Rob Wile/Business Insider
Nixon's resignation was so controversial that, among other things, Congress refused to allow his presidential papers to leave the District of Columbia.
As a result, while the federal government has operated the library for president who's served after 1955, Nixon was allowed to tell his own story for nearly three decades. (The National Archives finally took over in 2007.)
Which is how the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, a sprawling complex located just a few miles south of Los Angeles in Nixon's hometown of Yorba Linda, turned into a such a bizarre, engrossing institution.
During a trip out west, we stopped by to see how America's most controversial president asked to be remembered.
After the trip, we spoke with Bob Bostock, a consultant to the foundation and co-author of most of the museum's exhibits.
The other author was Nixon himself, he told us.
Bostock says no presidential museum is designed to be impartial, but is rather an opportunity to tell a president's story from his own perspective.
One could argue the distinction is not quite so clear-cut. There are no disclaimers saying where the foundation ends and the National Archives begins.
Bostock says the Watergate section of the museum, produced by the National Archives and not the foundation, is arguably too anti-Nixon. The foundation ceded control of that section when the Archives took control of the museum in 2007, he says, though he wanted us to emphasize the relationship between the Archives and the foundation is otherwise cordial.
"I don't think anyone goes in to see exhibits that are harshly critical of that particular president," he said, noting there are plenty of other places to look to find critical voices.
No one, he argued, should go in to a presidential library with the assumption they are getting an official history.
"We don't have that in this country," he said.