Reagan Meets Nixon, Says Reappraisal Is Warranted

Former President Ronald Reagan, emerging from an hourlong meeting Tuesday with Richard M. Nixon, said much of the criticism leveled at the former chief executive “was based on nothing at all” and urged historians to re-evaluate Nixon’s place in history.

In 1974 Nixon, with his top aides under indictment and his Administration badly battered, became the only President ever to resign the office. But Reagan said Tuesday that Nixon’s achievements far outweighed his failings.

“I think much of the criticism was based on nothing at all,” Reagan said in a brief interview. “I think that looking at it fairly, they (historians) should view some of the great strides that he made in international relations and so forth with our country.”

Reagan’s remarks came on the first day of Nixon’s trip to Southern California, a visit that began without fanfare Tuesday but will peak later this week when dignitaries gather to dedicate the former President’s library 16 years after he gave up his office in disgrace.

Nixon, limping slightly, left the meeting at Reagan’s Century City office at 3:01 p.m., saying only “it’s a nice day here” as aides escorted him into a waiting car.

Although neither former leader would discuss the meeting in detail, an aide who attended the session described it as a cordial mixture of small talk, shared recollections and discussion of world events.

“It was two very well-respected Presidents and world leaders chewing the fat over what is going on in the world,” said the aide, who asked not to be identified.

After discussing the first time they met--Reagan, then the president of the Screen Actors’ Guild, was testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 when Nixon was a junior congressman--the two shared opinions on the state of affairs in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the aide said. The former presidents agreed they should strongly support President Bush as he carries out his own policies.

Nixon, according to the aide, was especially forceful in stressing the importance of former presidents lending their support to the incumbent.

Nixon and his wife, Pat, also visited the Reagans at their Bel-Air home Tuesday evening.

Although Tuesday’s meetings took place out of public view, they kicked off three days in which Nixon will briefly hold a share of national attention again, culminating in the dedication Thursday of the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

Curious visitors descended on the library Tuesday, drawn by the mounting publicity and directed there by newly erected signs in and around the city. At the site, they encountered legions of workers putting the finishing touches on the facility while Secret Service agents milled about checking security arrangements.

Two of the library’s installations remained uncompleted. One, entitled “Legacy,” will review Nixon’s retirement, Hewitt said. The other, “Watergate,” details the scandal that sent Nixon’s top aides to jail and eventually drove the President from office.

Many Yorba Linda residents basked Tuesday in the publicity the library has brought their city of 51,000.

“Before, when I would say I was from Yorba Linda, people would say: ‘Where?’ ” said Barbara Buschini, 48. “Now when I say Yorba Linda, they say: ‘Oh.’ We’re on the map now.”

At neighborhood shops, storekeepers sold T-shirts of Nixon flanked by former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Reagan, as well President Bush, all of whom will attend the dedication.

Times staff writers Tammerlin Drummond and Ann Conway and correspondent Shannon Sands contributed to this report.