Richard Nixon's Original Enemies List

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Presidents of the United States always have close friends, sometimes from childhood or school days, and at other times from the leagues of leeches who buy their way into presidential favor.  (Elon, I'm looking at you!)   But, as we are currently being reminded, Presidents also have enemies, and the more petty a President is, the more likely he is to obsess over people he perceives as enemies, sometimes to the point of even doing the world the courtesy of posting their names on public lists.

A couple of days ago I aired Kash Patel's list of members of the "Deep State" in this blog and said that it could also be regarded as an enemies list for Donald Trump.  Patel's list was three times longer than that of Nixon, and it undoubtedly helped to ingratiate him to Trump who, two years after Patel published his list in a book, nominated him to be the next FBI Director.

But Patel's list is old news, and I thought it might be interesting to go back even further and take a close look at the twenty people on "Richard Nixon's Original Enemies List,"  It is "original" because a master list that contained even more names was later developed.  Eighteen of the original twenty are now deceased.   Morton Halperin, a foreign policy expert, and Sidney Davidoff, a lawyer, still survive, and both are now in their mid-80's.  

Nixon's enemies list was compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell, and sent in memorandum form to John Dean, the White House Counsel, on September 9, 1971, during Nixon's first term in office.   

Charles Colson was Nixon's "hatchet man" and a member of the "Watergate Seven."  He served time in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in, and found Jesus while he was there.  Colson later became an evangelist and founder of Prison Fellowship to bring the "message" to people behind bars.  Charles Colson passed away in 2012 at the age of eighty.   George T. Bell, the man who actually wrote the list, was a special assistant to Nixon.  He died in 1973 at sixty years of age.   John Dean, the White House Counsel, was one of the young faces of the administration.  Dean served the administration for three years before changing sides and providing information to investigators that ultimately led to Nixon's resignation and Dean's imprisonment.  He was disbarred as an attorney, and can now occasionally be found as a guest commentator on political news shows.  John Dean is currently 86-years-old.   

Here are Nixon's enemies from the original list:

1.  Arnold Picker  (film executive), d. 1989. 
2.  Alexander E. Barkan  (Head of AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education),  d. 1990.
3.   Edwin Guthman  (journalist)  d. 2008.
4.   Maxwell Dane  (advertising executive)  d. 2004.
5.   Charles Dyson  (businessman)  d. 1997.
6.   Howard Stein  (financier)  d. 2024.
7.   Rep. Allard Lowenstein  (Congressman, D-NY)   assassinated 1980.
8.   Morton Halperin  (foreign policy expert).
9.   Leonard Woodcock  (President of the United Auto Workers)  d. 2001.
10.   S. Sterling Munro, Jr.  (aide of Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson)  d. 1992.
11.   Bernard T. Feld  (professor)  d. 1993.
12.   Sidney Davidoff  (lawyer).
13.   Rep. John Conyers  (Congressman, D-MI)  d. 2019.
14.   Samuel M. Lambert  (Executive Secretary of the National Education Association)  d. 1991.
15.   Stewart Rawlings Mott  (philanthropist)  d.  2008.
16.   Rep. Ron Dellums  (Congressman, D-CA)  d. 2018.
17.   Daniel Schorr  (journalist)  d.  2010.
18.   S. Harrison Dogole  (President of Globe Security Systems)  d. 1998.
19.   Paul Newman  (actor)  d. 2008.
20.   Mary McGrory  (journalist)  d. 2004.

Actor Paul Newman considered being on the list "an honor," even if he did place at only number nineteen,  Both Newman and journalist Daniel Schorr (#17) said that making the list was their "greatest accomplishment."   Daniel Schorr reportedly learned that he was on the list while reading it live on television.  There were also reports of prominent individuals who felt slighted by not making it onto Richard Nixon's Original Enemies List!

The list of people who considered Richard Nixon their enemy was undoubtedly much longer!