Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt to be the new president of the Richard Nixon Foundation
Conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt will take over as president of the Richard Nixon Foundation as it refocuses on shaping the complex legacy of the former president beyond his resignation following the Watergate scandal.
The private nonprofit, in partnership with the National Archives, share the nearly 30-year-old Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, built on the birthplace of Nixon and home to his presidential documents and artifacts.
“It’s been 50 years since Richard Nixon’s inauguration as president, and 25 years since his passing; it’s time to consider and judge President Nixon on the totality of his life and career, and Hugh will help to make that happen,” the foundation’s board Chairman James Cavanaugh said in March 25 press release announcing Hewitt’s appointment.
Hewitt replaces Bill Baribault who helped shepherd the library’s $15 million overhaul that opened in 2016. But Hewitt’s focus won’t be on the library’s exhibits – “That’s not even on the radar,” he said.
“I wouldn’t presume to have an idea about changing those which were just redesigned by the best people in the world with all the input of the foundation,” he said.
With the library’s overhaul out of the way, Hewitt said the foundation will begin hosting more conferences, lectures and other events to highlight for a broader audience Nixon’s legacy on foreign policy and domestic issues – expanding on what Hewitt described as “the three graphs” that show up in history textbooks about the former president.
“My response is, ‘I’m here to focus on the mountains, not the valleys,’” Hewitt said.
The private foundation and the federal archivists – who came on board in 2007 when the National Archives took over library operations – have struggled in the past with conflicting missions for the presentation of Nixon’s legacy. But relationships improved as leadership changed and the library went through the massive overhaul that expanded its exhibits.
“We have a good relationship with the National Archives now and we look forward to a great relationship with the National Archives,” Hewitt said. “They are the best archivist organization in the world.”
Hewitt worked as a researcher and writer for Nixon in the late 1970s and early 1980s, helping the former president write books after he left office, such as “The Real War.”
“President Nixon was the best boss I’ve ever had,” Hewitt said. “He was freewheeling in his thought. He was not much for small talks. If you wanted to talk to Nixon, come ready to talk about something important whether it be Vietnam or opening with China.”
After serving in the Reagan administration, Hewitt became the Nixon Library’s first executive director, leading the fundraising campaign through construction, which was completed in 1990. He also helped rehabilitate Nixon’s childhood home next door, the place he returned to Monday for the announcement that he would take over again as the foundation’s president in July.
Hewitt had left the library to return to private law practice. He then hosted a daily public affairs program on KCET from 1992 to 2007 and launched a nationally syndicated talk radio show in 2000, which he hosts to this day.
Hewitt has been ping-ponging between the coasts. He plans on continuing the back-and-forth, spending seven months in Washington, D.C, and five months in Southern California.
Hewitt is also a professor of law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law and a columnist for the Washington Post. He will keep several of those jobs, he said, including the radio show. He plans to take a long leave of absence from Chapman. He also retired from private practice last year.
“I have what I call a portfolio career,” he said. “I’ve never had less than four jobs at the same time, and I don’t believe in having less than four jobs at the same time.”