STRANGE WORLD

Published on Thursday 4 December 2008 22:01

JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE PARANOID

SOME 34 years after he resigned the US presidency in disgrace, Richard Nixon is back to haunt us. The Nixon presidential library has just released fresh tapes and documents that shed new light on the 37th president.

Among the documents is a handwritten note from top aide H R Haldeman, from 23 June, 1971, which records Mr Nixon's order to get the US tax authorities to go after former secretary of defence Clark Clifford, who had been critical of Mr Nixon's Vietnam policy. In one paragraph, Mr Haldeman reminds himself to take action against "TK" (Senator Ted Kennedy) with the words: "Get him – compromising situation … Get evidence – use another Dem as front."

The documents also illustrate Mr Nixon's interest in the "across-the-board loyalty" of White House staff. In a memo to Mr Nixon on 16 January, 1970, presidential staffer Alexander Butterfield reported on the progress of Mr Nixon's order to remove all pictures of past presidents from White House walls. Mr Butterfield noted that of 35 offices occupied by White House support staff, six had displayed one or more former presidents. Mr Nixon, the memo reveals, had expressed special concern about an office in which he saw two pictures of John F Kennedy.

The tapes can be heard online at www.nixonlibrary.gov.