Nixon Library releases documents

LOMA LINDA, Calif., July 2 (UPI) -- The Nixon presidential library in California has released presidential records, many of them formerly classified, library officials said Friday.

Almost 100,000 pages of records, 80 hours of video and 5,000 pages of previously classified national security records were released, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum said on its Web site.

Most of the documents come from files of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., who served in the Nixon White House from January 1969 to December 1970, dealing mainly with welfare reform, the environment, civil rights, drug and population control.

Among the documents released are formerly classified intelligence assessments concerning the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the Vietnam War, Soviet strategic weapons, Berlin, U.S.-U.K. relations, Soviet-Israeli relations and correspondence between Nixon and British Prime Minister Edward Heath, the Web site said.

When the library opened in 1990 with private funds in Nixon's hometown of Yorba Linda, Calif., researchers charged it had a decidedly pro-Nixon bias and referred to it disparagingly as a theme park, the Los Angeles Times said.

Under pressure from Nixon family members and supporters, Congress allowed the facility join the official presidential library system in 2004. Library officials subsequently promised more "strictly factual exhibits," the Times said.