Did Richard Nixon say, "The American people are children"?  If so, I
would like to know where.  I want to mention it as a cynical,
dismissive comment by an American leader. I tried typing the quoted
statement into the Google search window, and I got a bunch of hits,
but they were to places where other people said this, probably without
knowing it may have originally been said by Nixon. (Although my memory
of that connection may be false.)  --Phil Shaver

Phil,

Nixon did indeed say something very much like this, but perhaps not as
cynical as you had in mind.

Nixon gave a widely-cited interview just before the 1972 elections. 
The quote about children appeared in many papers, including the Los
Angeles Times, from which this excerpt is taken:


Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1972

Nixon Interview


"...The average American is just like the child in the family.  You
give him some responsibility and he is going to amount to
something...He is going to do something...If, on the other hand, you
make him completely dependent and pamper him and cater to him too
much, you are going to make him soft, spoiled and eventually a very
weak individual."



I trust that's the information you needed, but feel free to let me
know if there's anything else I can do for you.


pafalafa-ga


search strategy -- searched historical newspaper databases for [ nixon
american child OR children ]