Nixon's Anti-Semitic Views
Revealed in Tapes
(1999)
The National Archives released on October 5, 1999,
445 hours of tapes recorded by President Richard Nixon in which he
repeatedly lashes out against Jews and makes anti-Semitic remarks.
Appearing to view "the Jews" as the root of all his
problems, Nixon complained that Washington "is full of
Jews" and that "most Jews are disloyal."
Nixon did believe that top aides Henry Kissinger,
Leonard Garment and William Safire were exceptions, but he said to
his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, "generally speaking you can't
trust the bastards. They turn on you. Am I wrong or right?"
Haldeman agreed. Nixon told Haldeman that the Jews needed to be
brought under control by putting someone "in charge who is not
Jewish" in key agencies.
After a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
was released showing that unemployment was rising, Nixon wanted to
fire the agency's director, Julius Shiskin. He asked Charles Colson
to investigate the ethnicity of officials at the Bureau. "They
are all Jews?" Nixon asked when Colson gave him a list of names.
On another occasion, Nixon and Haldeman discussed
Jewish penetration of the National Security Council staff. Nixon
asked if Tony Lake, then an aide to Kissinger, was Jewish. Nixon
thought he looked Jewish. Lake, who served as Clinton's National
Security Adviser is not Jewish.
When a survey was released in 1971 showing that a
majority of the supporters of antiwar demonstrations came from
affluent neighborhoods in Washington, Nixon attributed the results to
the Jews. "Bob," he told Haldeman, "there's a lot of
Jews in the District, see...The gentiles have moved out.
Sources: Washington Post (October 6, 1999) |