Discovered 1959 letter: Nixon feared American racism would drive world into the arms of the Russians

[still_one]

"In the letter, Nixon made the case that domestic American racism could help the Russians win the Cold War.

“I am deeply concerned with the impact of racial division in terms of world power,” Nixon wrote. “Most of the people of the world belong to the colored races. They deeply resent any slurs based on race.”

“If we of the United States are considered racists, then we may lose to the Communist camp hundreds of millions of potential friends and allies,” Nixon explained. “That would leave us disastrously isolated in a hostile world.”

However..................

"Between his unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign and his successful 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon famously embraced the “Southern Strategy” of exploiting racial divisions for reasons of political expediency.

Last year, the New Republic published a piece explaining how decades of Republicans embracing a Southern Strategy led to Donald Trump’s domination of GOP primaries.

“Goldwater’s Southern Strategy, inspired by National Review, set a pattern for the next half-century—and more. The party had changed so much in 1964 that even Nixon, who had been liberal on civil rights before the Goldwater takeover, adopted the Southern Strategy in 1968 and 1972, “the New Republic contextualized. “Dixie would be the new heartland for the Republican Party, which would stoke white resentment over African-American advances.”

Since Nixon’s 1968 campaign, Sourthern racism has been integral to conservative political ideology.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/newly-discovered-1959-letter-nixon-feared-american-racism-would-drive-world-into-the-arms-of-the-russians/

[ck4829]

1. Nationalism, xenophobia, and recreational paranoia can do today what Nixon feared back then

[randr]

2. Amazing foresight--American racists are now embracing a Russian regime

Here and abroad.

[dalton99a]

4. Helluva change too - Russia is now the world's biggest promoter of racism and xenophobia

[dalton99a]

3. In other words, racism is bad if practiced outside the U.S.

[former9thward]

6. He said the exact opposite.

[greymattermom]

5. Aren't Russians very racist?

I remember talking to someone who is Russian once. I mentioned that there is a lot of Russian spoken at our local Jewish Community Center. The person I was speaking to told me that those people are Jewish, not Russian. Maybe racism is more powerful than freedom.

[dalton99a]

7. It is officially tolerated, and mob violence is common:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Russia

[still_one]

8. Russia has a long history of antisemitism. This country has a long history

of bigotry and racism, and after the last election it is alive and well.

While there are cohesive roots that closely link Judaism to aspects of race, it is predominately a religion.

[VOX]

9. Nixon himself was extremely racist, and it's on audiotape.

His letter was dated 1959, but in 10 years or less, he had apparently forgotten his own wisdom, as he was obsessed with race and ethnicity. And NOT in a positive way.

http://www.alternet.org/story/17422/the_nixon_tapes%2C_racism_and_the_republicans
The Nixon Tapes, Racism and The Republicans
Few remember Nixon as a bigot who cynically fanned racism, manipulated white voters and prepared the ground for the conservative assault on civil rights, affirmative action and social programs.
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson / AlterNet
December 17, 2003
<snip>
"...Nixon did more then simply sit by and passively listen to anti-black tirades by a trusted aide; he frequently spewed those same offensive racial epithets himself. In previous tapes released by the National Archives, Nixon told Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, "Henry, let's leave the niggers to Bill and we'll take care of the rest of the world" while working on his first presidential address to Congress. Nixon repeatedly referred to blacks as "niggers" and "jigaboos" in other conversations with Kissinger. Nixon later complained to Erlichman that Great Society programs were a waste "because blacks were genetically inferior to whites..."
<snip>
- - - - -

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/entertainment/tv/hbos-nixon-by-nixon-on-tape-the-heart-of-darkness/2014/08/03/42a7355c-1926-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html
HBO’s ‘Nixon by Nixon’: On tape, the heart of darkness
By Hank Stuever
August 3, 2014 at 7:03 PM

<snip>
...There’s no getting around it: As the tapes reflect, the president repeatedly told his closest confidants that Jews could never be trusted, that some Mexican Americans living in the United States were better than others (and he, especially, knew the difference), that women weren’t ready to be on the Supreme Court, that homosexuality was perhaps understandable but a scourge nonetheless.

The common slurs for all of these types of his fellow Americans roll out of his mouth with easy disdain. Nixon held a more specific and less abstract contempt for his perceived enemies, especially specific reporters and media outlets. That’s well represented here, too, as are moments in which Nixon’s propensity for committing crimes — or, at least, hypothetically wishing aloud that they could be committed, letting ambiguity fill in his blanks — is also brought into an alarming focus...
<snip>