[laughs] youre not here to hear me, youre here to hear anthony. I want to briefly introduce him and tell you what i take the work on your behalf, first of all, welcome home, anthony. Ms agree of miu, professional studies and now known as the school of professional studies. I knew him in a different context. Hes a former writer, committee, legislative director in the 111th congress he directed hearing of the national what wht archives. I was in that context that i met anthony. A feeling of relief and pleasure i had when anthony brought this chairman of the subcommittee who ziet it had budget of the agency i worked for, thats a big deal, to come of a tour of the library and i got to give the tour. And anthony will correct me if im wrong, but congress used powerful language. The pleasure and disbelief wassia joy for me to was a joy for me to see. It meant a lot to me and i will always be grateful to anthony for that. Im equally grateful, thats why im here today, that he took time to write a book. He started working before he started working before the government. Some people go to government and then write books. Anthony is the only one that writes, if you have a scholar, you use the lower part of the bifocals. If you were a young person in a high school or elementary near a library, if youre a student of a museum or director, what you see in the bottom are very different and many people in the country who try to make sense of the museum. Anthony is one of them and he has very important thoughts on what to do, what he has seen and what he hopes this system, which by the way, over million americans benefit every year. I look forward from hearing him and i thank you for coming today and i also thank cspan for covering todays event. For cspan, if you could use the mic over here, that would be easy for everybody. Welcome back. Thank you, anthony. [applause] thank you, tim. Thanks to the library and the cold war for manager being here. There are what archives. Thats the original intent. They have become monuments. Now, most people who visit a president ial library dont know that. They see maybe a museum. So what if the records arent open in the archives, its a great museum. I know hofer hoover scholars. Many records are open, they can produce their ph. Des and their books and documentaries. If youre looking at afghanistan, gulf war f you want to postpone your ph. D but you might have a chance. No one today will see records of obama, that goes for reagan, clinton, bush. Thats not because of limitations, policymakers have decided to place more emphasis on version of history than provides access to have the the records. Roosevelt began library because he wanted a place to preserve and make available records and materials. He had the worlds stamp collection at the time and he had a world class naval prints. He open it had library in the summer of 1941 so it was its not coincidental that he wanted to build, theyre monuments. They wont be open for decades. The Ronald Regan Library opened in 1991 and fewer records were open. Thats what they are. I wrote a book about them. Some of what i read was brochure language or incompleement incomplete or just downright inacademy inaccurate. While i was researching i came across difficulties. For example, the National Archives stopped me from access 40 years of president ial libraries. They fought me. They told me that they werent able and that they needed for everyday operation. Thats why they werent available. They encouraged me to file freedom request, which i did. I sent it in my request and denied because it was too big. I was encouraged to narrowed it. I was denied for being too narrowed. [laughs] i stumbled across something that change the course of the book and my life, i dont want to read passages baa i want to get this part right, i dont want people to read the book and get the idea that the parttime that are working and preserve the records, they are not, theyre the it treasurers of the system. It was the higherlevel officials who didnt want to have the dirty laundry aired. You read about a president that violates the law. For some, many even, that fact might not be surprising. This president violated the law to try to build library on similar piece on federal property which was and is prohibited. What maybe even more surprises that the story had never been reported. I discovered the information in the fall of 2006 thanks to activist in college park, maryland. At the end of each day i would ask, are you sure those are all the records for that library. They would pretend to be exacerbateing with me, the answer was, yes. [laughs] i asked them one last time, literally as i was walking out the door, i saw them exchange a look, shrug, i heard some of them say, except those marked nixon camp. They wont be building that up but they wont be help to you. That helped me discovered the story how nixon gathered 4,000 acres to try to build the library in the most spectaculra. He had to resign for office. [laughs] thats part of what we find the selection process, the president picks where he picks president ial library. So you might imagine that, finding that information about a president ial library Site Selection encouraged me to look for other Site Selections and see what i could find. The National Archives kept denying more request. I have to get some, you know, official answers, and so i made an point to interview the official in charge of the president ial Library System and she told me the request were being denied for records, the National Archives played no role in that process, they played no role and they held no records. That was it. That was the ontape answer. That was on a friday afternoon on june 2008, the following monday i received a fedex. 50 pages. Inside that request response was this and ill zoom in for you to show you a little bit closer. Its a talking point memo in 1997 in advance of his first meeting with president clinton to talk about president ial libraries. Well go on to the next page. Briefing points for the clinton president ial library. If you look at the bottom bullet point, making the site decision, and then if i go to the next page, youll actually see it has a long history to assist the president in the establishment of the president ial libraries. Lets just be here. How do you know in 2008, erni was aware 11 years earlier. I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was the author of that memo. I said this would be my exhibit a in my lawsuit and this week i got 500 pages on how the president s decided to build libraries and where they decided to build them. The reason they didnt want me to see them, was the same they didnt want me to investigate them because theres tremendous amount of pollics and money in the system. They would like to think that these are great places like new york and its where america celebrates real history. No president is going to admit problems or mistakes. They are going to try to spend something. The Reagan Library took a different tact tact. Many meant controversy with spent or regulations. By not having it at all in a museum for over 20 years, that was their way of dealing with it. This is great, he was a great president. But the other problem that the records arent available. If the president writes the history, they can look at records. We can have a public debate. We cant have that because the records arent available and the president s had to write their own history. Now, the Nixon Library began in controversy. It was the only president ial library to be operated privately for 17 years. The process is that the president creates private foundation, raises the money and then hands it over to the government and donates to the government and the government runs on behalf of the american people. There are over a dozen legislative authorities that require to preserve records, make them available. Theres one mention of museums but so much focus, so much effort is placed in con in Public Programs that celebrate the president that the archive i know tim and i have discussed some things about this, you know, i make a case from a congressional side that, you know, if we didnt put the money into the exhibits, we might be able to put them in the archives, although, he has pointed out and corrected me correctly, by the way, that the congress wouldnt give more money to the archives, they would take it away. I started off by thinking that there might be a way to reform, maybe a way to balance out nonpartisan history with access to records. Ive come to the conclusion that the National Archives should get out of the business. Weve had congressional debates for decades on whether we should support in 1975, 1976, we havent had a debate. 25 of the archives budget goes to library. 500 million pages of records and just over a billion pages in the National Archives and 25 of the budget goes there. I guess the question is, what does it matter if if president ial libraries dont tell the truth about their president s, whats the math of a ph. D student, when we focus to seem that everything the president did was successful and had planned to be so, we miss from the opportunities of errors they make. What if the Kennedy Library had address it had conventional wisdom of the 1960 election, has a president not entered office of conditions then . What if the Clinton Library had been more opened about personal character and impact on moral leadership. The president rhetorical is depending on what the definition of is, is. [laughs] led to the president ial promise, if you like your healthcare plan. You can keep your healthcare plan. What if the Reagan Library had examined and difficulties of national principles, if the library had taught about succession of serious crimes duh discussion and debate in an open and sincere process, will our journey like guantanamo would have been so smooth. Lbj squander for scoarr social change. He lost the argument about the liberal agenda and ultimately he lost his presidency over a war he escalated from dallas. We would could have learned what he cost to the country and the world. Yet, no president ial Library Officers and so iraq, afghanistan, and so on, until we and the president s we elect to lead us learn. I think it matters, you know. Its actually just over 2 Million People visit the president ial libraries each year and in some states they produce the educational components for those schools and teaching them act their president s, and some of those president ial libraries that education component is funding by the president ial foundation. Now, are you going to give 10 million to a president ial foundation that says the president was wrong, did bad things or wrote the law, youre not going to support that in educational programs, youre not going to support that in exhibits. Just one more thing here. Does anyone of us ultimately matters . Does the conduct past have to what they ought to have done and why make any difference in our lives. The way they present our history affect our judgment in creating our own future, and the answers to these questions is no. We are wasting a billion dollars a decade. We might as well stop worrying about what president s do and how we elect them too. It matters who was president and what he or she did. If that matters, so do the records and the history that we pay for and stamp of approval. So i encourage you to visit a president ial library and read about them. President ial temples, with president obama who has had more coverage, whether it belongs on a college campus, stanford rejected the Reagan Library. They fight each other to get a president ial library. Is that the best use of a universitys time and scholarship specially when it began to shoe fdrs gifts that he received and items. They added bigger museums. 90,000 scare foot room to house an air force one. Its not the only one thats not in the museum. He was the only director that i interviewed who didnt want to get that president s air force one to their library. In fact, ill be showing you this real quickly. The air force one pavilion houses the air force one and houses president reagans marine one helicopter but also has this, in the most curious area of any president ial library. Its an irish pub. They went on their way. You can go into the pub and see the glass that they dranked from. The Reagan Foundation bought the pub and dismantled it and put it inside the air force one pavilion where you can go buy gifts, you can see what i call the regan, its untouched. In the book i discuss how the president ial library museums. These are places he touched and the people he affected. It has for the younger people in the audience, maybe supper superhero movies. He saved the world from communism. The Clinton Library has almost nothing about bill clinton the person. Its being plant in the ladder part. I still cant believe they didnt focus on character issues. Upstairs in the balcony there are three tables and two of them have bill clintons boy scout hat and report card. The rest of the museum is all facts. So, again, encourage you to get involved. You know, i have a list of things we can do to reform the Library System and my favorite as a staff, impossible this would be, my favorite that the National Archives opens the president ial museum. It takes a 100 years to open records. Now, i think if that were the law the president ial foundations, the National Archives, people would get together to figure out a way to put money, resources and effort to put records as quickly as possible. Theres an old joke that the reason that Congress Wont reform president ial libraries that the United States senate is made up of 100 individuals that think theyll have a library. [laughs] i thank you for your attention and open up the floor for questions. [applause] if you have a question, can you use the mic for the benefit of our cspan audience. I mean, what are the records that are president ial library . It seems that the records generated by a president in office belong to us, so are there some that are that are elsewhere like in library of congress or somewhere . Thats a good question. Up till 78 they considered property and can do what they want. President ial hoover established libraries. Hoover opened the fourth president ial library and put them in west branch island. They were scattered records, were sold for signatures and autographs. A lot of washington records were eaten up by rats. So 1978 records act it took effect after jimmy carter. President s who sign legislation relating to president ial libraries, legislation takes effect. So now they are considered the property of the government, but you know, i argue that by pressuring the National Archives to focus on museum that they are keeping the records from being open. Look at what happened they were able to find at least one person. But the Nixon Foundation vetoed that person. For many years president ial libraries had insisted on having consultation rights and event veto rights. I found legislative language in the report accompanying the bill, because we are instituting a new policy, president ial records are now president of the government and the government is now add administering the records. In order to make the president feel comfortable with that they have to have where the president can excerpt privilege on some records. But the language is explicit, the problem is that thats what will happen. I would argue that the veto power has been used mostly so that the the foundation wasnt comfortable for that person, but its because they are not comfortable with the way they might portray that president. Whats interesting, is from my viewpoint on capitol hill the nation was upset was because portraying the president in light. [laughs] anyone else has any other please, no. I worked for john kennedy when he was a senator during the last year and a half working on africa and related issues and in recent years i contributed my papers to the Kennedy Library, many of the papers of the Kennedy Library were contributed, they werent president ial papers, they were people that worked in the administration or related field to the administration both before as in the senate and during the president ial period. Now, to my knowledge, those papers are opened except where people said i specifically said i do not want my papers opened, which when you contribute to a library, you may say i dont want these open for x number of years, but most of those papers are opened and many scholars have used them, and ive had the pleasure of being in touch with many of the scholars who use it had paper, who sometimes treat me like a ghost from the box, but nonetheless, now you pointed out that that its only i wont say recent but in the last four or less president s, that those papers have been closed. But i appreciate your comment both on the who gets to use what, where, and to the extent that although when one contributes those papers to a library they become property of the library and you sign off. Again, you have the right to say, i get to use this and theyre very open to your getting back to your stuff if you need to or at least the Kennedy Library has been. But id be interested, as i say, you have the birdseye view of many of them and i got the wordseye view. Thank you for your services and thank you for donating your papers. One of the things i talk about in the book, we spent a lot of time and focusing on president ial history and is that the only focus, is that the best use of hundreds of Million Dollars just focused on what the president did, there were other people in the administration, and there wasnt a previous career, look at the careers of bush before he was president , john kennedy, jimmy carter was governor. Thank you very much so much for that. [inaudible] yes, in fact, Kennedy Library staff was fantastic. But the Kennedy Foundation wasnt eager to cooperate and so they didnt