Presidential Papers

The names and public acts of the founding fathers are familiar to many Americans, but their thoughts have remained largely a mystery. "People think it would be difficult to touch them as who they were," historian David McCullough told a recent Senate hearing. "And it is, except in what they wrote." For 65 years, scholars have been compiling, transcribing and annotating the writings of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton presents herself as the candidate best able to give the nation better healthcare at lower prices, thanks in part to the searing experience she gained in trying to overhaul the healthcare system during her husband's presidency. Anyone wanting to examine her record, she has said, is able to do so. "Now, all of the records, as far as I know, about what we did with healthcare, those are already available," Clinton said at a Democratic debate last month.

Lawyers for Richard M. Nixon's estate asked a court Wednesday for $210 million to compensate for papers, tapes and photos he left behind in 1974. The government argued that paying anything would "convert a national legacy into a national embarrassment." "Mr. Nixon is entitled to zero compensation," said Justice Department lawyer Neil Koslowe in the opening exchange in an anticipated six-week trial.

Construction of a government-run Richard M. Nixon presidential library in California is becoming increasingly unlikely. Lawyers for the Nixon estate and the Justice Department are preparing for a court battle this summer over how much Nixon's tapes and papers are worth. Archivist of the United States John W.

Officials of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation in Yorba Linda, Calif., have halted preparations for construction of a $6-million building because of a controversy over anti-Semitic writings of its long-deceased namesake, Nixon benefactor Elmer H. Bobst.

Old suspicions die hard. Amid reports that the federally controlled Nixon Watergate archives might be moved from Maryland to the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, historians and former Nixon watchers are raising fresh concerns about an old fear. Can Richard Nixon, even in death, be trusted with his own records?

The estate of Richard Nixon and the federal government are nearing completion of an agreement under which the National Archives would assume control of the privately run Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif., and would house his historic Watergate tape recordings there, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

The estate of Richard Nixon and the federal government are nearing completion of an agreement under which the National Archives would assume control of the privately run Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, and would house his historic Watergate tape recordings there, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.