Naftali's area of focus was the history of
counterterrorism and the
Cold War. Before becoming director of the Nixon Library in 2007, Naftali had been an associate professor at the
University of Virginia, where he directed the
Miller Center of Public Affairs' Presidential Recordings Program. In the 1990s, he taught at the University of Hawaii and Yale University. He served as a consultant to the
9/11 Commission, which commissioned him to write an unclassified history of American counterterrorism policy. This was later expanded into his 2005 book
Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism. From 2007 to 2011, he directed the
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He was appointed when control of the Library was transferred from the
Richard Nixon Foundation to the
National Archives and Records Administration. His biggest task at the library was to present a more objective and unbiased picture of the Watergate scandal—a task completed in March 2011, when the Library's new Watergate gallery opened and received extensive news coverage. == Personal life ==