Inside The National Archives

(TIME, OCTOBER 28) -- Last Week the National Archives disgorged 28,000 documents from the Nixon era. Among them, TIME's Hugh Sidey found a Dec. 11, 1970, memo from Nixon suggesting a letter be written to Sidey and sent by "one of our people" posing as an admirer. Excerpts from the memo:

"Dear Mr. Sidey, My must reading includes every week your perceptive and brilliant columns ... However, I wonder if you really are portraying an accurate picture of this man? From your columns I would get the impression that he was introverted, humorless, rather plotting [sic] and not particularly exciting in his conduct of the Presidency ... I think for your own credibility you ought to correct the image you have left. I don't mean that I like him (frankly I would have to classify myself as a Lindsey [sic] Republican ...) I feel this so strongly, because I detest Vice President Agnew and am repelled by his attacks on the press. [But] if millions of people on television see Nixon as he is, and then read a column by a respected journalist like you which appears to be patently biasted [sic] against him, the very dangerous Agnew theme ... will gain much credance [sic] ..."

--By Charlotte Faltermayer, Lina Lofaro, Erin F. McKinney, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart

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