Reagan Praises Nixon Record After Meeting

Former President Ronald Reagan, emerging from an hourlong meeting with Richard M. Nixon Tuesday, 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.

On Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon, with his former top aides under indictment and his Administration badly battered, became the first President ever to resign the office. But Reagan, whose own Administration was rocked by the Iran-Contra scandal, 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 return to Southern California, a visit that began without fanfare Tuesday but that will peak later this week when dignitaries gather to dedicate the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace, opening in Yorba Linda about 16 years after he resigned the presidency.

Nixon, limping slightly, left the meeting at Reagan’s Century City office Tuesday afternoon, saying only that “it’s a nice day here” as aides escorted him into a waiting Lincoln Continental.

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--Reagan and Nixon shared opinions on the state of affairs in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the aide said. And 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.

“We know that from sitting there,” Nixon reportedly said.

Nixon and his wife, Pat, called again on the Reagans on Tuesday evening, visiting them at their Bel-Air home.

Although Tuesday’s meetings took place out of public view, they launched three days in which Nixon will again briefly capture a share of the national spotlight. After a long hiatus in the years immediately following his resignation, Nixon has spent the past decade guardedly reclaiming a place on the public stage, and many observers have marked the opening of the Nixon library as a watershed event in his tenacious climb back from ignominy.

When he steps to the dais on Thursday to preside over dedication of the library in Yorba Linda, Nixon will be joined by President Bush as well as former Presidents Reagan and Gerald R. Ford--a gathering that stands as testament to Nixon’s political redemption, at least within his own party.

Even so, Nixon still arouses passionate emotions, and many feel he has never accepted full responsibility for the failings of his Administration. Protesters are expected outside Thursday’s dedication ceremony.

If for many the dedication has come to symbolize Nixon’s persistent quest to redeem his presidency, for others it is more pointedly a testament to the former President’s personal strength.

Ron Ziegler, Nixon’s presidential press secretary, said Tuesday that he views the library as a sign that Nixon has weathered his personal and political trials with courage.

“I’ve seen Richard Nixon in disgrace, and he chose not to destroy himself,” Ziegler said, adding that there were times in the San Clemente days after the resignation when “it would have been very easy to walk into the ocean with a bottle of Chivas Regal under your arm.”

Nixon did not, however, and “that’s what we’re celebrating with the library,” Ziegler said.

Joining the former presidents, former Nixon staffers and other dignitaries at Thursday’s celebration will also be members of Nixon’s family, but they, like Nixon himself, shied from the spotlight Tuesday.

“The family will have no comment,” said Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the former President’s daughter. “We want the library to be the focus.”

At the library, corporate backers of the $21-million, privately financed institution gathered Tuesday night for a Mexican banquet given for more than 200 guests. The event, sponsors said, was intended to let supporters of the library get a first look at its exhibits.

“It’s exquisite,” William Dohr, vice president of Irvine-based Sterling Builders Inc., said upon leaving the exhibit. “It’s a very balanced presentation covering all aspects of his career. They did not try to varnish over anything.”

While corporate backers were given an early peak at the facility, curious visitors, drawn by the mounting publicity and directed by newly erected signs in and around Yorba Linda, were forced to see what they could from outside.

Joseph La Roche, a former field director for Nixon’s reelection campaign, was one of those taking in the sights.

“I really thought it would be in San Clemente because that’s where the Western White House was,” said the Anaheim resident, who last saw Nixon in 1975 when the former president hosted a farewell party at La Casa Pacifica, as the Nixons’ San Clemente residence was known. “I think this is great, and it will be good for Orange County.”

La Roche and other early visitors Tuesday encountered legions of workers putting the finishing touches on the facility while dark-suited Secret Service agents milled about checking security arrangements.

“We’re very busy with the final site preparations,” Hugh Hewitt, the library’s executive director, said Tuesday morning. “It will probably be nonstop until the opening.”

Two of the library’s installations remain to be completed, Hewitt said. One, entitled “Legacy,” will review Nixon’s time in retirement.

The other, “Watergate,” details the scandal that sent Nixon’s top aides to jail and drove the President from office under imminent threat of impeachment. He was later pardoned by Ford.

With workers swarming over the property to finish the preparations, the pre-opening hustle and bustle drew Yorba Linda residents into the festivities as well, and many of them basked in the publicity that has cascaded onto the small North Orange County town.

“Before, when I would say I was from Yorba Linda, people would say: ‘Where?’ ” said Barbara Buschini, a 48-year-old Yorba Linda resident. “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 Bush, Ford and Reagan. Outside a Prudential Realty office near the library, a banner proclaimed: “Welcome, U.S. Presidents.”

Local youngsters got into the act too. Tuesday evening, about 300 local Scouts practiced the color-guard drill that they will perform Thursday.

“You know how to carry an American flag, son?” Irv Womack, a Placentia Scout leader asked one Scout. “You have to make sure it doesn’t drop, and it never touches the ground.”

The library dedication also stirred activity elsewhere in Orange County, as workers at the Anaheim Hilton prepared their own welcome for President Bush, who will spend tonight there. Although Reagan has visited the Hilton several times, no sitting President has ever stayed overnight, said Patrick Hynes, director of public relations for the hotel.

“It’s great for employee morale just to be part of this,” Hynes said. To prepare for it, the Hilton has put in new wallpaper, new carpets and new fixtures in the suite where the Bushes will stay. An exercise bicycle and set of exercise stairs have also been put in the suite for the Bush visit.

And when the President arrives, he’ll be greeted by a white chocolate, marzipan and a sugar replica of the presidential seal.

“It’s going to be an exhilarating time for everyone here at the Hilton,” Hynes said. “Even though few of the staff will get to see the President, all of our employees are very excited.”

Staff writers Tammerlin Drummond, Ann Conway and Jeffrey A. Perlman and correspondent Shannon Sands contributed to this report.

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