Nixon tactics anything but ‘nicey-nice’

DISGRACED former US president Richard Nixon and his 1972 re-election campaign tried to tie Democrats to the mob, gay liberation and even slavery, according to newly released papers and tapes.

In one tactic, detailed in an August 1972 memo, an aide reports to chief of staff HR Haldeman on setting up an “apparatus” to comb through lists of McGovern’s staff and contributors for “left- wing mob connections”.

This was two months after the break-in at Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex.