Nixon hated Supreme Court ruling

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. President Richard Nixon vowed to change the U.S. Supreme Court after its 1971 ruling allowing publication of classified material about the Vietnam War.

The threat came in a taped phone conversation between Nixon and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover recently discovered by researchers at the University of Virginia, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The researchers have been listening to thousands of tapes released by the national archives.

In the phone conversation with Hoover, Nixon called the high court ruling "unbelievable" and vows "to change that court," the Post report said.

"You know those clowns we got on there," Nixon tells Hoover. "I'll tell you I hope I outlive the bastards."

Nixon toyed with the idea of making a statement about freedom of the press in response to the ruling but Hoover cautioned him to remain silent.

"If you enter it now on the grounds of freedom of the press … it's the very thing that the enemies of the administration want to do, is to divert the attack upon you," the Post quoted Hoover as replying.