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The History Channel stated that Nixon administration actively used anti-drug law to get rid of anti war activists. Is it true?

Oddthinking
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alex
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  • Can you clarify *how* this allegedly happened? In other words, what do they mean by *using* besides applying an existing law? – Sklivvz Jan 05 '14 at 17:24
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    It might help to link to the programme making the allegation so we can check it. – matt_black Jan 05 '14 at 18:45
  • Could you provide more details on the source, what show/series it was and what episode of it. If a link to a lawful online copy is available, it would be best. – SIMEL Jan 05 '14 at 18:46
  • I can't find the History Channel show. Many of it inaccessible now. But there some article about Nixon war against heroin addict Vietnam war veterans who opposed the war: http://likethedew.com/2011/03/26/nixon%E2%80%99s-war-on-drugs-decision-2/ – alex Jan 05 '14 at 20:39
  • From the link above: "Nixon exploited the belief that marijuana and LSD were the cause of rebellion among white youth..." – alex Jan 05 '14 at 20:49
  • "marijuana ... the cause of rebellion". Harsh, dude. – user5341 Jan 07 '14 at 17:09

1 Answers1

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Apparently it is true. Interview with John Erlichman:

https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/

I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

Brythan
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Dan Pritts
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    It is worth noting that many people believed that Erlichman was frustrated and angry at Nixon for not pardoning him. Nixon apologists will say that Erlichman is presenting his own angry opinions here. Although I find Erlichman's insights convincing, not everyone will, and others tell different stories. – BobTheAverage Jan 29 '19 at 21:03
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    This quote is itself of doubtful provenance, and the version of events it describes is not supported by the tapes we have of Nixon discussing the issue. See here: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/32247/did-ehrlichman-claim-the-reason-for-the-nixon-drug-war-was-to-criminalize-black?rq=1 – Paul Johnson Jan 29 '19 at 21:45
  • @PaulJohnson The Erlichman story is not out of character though. https://www.history.com/news/nixon-secret-tapes-quotes-scandal-watergate and https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8196249/Richard-Nixons-scorn-for-Jews-blacks-Irish-and-Italians-revealed-in-new-tapes.html – UnhandledExcepSean Jan 30 '19 at 15:59
  • Well, if there were no clear link between drugs and the hippie movement, using drug laws to fight the hippies would have been ineffective... So the ones doing the linking were the hippies themselves. – jwenting Nov 18 '19 at 05:26