2 ms·
> “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
by 29athrowaway 6y ago
> “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,” Ehrlichman said. “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.”
- John Ehrlichman, Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon
- apsec112 6y agoUnfortunately, just as a matter of historical accuracy, this is secondhand information, and both of the hands are unreliable. There's no real proof Ehrlichman said this (it was claimed by a journalist many years after his death), and Ehrlichman was a known liar who was convicted of perjury, so he's a non-credible source in the first place. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hjeu1a/according_to_many_nixons_aide_john_erlichman https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hjeu1a/accor...
- 29athrowaway 6y agoThe absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
- nyolfen 6y agowell, then it is probably good that GP is saying that you are presenting unreliable evidence