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Former PresidentRonald Reaganonce referred to people from Africa as “monkeys” who were “still uncomfortable wearing shoes” in a heated phone call withRichard Nixonthathas come to light decades later.
According to an article inThe Atlanticpublished Tuesday, Reagan was the governor of California when he called then-President Nixon in 1971 to voice his thoughts on the United Nations’ vote to seat a delegation from Beijing instead of Taiwan, as Reagan had wanted
Former Presidents Ronald Reagan (left) and Richard Nixon.Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty; Bachrach/Getty
Nixon responded to Reagan’s complaints with a hearty laugh then replied, “Well and then they — the tail wags the dog there, doesn’t it? The tail wags the dog.”
TheAtlanticreports that Nixon later spoke to then-Secretary of State William Rogers and recounted Reagan’s racist words to him.
“As you can imagine, there’s strong feeling that we just shouldn’t, as [Reagan] said, he saw these, as he said, he saw these, these uh, these cannibals on television last night, and he says, ‘Christ, they weren’t even wearing shoes, and here the United States is going to submit its fate to that,’ and so forth and so on,” Nixon said, accordingThe Atlantic.
He told Rogers the story once again two hours later, calling Reagan “outraged.”
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“He practically got sick at his stomach, and that’s why he called. And he said, ‘It was a terrible scene.’ And that sort of thing will have an emotional effect on people … as [Reagan] said, ‘This bunch of people who don’t even wear shoes yet, to be kicking the United States in the teeth’ … It was a terrible thing, they thought,’” Nixon said.
According to Naftali, it was important to Nixon to continue quoting Reagan, as he didn’t think of himself as a racist, even though he considered blacks inferior to whites.
A spokeswoman with the Reagan Foundation did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment onThe Atlanticarticle.
The foundation did, however,tweet a Reagan quoteon Wednesday that seemingly alluded to the controversy, as it read, “We can preserve the dream of America…We need all our people, men and women, young and old, individuals of every race, to be happy, healthy, and whole. And that’s what our job is all about.”
source: people.com
