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| - Former President Richard Nixon first said "The professors are the enemy" during a 1972 conversation with his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. Vance quoted Nixon's words during a 2021 speech.
For years, internet users have shared the claim that U.S. Vice President JD Vance once said, "The professors are the enemy."
In the weeks following Vance's Jan. 20, 2025, swearing-in as vice president, the quote appeared in numerous posts on social media platforms including X (archived), Reddit (archived) and Instagram.
Yale grad VP Vance states that Professors & Universities are the enemy.
byu/BoringApocalyptos inABoringDystopia
In short, Vance did say "The professors are the enemy" at the end of a keynote address on Nov. 2, 2021, at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida. Footage of Vance saying the quote can be seen starting around the 20:30 mark of the video below. As a result, we've determined that the quote was correctly attributed.
However, the words weren't originally Vance's. As Vance himself stated in the speech, and as various articles and blog posts have pointed out, it was former President Richard Nixon who first said "the professors are the enemy."
Vance put it as follows: "There is a wisdom in what Richard Nixon said approximately 40 to 50 years ago. He said, and I quote, 'The professors are the enemy.'"
Nixon said these words on Dec. 14, 1972, near the end of an Oval Office meeting with Henry Kissinger, who was at the time Nixon's national security adviser (Kissinger became secretary of state in 1973). Alexander Haig Jr., Nixon's deputy assistant for national security affairs, also participated in the meeting.
Nixon famously recorded many of his conversations as president, including this one. As a result, a digitized recording of Nixon saying the quote is available on the website of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The "professors are the enemy" line can be heard starting around the 43:30 mark of the second clip that appears on the page.
A transcript of the conversation, which we have verified matches the audio made available through the Nixon Presidential Library, is available through the State Department's Office of the Historian.
Nixon's words appeared to be a sort of motivational send-off meant to wrap up the meeting with Kissinger and Haig, which largely focused on the state of the Vietnam War. The immediate context for the quote appears below.
Nixon: All right, the main thing is for you to get rested and get ready for all this and go out there and just remember that when it's toughest, that's when we're the best. And remember, we're going to be around and outlive our enemies. And also, never forget, the press is the enemy.
Kissinger: On that, there's no question—
Nixon: The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. Professors are the enemy. Write that on the blackboard 100 times and never forget it.
Although Vance did not come up with the quote himself, it directly spoke to the content of his 2021 speech, which he titled "The Universities are the Enemy."
Toward the beginning of the speech, Vance expressed a similar opinion using his own words, saying, "I think if any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country and for the people who live in it, we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country."
Vance's words — including the Nixon quote — previously drew attention (archived) in summer 2024, during and after that year's Republican National Convention. For example, that August, American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson released a statement decrying "Vance's labeling of professors as 'the enemy.'"
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