Nixon Strikes Again
By Jeffrey Page
More tapes of Oval Office conversations during the Nixon Administration once again reveal his anti-Semitism and his loathing of blacks, Italians, and people of Irish descent.
Nixon an anti-Semite? A racist? Why am I not surprised?
In 1999, we were staggered by a tape on which Nixon, referring back to his early days in politics, declared: “The only two non-Jews in the communist conspiracy were [Whitaker] Chambers and [Alger] Hiss. Many felt that Hiss was. He could have been a half, but he was not by religion. The only two non-Jews. Every other one was a Jew. And it raised hell with us.”
And we’re jolted now with a later tape that captures Nixon expressing racist views regarding several ethnic groups. Doubtless we will be left slack jawed in the future when even more tapes from the famous White House taping system are released by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. But we shouldn’t be. Nixon has, any number of times, proved his bigotry and displayed his twisted world view.
As reported by The Times last week, Nixon was holding court in early 1973 with Charles Colson – later Colson would spend seven months in prison for obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal – when the conversation turned to the “traits” of various peoples.
Jews? “The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality,” Nixon said.
Blacks? “Some of them are smart,” Nixon said.
Irish? “Can’t drink. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks,” Nixon said.
Italians? “Those people don’t have their heads screwed on tight,” Nixon said.
America voted, and for the better part of two terms was saddled with this thug in the White House and his paranoid vision of his own country and its people.
This was the man who felt compelled to tell the country: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
This is the man who kept an enemies list.
This is the man who waged a secret war in Cambodia.
This is the man who picked Spiro Agnew for his vice president, thus making them a unique team in American history – the only president and vice president to resign.
This is the man who appointed Henry Kissinger as secretary of state. After Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir asked Nixon to use his good offices to encourage the Soviets to allow more Jews to emigrate, Nixon and Kissinger discussed it.
Kissinger, who is Jewish, said, “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”
Did Nixon fire Kissinger on the spot? He did not. He said, “I know. We can’t blow up the world because of it.”
Reach Jeff at jeffrey@zestoforange.com
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