Nixon’s legacy, warts and all, lives on

Darlene Sky has been a docent at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum for 17 years. She loves the place.

“I have two sons, and I tell them they should take their dates there,” said Sky, a former high school history teacher and flight attendant. “It is such a beautiful place. It is a great stress reducer.

“You can sit on a bench in the gardens and contemplate life. You can think about the obstacles you have faced. You can be inspired by Nixon’s legacy, which is, no matter how many bumps in the road or how often you lose your way, it is important to never give up. Have faith and overcome those obstacles.”

The library, built on a 9-acre site in Yorba Linda that still holds the small, 103-year-old house where Nixon was born, offers tangible connections to history for the 100,000 or so people who visit each year.

Sky leads library tours for school kids as well as foreign visitors and groups of adults of all ages. So what do youngsters and adults who visit get most excited about?

“The helicopter, Marine One, is a favorite sight, especially because they can go inside and see how it was furnished and imagine what it was like for the president to be in it,” Sky said.

At the top of the stairs going inside, people stop, turn around and mimic Nixon’s final farewell to Washington, D.C., in which he stretched out his arms and made a victory sign with his fingers on both hands.

“I tell them that the helicopter is worth $2.5 million,” she said. “I suggest when they go home they tell their friends that they were in a vehicle that cost $2.5 million, and see if they can guess what it was.”

Other outside exhibits that children enjoy include the replica of Washington, D.C.’s reflecting pool, which holds 26,000 gallons of water and is only 12 inches deep, and the 103-year-old house where Nixon was born.

“People ask me all the time when it was moved here, and I say it has always been here,” Sky said. “Frank Nixon [Richard Nixon’s father] built the house from a kit he got through a mail-order catalog.”

He located it on a site surrounded by lemon and orange groves. Richard Nixon was born in the house on Jan. 9, 1913.

“Everything is original; the floors are original. It has a stove and ice box,” Sky said.

To better preserve the structure, the privately funded Richard Nixon Foundation paid to have the house lifted so a new, more solid foundation could be installed.

Children find it amazing that Nixon and his wife, Patricia, are buried only yards from the house, in a memorial garden filled with rose bushes, she said.

The World Leaders Gallery is another favorite stop. Children can stand next to the life-size statues of the world leaders of Nixon’s time and observe that stature and power have little to do with height. The likenesses of the 10 former heads of state include Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Golda Meir of Israel and Winston Churchill of Britain.

“Nikita Khrushchev was pretty tough,” Sky said. “So the kids see that you don’t need to be tall to be tough. And people are amazed at how small Golda Meir was. She was a very powerful woman.”

The youngsters on the tours admire the 1967 Lincoln Continental limousine used by presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford, she said.

The replica of the White House’s Lincoln Sitting Room is another draw.

“The children love that this was the room where the president played with his dogs, Vicky, Pasha and King Timahoe,” she said. “He loved his dogs. There is a humidor in the room, but instead of holding cigars, it was always packed with dog treats.”

The many engaging sights also include a full-size replica of the White House East Room, complete with the same type of crystal chandeliers and portrait paintings. The galleries contain exhibits on Watergate, the Vietnam War, the 1969 moon landing and Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.

Through Sept 27, the collection of brooches worn by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in meetings with world leaders and diplomats is on display. She would choose to wear a type of pin to convey a mood or a message. Albright visited the library on July 21 to talk about the collection; the event drew more than 800 people.

The appearance was one of many held at the library throughout the years. Other big-draw guests have been Henry Kissinger, who was Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state; Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer; Fox news show host and writer Bill 0’Reilly; and former Gen. Stanley McChrystal, at one point chief commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, who made critical remarks about President Obama and resigned his position in 2010.

The Richard Nixon Foundation, a group of Nixon’s supporters and family members, built the Library with $21 million in privately raised funds 25 years ago.

The museum has not been without controversy. The exhibits once emphasized the positive side of Nixon’s private and public lives, including his accomplishments as a senator and vice president, even though the fallout of the Watergate break-in was still the main thing people remembered from his presidency. Nixon’s presidential papers were housed in the Richard Nixon Library in College Park, Md., and researchers had to visit both sites to get an overall picture.

In 2007, the private foundation joined forces with the federally funded National Archives and Records Administration to make the Yorba Linda site the official Nixon library. Exhibits now are thoroughly researched and presented accurately, with an emphasis on impartiality rather than adulation. The 150 volunteer docents who lead tours and answer visitor questions have a minimum of six weeks of training about Nixon’s life and presidency.

“We stick with the facts, just the facts,” Sky said.

The visitors seem to have changed as well.

“I have noticed in the past four or five years that visitors exhibit a stronger sense of fairness than they did 17 years ago,” Sky said. “So much has happened in our country and in our world, and I sense more of an appreciation and understanding of Nixon. We know so much more about what happened and why. Lots of pieces of the puzzle are coming together, and people who come here seem more compassionate and interested in his legacy.”

That legacy is one of the reasons Sky decided to become a docent.

“The Nixon legacy is fascinating and intriguing, but the strongest part of it is that he never gave up,” she said. “Just think, he ran for president (in 1960) and lost. Then he ran for California governor (1962) and lost, in his own state.

“He cried a little bit back then, sure, but then he got up and tried again.”

He was elected the 37th president of the U.S. in 1968.

During his six years in office, the Environmental Protection Agency was founded, the military draft was abolished, the Presidential Task Force on Women’s Rights was appointed, some issues on school desegregation were resolved, and the voting age was lowered to 18 from 21.

A botched burglary at the Watergate Hotel’s Democratic Party offices revealed a political scandal involving some of the president’s men that ultimately was traced to the president himself. As Congress conducted impeachment hearings, Nixon resigned Aug. 9, 1974.

He retreated to his San Clemente home, La Casa Pacifica.

“Even after he resigned, he became an elder statesmen,” Sky said. “He was so well-versed in international affairs, and had so many friendships with people around the world, he was called on to counsel the presidents who came after him.

“He never gave up,” she said. “He lived a political life for 43 years and had visited every continent on diplomatic missions except Antarctica.

“I sometimes wonder if Watergate had never happened, what other accomplishments he could have contributed to his legacy.”

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IF YOU GO:

RICHARD NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Location: 18001Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda

Admission: $11.95; discounts are available for seniors, students and active members of the military. Parking is free

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day

Information: (714) 997-5075; Nixonfoundation.org; nixonlibrary.gov.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

LECTURES AND BOOK SIGNINGS

7 p.m. Aug. 19: Kate Andersen Brower, author of “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House”

7 p.m. Sept. 2: Irv Gellman, author of “The President and the Apprentice: Eisenhower and Nixon, 1952-1961”

SUNDAY CONCERTS

All concerts are held in the auditorium. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. Concerts begin at 2 p.m. Free admission.

Aug. 2: Baritone Hershel Greene performs Frank Sinatra favorites

Aug. 9: Orange County Guitar Orchestra

Aug 16: Concert pianist Darrin Blumfield

Aug. 23: Classical Touch by Pam Wheeler and Ray Carrillo with pianist Rob Woyshner

Aug. 30: Chamber music by OC Rising Stars

Sept. 6: British brass band music

NOTE: Nixon Library galleries will close for a year on Sept. 28 for renovation and upgrading of technology, but the grounds, the East Room, the birthplace and Marine One will remain open.