'Jews are aggressive... the Irish are mean': New tapes reveal Richard Nixon's racist rants before quitting over Watergate

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:56 PM on 13th December 2010

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Richard Nixon launched offensive tirades against blacks, Jews and other ethnic groups in conversations recorded before he quit over the Watergate scandal.
The disgraced US president called Jews ‘obnoxious’ and said it would take 500 years for blacks to reach prominence in America, according to a new batch of secret White House tapes made public yesterday.
‘I’ve just recognised that, you know, all people have certain traits,’ Nixon said to a top adviser in February 1973.

On the record: Nixon's racist remarks were captured by the controversial recording system Nixon had installed in the Oval Office and included 265 hours of tapes released by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

‘The Jews have certain traits. The Irish have certain - for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. It’s sort of a natural trait. Particularly the real Irish,’ said Nixon.
‘The Italians, of course, just don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but . . .’ he trailed off, adding later: ‘The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.’

 

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The remarks were captured by the controversial recording system Nixon had installed in the Oval Office and included 265 hours of tapes released by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
During another conversation with his secretary, Rose Woods, Nixon questioned the opinion of his Secretary of State William Rogers about blacks.
‘Bill Rogers has got somewhat - and to his credit it’s a decent feeling - but somewhat, sort of, a sort of blind spot on the black thing because he’s been in New York,’ Nixon said on the tapes.

'Aggressive and abrasive': Nixon describes Jews, like his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, as 'insecure'

‘He says, well, "They are coming along, and that after all, they are going to strengthen our country in the end because they are strong physically and some of them are smart." So forth and so on.
‘My own view is I think he’s right if you’re talking in terms of 500 years. I think it’s wrong if you’re talking in terms of 50 years. What has to happen is they have to be, frankly, inbred. And, you just, that’s the only thing that’s going to do it, Rose.’
During another conversation with his secretary, Nixon argued that Jewish people, including his national security adviser Henry Kissinger, tend to be insecure.
‘Basically, Rose, most of our Jewish friends, they are all basically people who have a sense of inferiority and have got to compensate,’ said Nixon, who resigned over Watergate in August 1974 and died in 1994.
In a taped conversation with the president , Kissinger insisted it was no concern of the US if Soviet Jews were gassed.
‘The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy,’ said Kissinger.
'And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.’
‘I know,’ Nixon responded. ‘We can’t blow up the world because of it.’



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