Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger Racism — Transcript

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1. 0:23president richard milhouse nixon and
2. 0:26henry kissinger
3. 0:28a jew were both
4. 0:32major powers
5. 0:33in the white house and i'm going to read
6. 0:37about their
7. 0:38relationship to blacks
8. 0:41while they were in power
9. 0:43both
10. 0:44were alcoholics and spent a lot of time
11. 0:47drinking together
12. 0:49and both were also racists
13. 0:52even though kissinger was jewish
14. 0:56people in the white house and in the
15. 0:59national security office the cia
16. 1:02soon found that the major problem with
17. 1:06kissinger
18. 1:07and
19. 1:08nixon was their personalities nixon's
20. 1:12drinking had to be kept quiet at all
21. 1:15costs and so did his racism and i'm now
22. 1:19going to quote from the book
23. 1:21there seems to have been an unrelenting
24. 1:23stream of anti-black remarks from the
25. 1:26president during his first year in
26. 1:28office
27. 1:29in his telephone conversations with
28. 1:31kissinger he repeatedly referred to
29. 1:33blacks as [ __ ]
30. 1:35jigs and jigaboos
31. 1:37some of the slurs were obviously results
32. 1:39of nixon's drinking doubts but national
33. 1:43security aides who monitored kissinger
34. 1:46nixon telephone calls came to believe
35. 1:48that richard nixon drunk or sober was a
36. 1:52racist
37. 1:53far more disillusioning was his boss's
38. 1:56attitude kissinger also repeatedly made
39. 2:00clear his contempt for black people
40. 2:04yet there was a constant stream of
41. 2:06kissinger aside to his staff about
42. 2:09nixon's racism
43. 2:12one theme was that nixon had always been
44. 2:14a racist but did not know the correct
45. 2:17derogatory words until he moved from
46. 2:20california to new york in the 1960s
47. 2:24after nixon had referred to blacks as
48. 2:26jungle bunnies during one of his
49. 2:29telephone talks with kissinger in 1969
50. 2:33remember this is the time of
51. 2:35the equal rights act
52. 2:38i'm going to go back
53. 2:41morris recalls kissinger whimsically
54. 2:43explained that nixon had seen hair while
55. 2:46in new york
56. 2:48and gotten
57. 2:49educated one scene in the play consists
58. 2:52of a recitation put to music of various
59. 2:56derogatory and slang phrases for blacks
60. 2:59including
61. 3:00jungle bunny
62. 3:02the national security staff
63. 3:04aides understood
64. 3:06what was acceptable behavior and what
65. 3:08was not they would join the laughter at
66. 3:11alexander hague's antics during the rare
67. 3:14staff meetings that dealt with african
68. 3:17issues morris recalls that when he would
69. 3:20enter the situation room laden with
70. 3:23briefing books hague would begin to beat
71. 3:25his hands on the table as if pounding
72. 3:28out a tomtom it was all very manly a
73. 3:32locker room mentality
74. 3:34egg would make tarzan jokes
75. 3:37what's your pet ape
76. 3:39or
77. 3:40talking about black say
78. 3:42henry can't stand the smell
79. 3:46there were other comments
80. 3:48sonanfelt would joke about blacks in
81. 3:51washington moving into upper middle
82. 3:54class white neighborhoods
83. 3:56boris remembers he called them [ __ ]
84. 3:59jigs spades or your dusky friends
85. 4:03another recurrent son and failed
86. 4:05complaint was that the african embassies
87. 4:08in washington were taking all the good
88. 4:11embassy spots
89. 4:12you couldn't live on 6th street anymore
90. 4:15unless you wanted to have
91. 4:16dusky friends
92. 4:18the racist joking invariably began
93. 4:21whenever morris sought white house
94. 4:24action in the areas where he had major
95. 4:27responsibility
96. 4:29africa
97. 4:30aid
98. 4:31and the united nations
99. 4:33you couldn't find three subjects less
100. 4:36important to kissinger
101. 4:38and more
102. 4:39the object of ridicule
103. 4:42kissinger repeatedly made clear his lack
104. 4:45of respect for the intelligence of
105. 4:47blacks
106. 4:48when the state department appointed
107. 4:51c clyde ferguson a black law professor
108. 4:54from rutgers university special relief
109. 4:57coordinator during the nigerian war
110. 5:00kissinger asked
111. 5:02fatuously do you think he'll understand
112. 5:05the cables
113. 5:07morris also recalls a disturbing
114. 5:09conversation between kissinger and
115. 5:12senator fulbright
116. 5:14it was the spring of 1970 and the white
117. 5:17house gave a reception and dinner for
118. 5:20ambassadors most of them black who were
119. 5:23in washington for a meeting
120. 5:25of the organization of african unity
121. 5:29kissinger asked morris to join him at
122. 5:31the dinner and as morris and kissinger
123. 5:34were strolling
124. 5:35from their basement offices they bumped
125. 5:38into senator fulbright
126. 5:40also on his way to the party
127. 5:42henry walked up to him and initiated the
128. 5:45racist conversation
129. 5:48morris says he asked i wonder what the
130. 5:51dining room is going to smell like and
131. 5:53fulbright said you never know who's
132. 5:56going to be
133. 5:57at your table it's amazing to me that
134. 6:00henry
135. 6:01would say such outrageous things in
136. 6:04public
137. 6:05this was in a crowded hallway with lots
138. 6:08of people coming and going
139. 6:10sometimes the racist comments seemed
140. 6:12almost surrealistic in the context of
141. 6:15the white house and its foreign policy
142. 6:18after the biafran rebellion collapsed in
143. 6:21january 1970
144. 6:23morris brief kissinger on the prospect
145. 6:26for continued bloodshed between the
146. 6:29various nigerian troops and the defeated
147. 6:32egos of biafra
148. 6:35morris explained in a response to
149. 6:37kissinger's question that the egos of
150. 6:40biafra were more negroid in appearance
151. 6:43and the nigerians tended to be more
152. 6:46semitic
153. 6:48kissinger
154. 6:49morris later wrote was visibly surprised
155. 6:52and confused
156. 6:54but you've always told me the igbos were
157. 6:56more gifted and accomplished than the
158. 6:58others what do you mean more negroid
159. 7:02earlier there had been a brief moment of
160. 7:04panic
161. 7:05when ronald l ziegler the white house
162. 7:09press secretary who knew and cared
163. 7:12little about africa and its civil wars
164. 7:14began briefing by announcing he had a
165. 7:17statement to read on the
166. 7:21nigerian
167. 7:22war
168. 7:23and it spelled [ __ ]
169. 7:26i n
170. 7:28nigerian war
171. 7:30whether out of embarrassment or
172. 7:32ignorance none of the press commented on
173. 7:35a slip more says
174. 7:37in february 1970 when kissinger and his
175. 7:40staff were working in key biscayne the
176. 7:44president at play with his friends
177. 7:46rebozo
178. 7:48and
179. 7:50ab planap
180. 7:53telephones shipped to shore with a
181. 7:54request about the foreign policy paper
182. 7:58they were drafting
183. 8:01make sure there's something in it for
184. 8:03the jigs
185. 8:04henry nixon said
186. 8:06a moment later morris recalls nixon
187. 8:09asked again
188. 8:11is there something in it for the jigs
189. 8:13kissinger said yes
190. 8:15a few months earlier when secretary of
191. 8:18state rogers received good press
192. 8:21coverage during the trip to africa
193. 8:23kissinger had been distraught with
194. 8:26jealousy and anxiety there had been a
195. 8:29soothing
196. 8:30telephone call from nixon also overheard
197. 8:33by one of the national security aides
198. 8:37henry
199. 8:38let's leave the [ __ ] to bill and
200. 8:40we'll take care of the rest of the world
201. 8:43the remark became common knowledge to
202. 8:45morris and his colleagues
203. 8:48and that's the end of the excerpt that's
204. 8:50found on page 100 and
205. 8:53and 111 of the book the price of power
206. 8:58by seymour hirsch