Posted on 06/02/2005 6:39:54 PM PDT by BringBackMyHUAC
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Thursday, June 2, 2005 1:37 p.m. EDT Nixon Horrified Jew Could Head FBI
Two months after the Watergate break-in, President Nixon already knew that FBI official W. Mark Felt was leaking information to reporters – because Nixon had his own spy at the FBI, an Oval Office tape reveals.
The tape also discloses that Nixon was shocked to learn Felt was Jewish and became horrified that a Jew could become head of the FBI.(Vanity Fair described Felt, whose ancestors were Irish, as claiming "no religious affiliation.")
In the conversation between Nixon and Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, taped on Oct. 19, 1972, Haldeman mentions Felt by name and refers to Nixon’s spy as "our source.”
And when Haldeman discusses Felt’s ambition to head the FBI, Nixon says: "Christ, put a Jew in there?”
It’s not the only time Nixon was taped making an anti-Semitic remark.
On the tape of a February 1972 conversation with evangelist Billy Graham – made public in February 2002 – Nixon complained that a number of major news publications were "dominated” by Jews, and Graham responded: "The stranglehold has got to be broken, or the country’s going to go down the drain.”
Nixon said: "You believe that?”
Graham: "Yes sir.”
Nixon: "So do I. I can’t ever say that, but I believe it.”
Graham: "No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something.”
Later on the tape, after Graham left, Nixon told Haldeman: "The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.”
The tape citing Felt as a leak mentions FBI Director L. Patrick Gray, whom Nixon had appointed after J. Edgar Hoover died – passing over Felt, who was expected to get the top job.
Here are excerpts from the tape:
Nixon: "Well, if they’ve got a leak down at the FBI, why the hell can’t Gray tell us what the hell is left . . . ?”
Haldeman: "We know what’s left, and we know who leaked it.”
Nixon: "Somebody in the FBI?”
Haldeman: "Yes, sir. Mark Felt. You can’t say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there’s a real concern. [Attorney General John] Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because . . .”
Nixon: "Do anything? Never.”
Haldeman: "If we move on him, he’ll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that’s to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything . . .”
Nixon: "You know what I’d do with him, the bastard? Well that’s all I want to hear about it.”
Haldeman: "I think he wants to be in the top spot.”
Nixon: "That’s a hell of a way for him to get to the top ... Is he Catholic?”
Haldeman: "Jewish.”
Nixon: "Christ, put a Jew in there?”
Haldeman: "Well, that could explain it, too.”
Nice pic, but I'm not sure how it applies to this thread. Am I missing something?
Keep that in mind if Hillary FJB Clinton ever runs for President.
I believe Gator was referring to the area in Israel where Golan Cipel was from.
Freeper Snapple explained this story to me and I'm not able to reiterate it too well.
Nixon disliked Jews in the abstract as a group stereotype, but was willing to deal with them when it served his interests, and with personal contact, came to trust some, and become friends with a least one, Leonard Garment (or some name close to that). Frankly, Nixon didn't like people much in general. He was deeply introverted, a highly unusual characteristic in a politician, but there you have it.
You have to put this into perspective. First, Felt wasn't Jewish; Second the Jewish lobby was very, very Democrat at that time, even more so than now. Last, the Jewish population was much less assimilated then. You can't understand if you weren't out of high school at the time. it was just different.
I remember a Jewish grad student that I knew that wanted to take me home to his family to introduce me as girl friend, just to shock them with my Irish name. Times were very different for Jews as well as the gentiles.
Nixon was in many ways a stopped clock.
Or at least he did during this conversation when presented with this information. If it bothered him, he probably would have looked it up, but was unlikely to pick Felt anyway, so it didn't matter.
I can envision that Nixon thought less of his fellow Quakers than many other groups, including Jews.
Oh, and welcome to Free Republic, I see you signed up very recently.
Right back at ya! And thanks for your imput--HUAC
IMO, the antisemite rap is a function of the era he grew up in, and the stupidity of taping his office. His support for Israel was certainly a function of the cold war. But he bucked Kissinger's advice in providing it. My guess there was some affection there, but that conversation wasn't taped. He was a complicated man.
Kissinger was Nixon's Head of National Security Affairs for 6 years, For two of those years he was also Secretary of State.
Henry Alfred Kissinger was the 56th Secretary of State of the United States from 1973 to 1977, continuing to hold the position of Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs which he first assumed in 1969 until 1975.
Mark Felt is no 'standup guy.' He was a judas; an ambitious, self agrandising, frustrated, bitter traitor. That is what endeared him to Woodward. Regan had to pardon him, regardless of what a jerk he was, because his prosecution had a tremendous chilling effect on the work horses in the intelligence community.
What is so amazing is how little psychological energy is tied up in any of this anymore in America. Few give a darn. It just has no resonance or meaning. Now it is down to secular humanist versus evangelical, as the polar tensions of the societal and political square.
I am sure X will have something interesting to contribute on this. Almost all of his posts are interesting.
Nixon saved Israel in 1973. Bashing him for being anti-Jew is missing the mark.
The Wagnerian Pictorial Tutorial illustrates a pattern by the Clinton co-presidents which qualifies them for such bashing.
Wasn't Henry Kissinger Jewish? I don't understand why Nixon would appoint him as Secretary of State if he disliked Jews so much.
//////////////
Nixon disliked the liberal establishment much of which he saw as controlled by jews. However, he gave jobs to jews who'se politics he liked --like Kissenger--just as he gave jobs in government to non jews in government whose politics he liked. He distinguished between his private opinions and his public behavior and responsibilities.
Judging by the tapes of Nixon --he resented the liberal establishment jews because they treated him not as a political enemy --which he was --but rather as a tribal enemy--which he wasn't.
The Rosenburg trials came too soon after the shoah of WWII and about the same time that Joe Stalin was gearing up for the doctors plot. A lot of Jewish communists were familiar with both russian show trials and antisemitism. The McCarthy trials and The HUAC over which nixon presided looked like both. It looked like a set up for a pogrom. So Nixon was stamped as a tribal enemy of the jews -that is, an antisemite-- by liberal establishment Jews because of the events of the early 50's.
(The sad truth was that an american shoah was never in the cards and --as the venona cables and kgb files showed in the 1990's--there were a lot of Russian spies in Roosevelts & truman's administrations.)
The hatred for Nixon was about on par with the swift boat veterans hatred for John Kerry. It was strong enough and visceral enough to carry over for a generation.
The moral of the story is -- don't run for president if you piss off a lot of people in your youth. They won't forget.
an addendum to this-- is the reason that Ronald Reagan was called a teflon president was because he saw from the inside how the media was shaped by the McCarthy era having been black listed by hollywood for his anticommunist views during the McCarthy era. Reagan always understood the subtext/spin of the media of his time. not so nixon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.