Former US President Ronald Reagan in a 1971 telephone call
with then-President Richard Nixon described African delegates to the United
Nations (UN) as "monkeys".
Mr Reagan was the Governor of California at the time he made
the comment in the newly unearthed tapes. He was reportedly angry that African
delegates at the UN took sides against the US in a vote to recognise China's
sovereignty over that of Taiwan. The
Tanzanian delegation began dancing in celebration of the vote.
“Last night, I tell
you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon
interjected.
Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those
monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable
wearing shoes!”
Nixon gave a huge laugh.
The aftermath of the vote also had President Nixon telling
his deputy national security adviser Al Haig, to cancel any future meeting with
any African leader that sided against the U.S. on Taiwan even if they had
already been scheduled.
“Don’t even submit to me the problem that it’s difficult to
turn it off since we have already accepted it,” Nixon exclaimed.
“Just turn it off, on the ground that I will be out of
town.”
The recording published in The Atlantic was unearthed by Tim
Naftali who is a clinical associate professor of history at New York University
and Director of Nixon Presidential Library from 2007 until 2011.
Mr Reagan served as US president from 1981-1989 and is also
remembered for publicly defending the apartheid states of Rhodesia and South
Africa in the 1970s. He died in 2004
aged 93 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
The unearthed audio came weeks after President Donald Trump
attacked four progressive Democratic congresswomen of color using racist
language, implying they weren't American and suggesting they "go back and
help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they
came."
