Presidential Records Bill Will Prevent Rewriting Of History

There is an old saw that says, "history is written by the winners". Today that might be better stated that "history is re-written by he President". Ever since the Presidential decree by President George W. Bush that gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely, historians have been denied access to the documents that were generated during a presidency.

Traditionally, presidential papers were put in the archives of Presidential libraries for historians to access. This made the legacy of each president public record, as it should be. Bush changed all that and his forst act was making his father’s papers secret. This denies scholars any access to an important period of American history. It also keeps any wrong doings secret and protects the legacy of George H. W. Bush.

No doubt the proposed George W. Bush library at SMU will contain lots of sealed rooms of secret documents. This will keep historians, and lawyers from looking at what really is going on in the administration behind closed doors. Before Bush, presidents papers were used to study how history was made. After Bush historians will have to guess and take the administrations spin on events.

That is why Henry Waxman (D-CA) is co-sponsoring the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007. This act will open all the records and keep history in the hands of scholars and the public, instead of holding our heritage hostage to the whims of spin-masters. History belongs to us, the American people, that way we are all the winners.