sold them to the State Department between 1834 and 1849 for a then-lordly sum of $55,000.

History suffered as the papers were cut up by autograph collectors, mutilated by rats, scattered about the countryside, burned in barns or carted off by marauding troops. The single exception was Rutherford B. Hayes, for whom a museum and archives were established in Ohio to preserve his presidential papers and celebrate his achievements.

After the turn of the century, several Presidents began depositing their papers in the Library of Congress. But it was not until Roosevelt that the concept of a presidential library run by the National Archives sprang to life. In 1955, Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act to allow other Presidents to follow Roosevelt’s example.

Each one did just that, but not without difficulties.

The Kennedy library was originally planned for a parcel in Cambridge beside Harvard University, but opposition from nearby homeowners resulted in the complex being delayed for more than a decade. It was ultimately built up the road at a shoreline site on the University of Massachusetts campus.

Jimmy Carter’s library was beset with complaints from homeowners over an expressway that would have cut through a leafy, well-to-do section of Atlanta. A proposal for a Ronald Reagan library at Stanford University was scuttled chiefly by student and faculty opposition, and the complex now is being built in a rural tract in Ventura County.

The initial reaction in West Branch, Iowa, to plans for the Hoover library was that the institution would be an intrusion on the community, recalled John Fawcett, the National Archive’s assistant archivist for presidential libraries and a native of the tiny farm community. Residents were concerned the library would remove valuable land from the tax base and prompt authorities to plow a four-lane road through town, he said.

“Interestingly enough, now the Hoover library is seen as the greatest asset in West Branch,” Fawcett said. “There’s been a total turnaround in how the community feels. They’re even trying to resurrect the old four-lane road plans now.”

Indeed, the libraries are often seen as an economic and cultural boon by many townsfolk.

The Johnson library, for instance, is second only to the Alamo as a Texas tourist attraction, its operators boast. Similar benefits are also reaped in Independence, Mo., site of the Truman presidential library.

“It’s been a real important aspect of Independence life over the last 25 or 30 years,” said Barbara J. Potts, the city’s longtime former mayor. “Independence is proud of the Truman legacy. He put us on the map.”

Then there are the detractors.

Foes of the libraries have warred with supporters over a broad slate of issues, from how much space should be allowed for the museums to whether it would be better to gather all the presidential papers in one place, such as Washington.

Such gripes prompted Congress in 1986 to adopt legislation that provides incentives to limit the size of future libraries to 70,000 square feet (the Johnson library sprawls over about 100,000 square feet) and ensures that each opens only after a hefty private endowment is established to defray operating costs.

The Johnson library, for instance, has an endowment of $20 million, and the promoters of the Nixon complex want to raise at least $10 million. Both Presidents helped out by donating money collected from sales of books they published.

Others have sought money from friends and the public.

Truman raised revenue by hitting “the rubber chicken circuit,” speaking before countless fund-raisers, said George H. Curtis, assistant library director in Independence. (Truman was also noted for spending more time at his library than any other President. He kept regular office hours and even took to leading packs of schoolchildren on tours.)

In recent years, criticism has even mounted against some of the museum displays. Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a prominent anti-war activist during the Vietnam era, has blasted the Johnson library’s exhibit on the war, charging that it stretches the truth.

Hugh Sidey, a Time magazine correspondent who has covered every President since Eisenhower, noted that the 20-minute biographical film at the Johnson library lavishes attention on “Great Society” programs, but spends only two minutes on Vietnam, which he calls “the single most dominant event in the Johnson Administration.”

Sidey also suggested that Kennedy’s museum falls short of conveying the “grim moments” of 1961, when the Administration suffered “a bunch of hammer blows all year long” with events such as the Bay of Pigs, the orbital flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the rise of the Berlin Wall.

“The (Kennedy) museum is much more glamorized than 1961 really was,” Sidey said. “It was really kind of grim. These were young guys not sure what they were doing.”

Despite such criticisms, Sidey sees an important role for presidential libraries.

“There’s an element of enshrining, but that’s not so bad really,” said Sidey, who counts himself a supporter of the presidential library system. “Maybe it’s a President’s rebuttal. Maybe these guys who take the slings and arrows, who are so pummeled in public, should have their chance.”

Ultimately, it is the presidential archives, the vast repositories of correspondence, memos and other documents, that are the soul of the presidential library system, argues Fawcett of the National Archives. While a presidential museum may offer one perspective of an administration, the archival records gleaned by a scholar may yield a decidedly different picture.

Lyndon Johnson dedicated his library by declaring that he wanted it to present “the story of our time--with the bark off.” While some critics may question how well the museum has fulfilled that mission, the archives seem almost beyond reproach.

Perhaps the most vivid proof is the publication of Robert A. Caro’s controversial volumes of biography on Johnson, works that were drawn in part from documents culled from the dimly lit stacks of the Johnson library in Austin.

As for the Nixon library, it will largely be the public that decides its success or failure, Fawcett said.

“The Nixon presidency is a particularly difficult one to portray,” he said. “There were significant foreign policy advancements, major domestic triumphs, yet through Watergate some of the most tragic developments of any presidential administration.

“It has the potential of being a very good exhibit on a very important part of history. But that is not for me to judge. It’s for the people who visit--the people of hometown U.S.A., the architecture critics, the political critics, the newspaper columnists. That’s how a museum is judged.”

PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES Rutherford B. Hayes Library Presidency: 1877-81. Opened: Memorial Day, 1916. Location: Fremont, Ohio. Contains: More than 1 million pages of documents from the Hayes presidency, plus 10,000 museum objects, including a White House carriage. Site also includes the Hayes residence and the tomb of Rutherford and Lucy Hayes. Admission: $3. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Presidency: 1933-45. Opened: July 4, 1940. Location: Hyde Park, N.Y. Contains: Extensive collection of documents, small naval museum, family mementos. Admission: $3.50. Harry S. Truman Library Presidency: 1945-53. Opened: July 6, 1957. Location: Independence, Mo. Contains: Replica of the Oval Office, a large mural and several paintings by Thomas Hart Benton, one of Truman’s favorite artists. Truman is buried there. Admission: $2. Dwight D. Eisenhower Library Presidency: 1953-61. Opened: May 1, 1962. Location: Abilene, Kan. Contains: Memorabilia from the White House and Eisenhower’s military days. The complex of buildings houses his presidential papers and a nondenominational church. Eisenhower and his wife are buried there. Admission: $1. Herbert Hoover Library Presidency: 1929-33. Opened: Aug. 10, 1962. Location: West Branch, Iowa. Contains: Records from Hoover’s long career in public service, rare books, his fishing tackle and a collection of valuable Chinese porcelain. The Hoover grave site is also on the 187-acre grounds. Admission: $1. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Presidency: 1963-69. Opened: May 22, 1971. Location: University of Texas--Austin. Contains: Archives with 35 million documents, oral history project, family and political memorabilia, replica of the Oval Office, Vietnam War exhibit. Admission: Free. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library Presidency: 1961-63. Opened: Oct. 20, 1979. Location: Boston, Mass. Contains: Housed in a building designed by I.M. Pei on the waterfront, the museum contains a variety of exhibits portraying the events of the Kennedy presidency, including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination. Admission: $3.50. Gerald R. Ford Library Presidency: 1974-77. Opened: April 27, 1981. Location: University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. Contains: Ford’s papers from his presidency and years in Congress. A Ford presidential museum opened in September, 1981, in Grand Rapids, Mich. Admission: $1.50 Jimmy Carter Library Presidency: 1977-81. Opened: Oct. 1, 1986. Location: Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. Contains: Camp David accords, Salt II treaty, replica of the Oval Office, exhibit on the Iran hostage crisis, interactive video in which visitors can ask questions of Carter. Admission: $2.50. Richard Nixon Library Presidency: 1969-74. Opened: July 19, 1990. Location: Yorba Linda, Calif. Contains: Selected White House tapes from the Watergate scandal, high-tech interactive displays in which visitors can ask questions of world leaders, a replica of the Lincoln Sitting Room. The house where Nixon was born is next door to the library. Admission: $3.95. Ronald Reagan Library Presidency: 1981-89. Scheduled Opening: Feb. 6, 1991. Location: Simi Valley, Calif. Will Contain: Largest collection of presidential papers of any of the libraries, a replica of the Oval Office, videotapes, photographs, films and mementos. Admission: Not yet decided.

Source: National Archives, individual libraries, “Presidential Libraries and Collections” and Los Angeles Times files.