In what appears to be a vendetta against Africans who voted in support of China’s membership of the United Nations, ex-President Ronald Reagan has bee
In what appears to be a vendetta against Africans who voted in support of China’s membership of the United Nations, ex-President Ronald Reagan has been uncovered as having referred to African delegates to the UN as “monkeys” who feel “uncomfortable wearing shoes.”
Reagan, then the Governor of the State of California, made the remarks in October 1971 while speaking with then President Richard Nixon. In a tape recording released by the Atlantic, Reagan is heard telling Nixon, “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did.”
“Yeah,” Nixon interjected.
Reagan then said: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
Nixon then laughs heartily.
The tape was submitted as a part of write-up for the Atlantic by Clinical Associate Professor of History at New York University, Tim Naftali, who said though the conversation was recorded by Nixon, it later became a part of the Nixon Presidential Library, which he (Naftali) directed from 2007 to 2011.
Explaining the history of the tape and how he came about the recording, Prof. Naftali said, “When the National Archives originally released the tape of this conversation in 2000, the racist portion was apparently withheld to protect Reagan’s privacy. A court order stipulated that the tapes be reviewed chronologically; the chronological review was completed in 2013.
“Not until 2017 or 2018 did the National Archives begin a general re-review of the earliest Nixon tapes. Reagan’s death, in 2004, eliminated the privacy concerns.
“Last year, as a researcher, I requested that the conversations involving Ronald Reagan be re-reviewed, and two weeks ago, the National Archives released complete versions of the October 1971 conversations involving Reagan online.”
Describing the events that led to the Reagan outburst, Naftali wrote: “When the UN took its vote to seat a delegation from Beijing instead of from Taiwan in 1971, members of the Tanzanian delegation started dancing in the General Assembly.
“Reagan, a devoted defender of Taiwan, was incensed, and tried to reach Nixon the night of the vote. Reagan despised the United Nations, which he described as a “kangaroo court” filled with “bums,” and he wanted the U.S. to withdraw from full participation immediately.”
The history professor also claimed that then President Nixon had ordered his deputy national security adviser, Al Haig, to cancel any future meetings with any African leader who had not voted with the United States on Taiwan, even if they had already been scheduled to meet with him. Prof. Tim Naftali wrote against the backdrop of what he described as “presidential racism,” which, he argues, has been brought back into the headlines because of the events of the “past month” in America.
Already, Democrats who are currently working assiduously to regain the White House from Republican President Donald Trump, regularly criticise the American president for what they call his “racism.”
