Recently declassified White House tapes uncover previous US president Richard Nixon talking disparagingly about Indians and uncover the dogmatism he and his public security counsel Henry Kissinger held that impacted US strategy toward India and South Asia under his administration.
“As Americans wrestle with issues of prejudice and influence, a recently declassified trove of White House tapes gives alarming proof of the fanaticism voiced by President Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger, his public security guide,” Gary Bass, teacher at Princeton, wrote in an assessment piece ‘The Horrendous Expense of Presidential Prejudice’ in The New York Times.
“The full substance of these tapes uncover how U.S. strategy toward South Asia under Mr. Nixon was affected by his contempt of, and sexual repugnance toward, Indians,” Bass, writer of ‘The Blood Wire: Nixon, Kissinger and an Overlooked Slaughter”, composes. Richard Nixon, a Republican, was the 37th Leader of the US, serving from 1969 until 1974.
Bass says that the declassified White House tapes uncover a “staggering” discussion between Nixon, Kissinger and the then White House head of staff H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office in June 1971 in which Nixon affirms in a “venomous tone” that Indian ladies are “without a doubt the most ugly ladies on the planet.” Nixon likewise calls Indians “generally sexless”, “nothing” and “lamentable”, as indicated by the tapes.
“On Nov. 4, 1971, during a private break from a quarrelsome White House culmination with Head administrator Indira Gandhi of India – an uncommon lady pioneer at that point – the President lectured Mr. Kissinger about his sexual nauseate at Indians,” Bass composes.
Alluding to Indians, Nixon says to Kissinger “To me, they turn me off. How the damnation do they turn others on, Henry? Let me know.” Bass composes that while Kissinger’s reaction is indiscernible in the tapes, “it didn’t dishearten the president from his topic.”
In November 1971, in a conversation about India-Pakistan pressures with Kissinger and Secretary of State William Rogers, after Rogers referenced censuring Gandhi, the President shouted, “I don’t have a clue how they duplicate!”
Bass writes in the NYT piece that while Kissinger has depicted himself as being over the prejudice of the Nixon White House, the tapes show “him participating in the fanaticism, however the tapes can’t decide if he genuinely shared the president’s’ partialities or was simply pandering to him.”
For example, on June 3, 1971, Kissinger was “irate” at the Indians as the nation protected a great many Bengali outcasts who had fled the Pakistan Armed force. Kissinger reprimanded the Indians for causing the displaced person stream and afterward denounced Indians overall, as he stated, “They are a rummaging people.”
At one 16 ounces, Kissinger had said Indians are “amazing toadies” and “are aces at bootlicking. They are aces at unpretentious blandishment. That is the way they endure 600 years. They suck up – their incredible ability is to suck up to individuals in key positions.”
Nixon had even been incensed with his diplomat to India Kenneth Keating, who two days sooner had faced Nixon and Kissinger in the Oval Office, calling Pakistan’s crackdown “primarily a matter of decimation.” Bass says that Nixon and Kissinger had “firmly upheld” the military system in Pakistan as it killed countless Bengalis, with 10 million displaced people escaping into neighboring India.
Voicing preferences about Pakistanis, Kissinger had in August 1971 revealed to Nixon that “the Pakistanis are fine individuals, yet they are crude in their psychological structure.”
