Dan Baum, the journalist who originally interviewed Ehrlichman, recently revisited the interview in Harper's

originally ran the interview in 1994, five years before

One of the top White House advisers to president Richard Nixon admitted the 'War of Drugs' was meant to crush anti-war protesters and black people a decades-old interview has revealed.

John Ehrlichman, who served as President Richard Nixon's domestic policy chief, described the sinister use of Nixon's controversial policy in 1994.

Dan Baum, the journalist who originally interviewed Ehrlichman, revisited the admission in a new article for Harper's magazine.

John Ehrlichman, who served as President Richard Nixon's domestic policy chief, told reporter Dan Baum the 'War on Drugs' was meant to after anti-war protesters and black people

'You want to know what this was really all about,' Ehrlichman said in the interview after Baum asked him about Nixon's harsh anti-drug policies.

'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,' Ehrlichman said in the interview.

Ehrlichman and Nixon manipulated the public by associating 'hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin', then policing both under harsh laws, which saw both groups ending up in jail

The Reverend Al Sharpton said Ehrlichman's comments prove what black people have believed for years.

'This is a frightening confirmation of what many of us have been saying for years.

'That this was a real attempt by government to demonize and criminalize a race of people.'

'And when we would raise the questions over that targeting, we were accused of all kind of things, from harboring criminality to being un-American and trying to politicize a legitimate concern,' Sharpton told the New York Daily News.

Ehrlichman, who died in 1999, served 18 months in prison after being convicted of conspiracy and perjury for his part in Watergate.

President Nixon began the drug war, which would be carried on by every president who succeeded him, starting with the Reagan presidency and first lady Nancy Reagan's 'Just Say No' campaign

Nixon called drug abuse his 'Public Enemy No. 1' and signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which created harsh laws for drug users in 1971.

He also created the Drug Enforcement Administration and by 1973 nearly 300,000 people, the majority of whom were African-American, were being arrested every year.

His policies would be followed by Nancy Reagan's 'Just say no' campaign and many other presidencies since.

Ehrlichman’s comments were brought to light after Baum wrote a cover story for the next month's issue of Harper’s, titled 'Legalize It All', in which he says hard drugs should be legalized.