See the Bohemian Grove archive for further research.
Update: Full transcript from
Harper's Magazine article
Reprinted directly from http://www.prisonplanet.com/032604nixontape.html
ALL
THE PHILOSOPHER KING'S MEN.
(President
Richard Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman)(Brief Article)
Harper's Magazine, Feb, 2000, by James Warren
From a
May 13, 1971, conversation among President Richard Nixon, John D.
Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman. On October 5, 1999, the National Archives
made available to the public 445 hours of previously unreleased Oval
Office tapes. The following dialogue was transcribed by Chicago Tribune
reporter James Warren.
RICHARD
NIXON: We're going to [put] more of these
little Negro bastards on the welfare rolls at $2,400 a family--let people
like Pat Moynihan and [special consultant] Leonard Garment and others
believe in all that crap. But I don't believe in it. Work, work--throw 'em
off the rolls. That's the key.
JOHN
D. EHRLICHMAN: The key is Reagan's
neutrality. If Reagan blasts this thing and says it's not strong enough on
the work-requirement end, that will be very bad.
NIXON:
I have the greatest affection for them [blacks], but I know
they're not going to make it for 500 years. They aren't. You know it, too.
The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the
present time they steal, they're dishonest, but they do have some concept
of family life. They don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do
live like.
EHRLICHMAN:
The Mexican American is not as good as the Mexican. You go down
to Mexico--they're clean, they're honest, they're moral.
NIXON:
Mexico is a much more moral country.
EHRLICHMAN:
Monterrey, Cuernavaca. Go into slum areas, and by God they come
out with clean shirts on a Sunday morning.
NIXON:
The church. You find a helluva lot less marijuana use in Mexico
than the United States.
EHRLICHMAN:
The unions are actually a stronger force down there than the
church.
NIXON:
For what?
EHRLICHMAN:
For conduct and social policy.
NIXON:
... CBS ... glorifying homosexuality.
EHRLICHMAN:
A panel show?
H.
R. HALDEMAN: No, it's a regular show. It's on every week. It's
usually just done in the guy's home. It's usually just that guy, who's a
hard hat.
NIXON:
That's right; he's a hard hat.
EHRLICHMAN:
He always looks like a slob.
NIXON:
Looks like Jackie Gleason.
HALDEMAN:
He has this hippie son-in-law, and usually the general trend is
to downgrade him and upgrade the son-in-law--make the square hard hat out
to be bad. But a few weeks ago, they had one in which the guy, the
son-in-law, wrote a letter to you, President Nixon, to raise hell about
something. And the guy said, "You will not write that letter from my
home!" Then said, "I'm going to write President Nixon,"
took off all those sloppy clothes, shaved, and went to his desk and got
ready to write his letter to President Nixon. And apparently it was a good
episode.
EHRLICHMAN:
What's it called?
NIXON:
"Archie's Guys." Archie is sitting here with his
hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter. The son-in-law
apparently goes both ways. This guy. He's obviously queer--wears an
ascot--but not offensively so. Very clever. Uses nice language. Shows
pictures of his parents. And so Arch goes down to the bar. Sees his best
friend, who used to play professional football. Virile, strong, this and
that. Then the fairy comes into the bar.
I don't mind the
homosexuality. I understand it. Nevertheless, goddamn, I don't think you
glorify it on public television, homosexuality, even more than you glorify
whores. We all know we have weaknesses. But, goddammit, what do you think
that does to kids? You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality
destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. So was
Socrates.
EHRLICHMAN:
But he never had the influence television had.
NIXON:
You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman
emperors were fags. Neither in a public way. You know what happened to the
popes? They were layin' the nuns; that's been goin' on for years,
centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell three or four centuries
ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out. That's what's
happened to Britain. It happened earlier to France.
Let's look at the strong
societies. The Russians. Goddamn, they root 'em out. They don't let 'em
around at all. I don't know what they do with them. Look at this country.
You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality, are
the enemies of strong societies. That's why the Communists and
left-wingers are clinging to one another. They're trying to destroy us. I
know Moynihan will disagree with this, [Attorney General John] Mitchell
will, and Garment will. But, goddamn, we have to stand up to this.
EHRLICHMAN:
It's fatal liberality.
NIXON:
Huh?
EHRLICHMAN:
It's fatal liberality. And with its use on television, it has such
leverage.
NIXON:
You know what's happened [in northern California]?
EHRLICHMAN:
San Francisco has just gone clear over.
NIXON:
But it's not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco
is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time--it is
the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San
Francisco crowd. I can't shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.
Decorators. They got to do
something. But we don't have to glorify it. You know one of the reasons
fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned
designers hate women. Designers taking it out on the women. Now they're
trying to get some more sexy things coming on again.
EHRLICHMAN:
Hot pants.
NIXON:
Jesus Christ.
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Magazine Foundation
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