It seems more "massive" to our modern eyes. Back then it wouldn't have been remarkable, because the Drug War marketing was widely believed. (Baum's book itself

It seems more "massive" to our modern eyes. Back then it wouldn't have been remarkable, because the Drug War marketing was widely believed. (Baum's book itself was at the vanguard of changing public opinion.) Also, bland impersonal racism was largely tolerated in the mid-90s. Besides, that statement from some of his children seems surprisingly specific. Nothing about Nixon's policies or Ehrlichman's role in them required Ehrlichman to be derogatory to anyone. Not that it would have been a surprise: he was born in 1925! Lots of white Americans born in that year were all too happy both to discriminate in their private lives and to enact discriminatory policies in public. Ehrlichman's kids must not have been such great fans of his anyway. At the time of the interview, he lived in Atlanta and they were all in the Pacific timezone. Reading the Harper's article, I have more sympathy for him than for them. Let the old man say his piece.