Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

The Depths of Nixonland

Serial Anti-Semite: President Richard Nixon would often regale aides, including Henry Kissinger, with anti-Semitic rants, a new expose reveals.

Will the extent of our 37th president’s anti-Semitism ever cease to shock?

Just when it seems we might have arrived at the last recorded utterance of “Jew boy” (sometimes said in front of Henry Kissinger, the Jewish secretary of state), there are new tapes to endure. The latest piece of evidence to add to the psychological profile of Richard Milhous Nixon comes from the duo who were his greatest tormentors, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. They have joined forces again for the first time in 36 years.

In a comprehensive Washington Post article meant to stave off any revisionist history about Nixon’s own role in the corruption that came to characterize his disgraced tenure, Woodward and Bernstein also remind us what the president thought of Jews. Nixon would often tell his aides — again, including Kissinger — that “the Jewish cabal is out to get me.” And, in one conversation quoted from the tapes by Woodward and Bernstein, Nixon says the following to H.R. Haldeman, his chief of staff, on July 3, 1971: “The government is full of Jews. Second, most Jews are disloyal. You know what I mean? You have a Garment [White House counsel Leonard Garment] and a Kissinger and, frankly, a Safire [presidential speechwriter William Safire], and, by God, they’re exceptions. But Bob, generally speaking, you can’t trust the bastards. They turn on you.”

Reading these words — and, even worse, hearing them spoken in the Oval Office — is a sobering experience. At the same time, it’s also gratifying to know that in Nixon’s case, his paranoia and all-consuming rage were not limited to just Jews. He saw enemies everywhere and was willing to try and subvert the rule of law in order to triumph over them. The anti-Semitism was just a symptom of his dark pathology. And, in the end, it brought him down.

At the close of their article, Woodward and Bernstein remind us of some of Nixon’s strangely self-aware last words as he bade farewell to his White House staff. “Always remember,” he told them, “others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

And destroy himself, he did.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.