Ex- U.S president, Ronald Reagan, shared a racist exchange with Richard Nixon in a newly unearthed phone conversation from 1971 in which he described African delegates to the United Nations as “monkeys”.
Speaking with Mr Nixon, who was then president, a day after the UN voted to admit The People’s Republic of China into the global organisation, Mr Reagan said: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries — damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
Nixon, who quit as president in 1974, can then be heard laughing. Reagan, who was governor of California at the time, was angered that African delegates at the UN sided against the US in a vote.
Members of the Tanzanian delegation started dancing after the UN voted to recognise China and expel Taiwan. Reagan, who was a supporter of Taiwan, called the president the following day to express his apparent frustration.
The recording was unearthed by Tim Naftali, a clinical associate professor of history at New York University, who directed the Nixon Presidential Library from 2007 until 2011.
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