Electronic Telegraph - ISSUE 1595 Thursday 7 October 1999

Tapes reveal Nixon as anti-Semite
By Ben Fenton in Washington

TAPE recordings of President Nixon in the White House show the president as a foul-mouthed anti-Semite, subject to paranoiac conspiracy theories long before the Watergate scandal that brought him down.

Richard Nixon: 'They turn on you. Am I wrong or right?'

The tapes are from thousands of hours of recordings made at Richard Nixon's instigation to chronicle his second term in office. Released this week at the National Archives, they cover a period from February to July 1971, when unemployment was rising, America was suffering heavy losses in Vietnam and one of its generals was a drunk. In a conversation with H. R. Haldeman, his chief of staff, Nixon talks of his problems with "the Jews".

Washington, he says, "is full of Jews". After noting several exceptions to his rule, including Henry Kissinger, his national security adviser, and William Safire, a speechwriter, the president adds: "Most Jews are disloyal." He tells Haldeman: "You can't trust the bastards. They turn on you. Am I wrong or right?"

Haldeman agrees: "Their whole orientation is against you. And they . . . have the ability to hurt us." In July 1971, Nixon felt he was undermined by the unexpected release of bad unemployment figures by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. He ordered Charles Colson, a staff member he often used for unpleasant tasks, to investigate the bureau with a view to sacking its Jewish head.

On the tapes, Colson lists the names of the leading officials, at which Nixon exclaims incredulously: "They are all Jews?" Colson replies: "Every one of them. Well, with a couple of exceptions. You just have to go down the Goddam list and you know they are out to kill us."

A major offensive in Vietnam failed in March 1971. It had been seen by Dr Kissinger as a crucial test of the ability of the South Vietnamese to defend themselves as America gradually extricated itself from the country. On tape, Dr Kissinger complains bitterly about Gen Creighton Abrams, the commander of US forces in Vietnam at the time.

"Abrams went every weekend to Thailand, for Christ's sake, to see his family when we had our whole thing riding on this thing. Abrams is drinking now in the middle of the day. I really think we ought to consider replacing him." When the New York Times published the so-called Pentagon Papers, a damning internal indictment of Nixon's south-east Asia policy, the President tells Haldeman: "We're up against an enemy, a conspiracy."

He complains about the Supreme Court, describing three justices as "an old fool, a black fool and a jackass Catholic". But the tapes also show the human side of White House life. At one point, Nixon complains that the hot water in his shower runs out after only a minute. He orders it to be mended so that it "will run hot as long as I want to keep the damn hot water on".