Here are the highest-level White House communications on the most secret national security affairs of the United States during the 1980s--shockingly candid electronic exchanges you were never meant to see, virtually none of which has ever before been available to the American public.

"As profound as major foreign policy initiatives and fiascos..as trivial as pizza orders and office flirtations."
--New York Times

"Forget the Nixon tapes. we've graduated to e-mail eavesdropping." --Publishers Weekly

"The battle for the first outpost of cyberspace--electronic mail--is over. We won; the White House lost."
--Wired

"It's of vital importance for historians that such materials be retained." --Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

"A rich historical record--and a source of occasional high comedy." --New York

"The book and diskette, culled from 4,000 sanitized messages that the White House and Iran-contra investigators have released, are a cross between history and voyeurism -- a stream of insights into past American policy, spiced with depictions of White House officials in poses they would never adopt for a formal portrait."
--Michael Wines, The New York Times,11-26-95.

We are concerned about the sudden announcement on April 8, 2004, that the White House has nominated Allen Weinstein to become the next Archivist of the United States. Prior to the announcement, there was no consultation with professional organizations of archivists or historians. This is the first time since the National Archives and Records Administration was established as an independent agency that the process of nominating an Archivist of the United States has not been open for public discussion and input. We believe that Professor Weinstein must—through appropriate and public discussions and hearings—demonstrate his ability to meet the criteria that will qualify him to serve as Archivist of the United States:

When former President Ronald Reagan signed the National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-497), he said that, “the materials that the Archives safeguards are precious and irreplaceable national treasures and the agency that looks after the historical records of the Federal Government should be accorded a status that is commensurate with its important responsibilities.” Earlier in 1984, when the National Archives Act was being discussed, Senate Report 98-373 cautioned that if the Archivist was appointed “arbitrarily, or motivated by political considerations, the historical records could be impoverished [or] even distorted.”