View source for Richard Nixon's enemies list

{{short description|1970s list of Nixon political opponents}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2019}}
[[Image:Nixon 30-0316a.jpg|thumb|President [[Richard Nixon]]'s Official Presidential Photograph, taken in 1971]]
'''Richard Nixon{{'}}s enemies list''' refers to a compilation of major political opponents to [[Richard Nixon]], the [[president of the United States]] from 1969 until [[Richard Nixon's resignation speech|his resignation]] in 1974, that was assembled by [[Charles Colson]] and written by [[George T. Bell]]<ref name="execsession">{{cite web |last=Dean |first=John |date=Winter 2005 |title=The enemies list revisited |url=http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2005/ft_presidents.html#dean |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060707181450/http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2005/ft_presidents.html#dean |archive-date=2006-07-07 |work=Boston College Magazine}}</ref> (assistant to Colson, [[White House Counsel|special counsel to the White House]]), and sent in [[memorandum]] form to [[John Dean]] on September 9, 1971. The list was part of a campaign officially known as "Opponents List" and "Political Enemies Project".

The list became public knowledge on June 27, 1973,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Axtell|first1=Daniel G.|title=Nixon's First Enemies List|url=http://www.enemieslist.info/list1.php|website=EnemiesList.info|access-date=October 24, 2016}}</ref> when Dean mentioned during hearings with the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] that a list existed containing those whom the president did not like. Journalist [[Daniel Schorr]], who happened to be on the list, managed to obtain a copy of it later that day.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thehill.com/capital-living/17776-journalist-recalls-the-honor-of-being-on-nixons-enemies-list/ |title=Journalist recalls the honor of being on Nixon's Enemies List |first=Jordy |last=Yager |date=January 6, 2009 |work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]}}</ref>

A longer second list was made public by Dean on December 20, 1973, during a hearing with the Congressional Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Axtell|first1=Daniel G.|title=Nixon's Second Enemies List|url=http://www.enemieslist.info/list2.php|website=EnemiesList.info|access-date=October 24, 2016}}</ref>

==Purpose==
[[Image:Dean-enemies-1.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[John Dean]]'s cover memo, dated August 16, 1971.]]
The official purpose, as described by the [[White House Counsel]]'s Office, was to "screw" Nixon's political enemies, by means of tax audits from the [[Internal Revenue Service]], and by manipulating "grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc."<ref name="dean1971">Dean, John (August 16, 1971). Dealing with our Political Enemies.</ref> In a memorandum from [[John Dean]] to [[Lawrence Higby]] (August 16, 1971), Dean explained the purpose of the list:

{{blockquote|This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.<ref name="dean1971"/>}}

The IRS commissioner, [[Donald Alexander (lawyer)|Donald C. Alexander]], refused to launch audits of the people on the list.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Donald C. Alexander dies at 87; former IRS chief who battled Nixon administration: Alexander successfully fought the Nixon administration's attempts to use tax audits and investigations to punish its political enemies and urged Congress to stiffen taxpayer confidentiality laws
|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]
|first=Patricia
|last=Sullivan
|date=February 9, 2009}}</ref> While none on the list were audited, several major donors to the presidential campaign of [[George McGovern]] did get audited in 1973, prompting a later remark from [[Karl Hess]], "The right of the victor of a presidential election is to the authority to audit the losers".<ref>Bovard, James, "Lost Rights", pg. 105</ref>

==People listed==
The twenty names in the memo were as follows, although a [[master list of Nixon's political opponents]] with additional names was developed later.

*[[Arnold Picker]], film executive
*[[Alexander E. Barkan]], head of the [[AFL-CIO]]'s Committee on Political Education
*[[Edwin Guthman]], journalist
*[[Maxwell Dane]], advertising executive
*[[Charles Dyson]], businessman
*[[Howard Stein]], financier
*Rep. [[Allard Lowenstein]] (D-NY), congressman
*[[Morton Halperin]], foreign policy expert
*[[Leonard Woodcock]], president of the [[United Auto Workers]]
*[[S. Sterling Munro Jr.]], aide of former [[Washington (state)|Washington]] Senator [[Henry M. Jackson]]
*[[Bernard T. Feld]], professor
*[[Sidney Davidoff]], lawyer
*Rep. [[John Conyers]] (D-MI), congressman
*[[Samuel M. Lambert]], executive secretary of the [[National Education Association]]
*[[Stewart Rawlings Mott]], philanthropist
*Rep. [[Ron Dellums]] (D-CA), congressman
*[[Daniel Schorr]], journalist
*[[S. Harrison Dogole]], president of Globe Security Systems
*[[Paul Newman]], actor
*[[Mary McGrory]], journalist

==Master list of political opponents==
{{watergate|Groups}}
{{main|Master list of Nixon's political opponents}}

According to Dean, Colson later compiled hundreds of names on a "master list" which changed constantly. On December 20, 1973, the Congressional Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation concluded that people on the "Enemies" list had ''not'' been subjected to an unusual number of tax audits. The report revealed a second list of about 576 (with some duplicates) supporters and staffers of [[George McGovern]]'s 1972 presidential campaign given to Internal Revenue Commissioner [[Johnnie Mac Walters|Johnnie Walters]] by John Dean on September 11, 1972.  ''[[The Washington Post]]'' printed the entire list the next day, but ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported just a few paragraphs on page 21.<ref>Claiborne, William. "IRS Ignored Bid to Audit 'Enemies' List," ''[[The Washington Post]]'', December 21, 1973, page 1.</ref><ref>Charlton, Linda. "[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A00E4DD1039E73ABC4951DFB4678388669EDE Congressional Unit Says Dean Gave I.R.S. 2d 'Enemies' List]," ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 21, 1973, page 21.</ref>

== Reception ==
Newsman [[Daniel Schorr]] and actor [[Paul Newman]] stated, separately, that inclusion on the list was their greatest accomplishment. When this list was released, Schorr read it live on television, not realizing that he was on the list until he came to his own name.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yager |first1=Jordy |title=Journalist recalls the honor of being on Nixon's Enemies List |url=https://thehill.com/capital-living/17776-journalist-recalls-the-honor-of-being-on-nixons-enemies-list/ |access-date=July 12, 2018 |work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|date=January 6, 2009}}</ref>  Author  [[Hunter S. Thompson]] remarked he was disappointed he was not on it.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Hunter S.|author-link=Hunter S. Thompson|year=2003|title=The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time|publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tESC9BnR85cC&pg=PA239|page=239|isbn=9780743250450}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
In the United States, the term "enemies list" has come to be used in contexts not associated with Richard Nixon. For example, satirist [[P. J. O'Rourke]]'s 1989 "A Call for a New [[McCarthyism]]" in ''[[The American Spectator]]'' has a hybrid [[blacklist]] and enemies list, suggesting that, contrary to the spirits of these lists, the subjects there should be overexposed, not suppressed, "so that a surfeited public rebels in disgust."

In Philip Roth's ''[[Our Gang (novel)|Our Gang]]'', which was published in 1971, two years before the list was first mentioned in public, the Nixon parody character Trick E. Dixon begins to compile a rudimentary list of five political enemies. It includes [[Jane Fonda]] and the [[Black Panthers]] who were on the real-life expanded master list, [[Daniel Berrigan|The Berrigans]] (who were not) and [[Curt Flood]].

In "[[Homer's Enemy]]" (1997), an 8th-season episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', [[Moe Szyslak]] shows off his own enemies list, which [[Barney Gumble]] quickly appraises as Nixon's list, with the latter's name crossed out and replaced with Moe's. Moe promptly adds Barney to the list for his insolence. An [[Homer the Great|earlier episode]] was also a likely reference to the enemies' list when Homer falls to the floor as a result of a shoddy chair. In anger, Homer remarks that the manufacturer "just made the list!".

In ''[[Futurama]]''{{'}}s first episode, "[[Space Pilot 3000]]" (1999),  [[Philip J. Fry|Fry]] and [[Bender (Futurama)|Bender]] walk through a room of live preserved heads of famous people. When Fry knocks over Nixon's jar, Nixon says "That's it, you just made my list!"

In a ''[[BoJack Horseman]]'' second-season episode called "The Shot" (2015), the title character and Todd visit the Nixon Presidential Library with the intent of stealing a scaled-down replica of the library. Mounted on the walls are Nixon's Enemy and "Frenemy" Lists. [[Walt Disney]] is included on the Enemy List.

==See also==
* [[Disposition Matrix]]
* [[IRS targeting controversy]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikisource|Dealing with our Political Enemies}}
{{commons}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160521025532/http://www.archives.gov/research/independent-counsels/watergate/ Records of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force 1971 to 1977] via [[National Archives and Records Administration]]
*[http://www.enemieslist.info/ EnemiesList.info], a complete, searchable, annotated Nixon's Enemies List
*[https://archive.org/details/statementofinfor08unit Statement of Information, Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to H. Res. 803, a Resolution Authorizing and Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to Investigate Whether Sufficient Grounds Exist for the House of Representatives to Exercise its Constitutional Power to Impeach Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, Book VIII, Internal Revenue Service, May-June 1974] via the [[Internet Archive]]

{{Presidency of Richard Nixon}}

[[Category:Nixon's Enemies List| ]]
[[Category:Watergate scandal]]
[[Category:Lists of American people]]
[[Category:Political terminology of the United States]]
[[Category:Censorship in the United States]]
[[Category:Lists of people by ideology]]
[[Category:Lists of people by legal status]]