Washington, August 29: Ted Kennedy, who died Tuesday, so enraged Richard Nixon that the disgraced president pushed in 1971 for snooping on the senator for proof he cheated on his wife, according to once-secret recordings.
And Nixon, who secretly taped some 3,700 hours of his conversations between February 1971 and July 1973, does not hide his disappointment and frustration when an aide reports back that the Massachusetts senator is “very clean.”
“The thing to do is to watch him,” he says in a September 8, 1971 recording in which Nixon, apparently fearful for his 1972 reelection prospects, lashes out at Kennedy.
Nixon also says he will give the senator, who lost two older brothers to assassins’ bullets, US Secret Service protection during the campaign to avoid any blame in case someone targets Kennedy then orders aides to use those official bodyguards as spies.
“Plant one. Plant two guys on him. This could be very useful,” says Nixon, who underlines that the security arrangement will end when the campaign does and then “If he gets shot, it’s too damn bad.”
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The recordings and some transcripts are available online, on a site curated by Luke Nichter, an assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University and a leading authority on the Nixon tapes.
-Agencies