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Raymond Price Remembers

According to Price's analysis, the media attack on Nixon actually peaked in the period after resignation, when suddenly, "the press simply had no one to call into account any more, so the sky was the limit as far as letting their imaginations run wild. The real spasm of hate that erupted at the time of the Nixon pardon told a lot about the media," Price says.

Price appears to view the post-resignation reportorial efforts of Woodward and Bernstein as especially worthy of condemnation. Price describes their second Watergate book, The Final Days, as an example of "hateploitation." At several points in his own book, Price directly challenges the Woodstein reconstruction of specific events and of various individuals' thoughts during the Watergate denouement. "My feelings about that book are pretty much unprintable," Price says.

The former president's confidante appears particularly circumspect in speculating on what elder statesman role Nixon may be able to play in the future, and it is clear that Price believes media rehabilitation of Nixon must precede a public role for the 37th president. "Obviously, I think Nixon's a tremendous national resource and it's a shame he can't be used. I don't think it's realistic to expect him to be used at this point," Price says. Price seems uncomfortable when conjecturing about what type of elder statesman role might suit Nixon, if any. "He ain't running for president again," Price says, nervously stating the obvious. Price does say Nixon hopes to do more writing after his memoirs are published, and that the former president would like to lecture at college campuses before he grows too old. Eventually, Price says he foresees a Richard Nixon who will once again speak out on national issues on a regular basis.

Clearly, Raymond Price has carved out a role for himself in the campaign to rehabilitate Richard Nixon in the eyes of history. Try to view Richard Nixon through non-Watergate colored glasses, Price recommends, and Nixon will be remembered as one of the great American statesmen of this century. In With Nixon, Price writes, "In the immediate aftermath of Richard Nixon's fall from grace and power, his administration was remembered chiefly for its end. But to see it only in these terms is to miss the central significance of one of the most momentous six-year periods in the nation's history. To view it merely in terms of crime and punishment is not only to distort history, but to deny history."

Only in the last several months has Price witnessed the start of this reconsideration of Richard M. Nixon. Press treatment of Nixon has only recently grown more balanced, Price says. "Things are gradually changing," Price maintains. "History and the public are going to look on the Nixon administration substantially differently ten years from now.

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"As the hysteria subsides--and it is beginning to subside--people will begin to look for perspective, for the relative importance of things. Not that they'll ever say that Watergate was a good thing. It just won't loom quite as large."

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