Here is a cool memorandum written by Richard Nixon in '69, to his Secy of State William Rogers and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. It was sent along to me by scholar Roland Popp, who dug it up in the National Archives. I sure hope you can look at it.
The actual text reads: "I have noted in reading the papers prepared by the State Department and the Security Council Review Board on the Mideast, references from time to time to 'domestic political considerations.'
"The purpose of this memorandum is twofold:
"1. Under no circumstances will domestic political considerations have any bearing on the decisions I make with regard to the Mideast;
"2. The only consideration that will effect [sic] my decisions on this policy will be the security interests of the United States.
"In the future, I want no references to domestic political considerations to be included in any papers and I do not want the subject of domestic political considerations to be brought up in discussions of this subject.
"Will you please circulate this memorandum among all those who are working on this problem.
"[Signed] RN"
I'd note that the writer who picked this memo up before Popp, Richard Reeves, in his Nixon book, linked it with Nixon's antisemitism. Calling Kissinger Jewboy, for instance. (Can't seem to make the link work).
My own response is: Smart guy, Nixon. What a good mind when it was working. Logical and straightforward. I take him at his word here. I think he was pissed off by the Israel lobby talk. At a time when the Israel lobby was arising, post-'67, during the "existential" period of Jewish fears for the Jewish state (which of course continue today in the Dershowitzian mind of Jewish leadership), as a new force in American life. Nixon's irritation reminds me of George H.W. Bush's irritation in '91, when he raged against "all these lobbyists" on Capitol Hill. Nixon and James Baker both said Fuck the Jews. But they couldn't, could they. I don't know what specific policy Nixon was working on. Bush was trying in '91 to put the freeze on settlements. GHWBush lost the next election; and the settlements continued... By one report, senior Bush has blamed the Israel lobby for his loss. His son has not made that mistake. So much for domestic political considerations.
Will you please circulate this memo to all who are working on the problem....
Awesome!
What do you suggest we do?
When I lived in Israel a friend's father told me that in prewar Germany there had been a German-Jewish, nationalist party that picketed the Reichstag with posters saying "heraus mit uns!" (out with us).
I don't suppose it's true, but si non e vero… Where are we supposed to go with this.
That's a great observation, Phil. Nixon's hatred of Jews couldn't have possibly been anti-semitic. He was motivated by deep compassion for the "Palestinians." Smart guy Nixon, and deeply moral too. Looks like you learned the right lesson from the sixties after all . . .
"Domestic political considerations", that's good!
Forty years later and our discussion of the matter has become so infantilized that "respectable" people can't admit they know what this means.
(Why do I have this stalking fan, when there are so many more intelligent and articulate posters on this site for him to emulate? It's flattering, but also mystifying.)
Are your really defending Nixon's idiocy, Phil?
He said "fuck you" to a large number of Americans on the basis that he didn't want to be bothered by different opinions than his own.
Phil may be overinterpreting this one.
Nixon might not have wanted advice on domestic considerations from Rogers and Kissinger.
He already had a Neocon/American Jabotinskian among his advisors in the form of R. Baruch Korf, who gets significant mention in Militant Zionism in America by Medoff.
"He said "fuck you" to a large number of Americans on the basis that he didn't want to be bothered by different opinions than his own."
It seems to me that what he said is that he wanted to decide what's best for the country independent of powerful special interest groups. Too bad none of the current presidentical candidates are willing to say the same.
As I've heard Ralph Nader, Colbert, and others mention recently, were Nixon running in '08 he'd be to the left of the entire crowd.
Bush Sr. really wanted an end to the colonization. Or did he want to tell his Saudi pals he was 'doing something' about the Palestinian problem?
Phil Weiss dreams of a warm gentile penis.
Look, I dream of penis a lot too, but I don't care if it's jewish or muslim, or christian, or hindu, because I'm a lover, not a fighter, and I love everyone, not like these zio-nazis that insist on sucking only Hebrew Nationals.
Query: What do any of you think a natural-born Palestinain would think if you watched the intentionally undistributed 2001 movie The Believer, with them? Second question: Would any USA presidential candidate have anything to say; if so, what?
Nixon was capable of wisdom at times. The Israeli PAC has brought nothing but strife and debt to the US.
Nixon was simply playing to his strong suit. He was good at foreign policy and terrible at domestic policy, and he knew it. He did not want his failures at domestic policy to spill over to his only shot at leaving his legacy in foreign policy. I agree with Richard that Phil is reading more into it than even Tricky Dick ever intended. And I agree with Gene that in this case, Nixon was telling the special interest groups to forget about trying to influence him in the foreign policy arena. I suppose in that sense it was a "fuck you," but directed to the special interest lobby as a whole rather than the Jews or anyone else for that matter. For all his faults and paranoia, the guy still had some noble intentions and this was one of them.
"but directed to the special interest lobby as a whole rather than the Jews or anyone else"
I don't agree. After all, he's specifically talking about Middle East policy. I feel certain that neither Rogers nor Kissinger ever thought he was talking about the black vote, or the trial lawyers association. This is what I meant by our infantilized capacity to discuss the Jewish role.
What we have here is an example of a frustrated boss telling his subordinates to stop screwing up. What fascinates me is the question of how Kissinger might have taken it — it's hard to imagine him being at all abashed.
You don't need much to interpret this. Look at Kissnger's early factual history–he never got over it (I 'm not sure he should have, but it needs to be factored in in terms of his "rationality."
Does anyone know of a majority ethnic tribe/society/nation that gave its power away to any or all subgroups?
Superb memo.
Yes, let's circulate it throughout the State Department as a reminder of how business should be done!
Michael Blaine
http://www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com
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Michael Blaine
http://www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com
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