Nixon’s Past Should Not Be Forgotten

* I read with great interest your editorial “Make it a Real Gem,” regarding the development of the Center for Peace and Freedom as an offshoot of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

It was suggested that there will be critics who will see this as another move to “rehabilitate the reputation of the fallen president. Whatever shadows remain from the Watergate era, the Nixon presidency is taking on a far more complex character” with the passage of time, and that “old grudges have subsided.”

This representation of Richard Nixon’s arrogant and deliberate betrayal of the public trust, which was revealed in the discovery of the Watergate conspiracy and provoked his resignation to avoid impeachment after appointing a successor who agreed to pardon him, exemplifies the degree of success his efforts to rewrite history have achieved. You characterize his Administration as “pragmatic,” not criminal, and label condemnation of his perfidy “old grudges.”

Just as with the Holocaust, we must not forget, as he who does not know history is doomed to repeat it.

TERRENCE TAYLOR

Laguna Beach