New tapes show more of Nixon ‘hatred’ for India, Indians

On Nov. 4, 1971, during a private break from a contentious White House summit with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India, “a rare woman leader at the time, the president harangued Mr. Kissinger about his sexual disgust at Indians”, Bass writes. (Express Archive)

A set of newly declassified White House tapes reveal in stark detail President Richard Nixon’s deep antipathy towards India and Indians, which, fanned by his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, determined United States policy towards New Delhi in the early 1970s.

At a meeting with a group of senior officials in the Oval Office on June 17, 1971, Nixon disparaged…