Ronald Reagan called Africans to the UN, cassettes reveal

Former US President Ronald Reagan described African delegates to the UN as "monkeys" in recently unearthed tapes published by an American magazine.

He made this remark in a telephone conversation in 1971 with then President Richard Nixon.

Reagan, who was governor of California at the time, was unhappy that African delegates to the UN took sides against the United States at a vote.

Members of the Tanzanian delegation began dancing after the UN vote to recognize China and expel Taiwan.

Reagan, a supporter of Taiwan, called the president the next day to express his apparent frustration.

He said: "To see these … monkeys from these African countries – damn, they are still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"

Mr Nixon, who left the presidency in 1974, can then be heard laughing.

The recording was unearthed by Tim Naftali, an badociate professor of clinical history at the University of New York, who led the Nixon Presidential Library from 2007 to 2011.

He published his findings in The Atlantic and writes that the racist exchange had been removed from the original tapes for reasons of confidentiality. The tapes were released by the National Archives in 2000 while Mr. Reagan was still alive.

But he said that the recordings had been ordered to be revised following a court order. "Reagan's death in 2004 eliminated confidentiality issues," said Naftali.

"I asked that the conversations involving Ronald Reagan be reconsidered and two weeks ago, the National Archives published full versions," he added.

According to Mr. Naftali, Mr. Reagan called Mr. Nixon to urge him to withdraw from the UN. But the president later said that "the complaints against the Africans had become the primary purpose of the appeal".

Naftali also said the president later told his secretary of state that Reagan had described the Tanzanian delegation as "cannibals" who "did not even wear shoes".

Reagan publicly defended the states of Rhodesia and South Africa apartheid in the 1970s, and Naftali said the recently released footage "sheds new light" on this position.

He was president from 1981 to 1989, at a time marked by the apogee of the Cold War and the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism. He died in 2004 at the age of 93 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

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