(CBS News) Just weeks after the 100th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's birth, a new exhibit at his presidential library is raising eyebrows. It contains newly declassified documents that reveal Nixon's correspondence with President Bill Clinton, and a surprisingly warm relationship between the two.
LBJ and Lady Bird love letters released to the public
The correspondence includes a personal, handwritten letter from Nixon congratulating Clinton on surviving a tough primary and general election to win the White House. That letter was the beginning of an unlikely union between the former Republican president and the newly elected Democratic chief executive.
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley says the relationship served both men well.
"It's a very fascinating letter because he's opening up the door to the new incoming president that I'm on your side, that I am impressed by you, that you have the moxy, you have the steel to be president and I'm here," said Brinkley. "What's interesting was how Nixon was able to start rehabilitating himself and had been shunned largely by Reagan and Bush and was welcoming an overture with the new Democratic president. And Clinton took it."
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