Дон Уилсон: Президенттік мұрағаттар мен даулы келісімшарт

American historian

Don W. Wilson (born December 7, 1942) was appointed the Archivist of the United States, serving from December 4, 1987, to March 24, 1993. Afterwards, he became the executive director of the George Bush Center at Texas A&M University. One day before the end of George H. W. Bush's term, Wilson signed an unusual agreement with Bush, granting him "exclusive legal control of all Presidential information" from more than 4,000 computer tapes covering the Reagan and Bush administrations. The archival data could have been important to historians and investigators to understand domestic and foreign policy initiatives during the Reagan and Bush years, as well as scandals and controversies. The hiring of Wilson to the George Bush Center at Texas A&M University shortly afterwards raised concerns of conflict of interest.

Wilson earned a bachelor's degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and attended the University of Cincinnati, which awarded Wilson both an M. A. and Ph. D. in history. He served on the history faculties at the University of Michigan and Washburn University and worked with the Center for Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University as a research professor. Wilson also worked as archivist at the Kansas State Historical Society and as associate director at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Wilson was a National Defense Fellow from 1964 to 1967 while at the University of Cincinnati, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cincinnati in 1988. Wilson has extensive experience with presidential libraries, working as deputy director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, as the first director of the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1981, as the executive director of the George Bush Presidential Library and George Bush Presidential Library Foundation (April 1993 – 1998) at Texas A&M University. The latter position was a source of controversy when it was revealed that Wilson made an agreement with Bush that gave the president control over his records that was ultimately judged "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and contrary to law."