The Nixon library is somewhat helpful in hunting for scandalous things Nixon said. There are separate MP3s for each conversation, and PDFs for sections of phone calls or Oval Office conversations that list who's in a conversation, who's participating, and the general issues it covers. The library's descriptions can be a little quaint. In reference to a May 1, 1973 phone call between Nixon and press secretary Ronald Ziegler, which got into a statement issued by Nixon aide and lawyer Leonard Garment (pictured at right), the PDF notes they cover "Garment’s Jewish background." On the tape, Nixon said he wants to fire Garment for what he felt was an undermining comment, yelling, "Goddamn his Jewish soul!"

The tapes cover from April 9 to July 12, 1973 — a stressful time for Nixon. On April 30, 1973, he announced the resignations of two of his closest aides, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, who were tied up in the Watergate scandal. There are 340 hours of tape, which is a lot to sort through, and not all of the audio is clear. But The Atlantic Wire has picked out a few interesting conversations that give more insight into Nixon's paranoid, bigoted mind. (For people who are obsessed with Watergate, there's interesting stuff if you want to get in the weeds. A series of calls — with Watergate stars like Chuck Colson, Alexander Haig, Haldeman, plus Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — after he announced the resignations is fascinating for Nixon obsessives, showing his insecurity and loathing of the press.)

In a June 14, 1973 Oval Office meeting with Anne Armstrong, counselor to the president, Nixon said black people couldn't run Jamaica. "Blacks can’t run it. Nowhere, and they won’t be able to for a hundred years, and maybe not for a thousand. … Do you know, maybe one black country that’s well run?" He gave some guidance on what appointees should be like: "No Jews. We are adamant when I say no Jews. … But I mean don’t say anything don’t let anybody know we didn’t [audio unclear] Jewish. But Mexicans are important. Italians, Eastern Europeans. That sort of thing."

In a June 13, 1973 conversation with secretary Rose Mary Woods, Nixon discussed the entertainment at an upcoming event. Johnny Mann and Debbie Reynolds are in. What about Danny Kaye, Nixon asks, "and not because of his ideology." Kaye, a singer and comedian, was born David Kaminsky to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in 1913 (pictured at right via Wikimedia Commons). Woods starts to say, "Well they were going to try to get him but…" And Nixon cuts in: "He's Jewish?" Woods ignores him, continuing, "I don't know what happened whether—" Nixon interjects again: "He's Jewish." Woods explains, "They had to check him out with the Russians."

In an April 18, 1973 phone call with Spiro Agnew, Nixon said Jews were holding American foreign policy "hostage to Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union." He added, "Some of the Jews picket can raise hell, but the American people are not going to let them destroy our foreign policy — never!" This was a subject to which Nixon repeatedly returned.