‘Those Monkeys’: Ronald Reagan’s Racist Conversation With Richard Nixon Has Just Been Released

A newly unearthed audio recording captured a racist conversation between former President Richard Nixon and then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan, disparaged African delegates to the United Nations.

According to The Atlantic, the conversation came just a day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China.

Reagan phoned Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States.

“Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said.

“Yeah,” Nixon interjected.

“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries, damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Reagan said while Nixon had a huge laugh.

The Atlantic notes:

The past month has brought presidential racism back into the headlines. This October 1971 exchange between current and future presidents is a reminder that other presidents have subscribed to the racist belief that Africans or African Americans are somehow inferior. The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them, but that he said them in public.

The exchange was taped by Nixon, and then later became the responsibility of the Nixon Presidential Library, which I directed from 2007 to 2011. 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 rereview 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 rereviewed, and two weeks ago, the National Archives released complete versions of the October 1971 conversations involving Reagan online.