Listen in at the
RICHARD NIXON LIBRARY
In 1968, Richard M. Nixon became the first Californian elected president. Six years later, he resigned. America has been profoundly shaped by what happened in between — especially what went wrong — and that story is told in fascinating detail at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
As shown in dozens of exhibits on the 9-acre site, Nixon negotiated the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, created the Environmental Protection Agency and, in a 1972 visit, made a major diplomatic breakthrough with China. But operatives of his campaign were caught breaking into Democratic National Committee headquarters (in the Watergate
office complex), and then Nixon and top aides were caught trying to cover it up. His own secret tapes sealed his fate. He is the only U.S. president to resign.
Nixon and his wife, Pat, are buried here next to the modest home where Nixon was born, which is now part of the library grounds. (There’s also a presidential helicopter on site.) She died in 1993; he died in 1994.
Adult admission to the library is $16 (compared to $29.95 at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley).
BONUS TIP: The National Archives has digitized all 4,042 reels of Nixon’s infamous White House tapes, and more recordings are being declassified every year. Whether you’re in the library or on a computer at home, you can now eavesdrop on the president as he makes phone calls, confers with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, considers dropping Spiro Agnew as his vice president and ponders relations with China and India.