An Anonymous Patron writes “The Connection reports:
The National Archives just released 20,000 pages of telephone transcripts from former National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger’s private files. Kissinger wanted the sensitive records to be made public five years after his death. But New York Times columnist William Safire, the non-profit National Security Archive, and others sued to open up the tapes sooner.
That pattern has repeated itself for the past twenty-five years, ever since a disgraced President Nixon tried to whisk his papers off to his retirement home. Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to give his papers to the country, but his successors have had mixed feelings about opening up their secrets for all to see.”
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Of mixed opinion
First, I think that openness is a good thing. It’s valuable to get these transcripts out. On the other hand, if HK knew they were going to be released while he was still alive, he might have destroyed them. Maybe Saffire, et al., could have waited. I really don’t see the imperative to do this now and I think it might prevent other such transcripts from being kept.