[Texgreen] Power politics in the White House

[Roger Baker]

Are we sure we really want to know what is going on in the White =20
House today?
Check out the past, which now seems like a civilized era by =20
comparison. -- Roger

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<http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/kissinger200705?=20
currentPage=3D1>
The Kissinger Presidency

Battered by Watergate in 1973, President Nixon was losing his epic =20
power struggle with Henry Kissinger. Then the Middle East exploded. =20
In an excerpt from his new book, using freshly opened archives, the =20
author describes how the secretary of state took control.

by Robert Dallek May 2007

Excerpted from  Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, by Robert =20
Dallek, to be published this month by HarperCollins Publishers; =A9 =20
2007 by the author....

Vietnam. Using language that has a painfully contemporary echo, =20
Kissinger and Nixon very quickly came to private conclusions about =20
Vietnam that they never revealed publicly and denied entertaining. =20
"In Saigon the tendency is to fight the war to victory," Nixon told =20
Kissinger, according to the transcript of a 1969 phone conversation. =20
"But you and I know it won't happen=97it is impossible." Even so, =20
according to Haldeman's unpublished diaries, Nixon later urged that =20
Democratic critics making this same point should be labeled "the =20
party of surrender." When someone told Kissinger that Nixon could not =20=

be re-elected, because of Vietnam, he disputed it and added, =20
according to a memo of a conversation, that "anytime we want to get =20
out of Vietnam we can," and that "we will get out of Vietnam before =20
the [1972] election." ...

  Nixon confided to Haldeman, according to the unpublished diaries, =20
that he was "quite shocked" at how Kissinger had "ranted and raved" =20
at Alexander Haig during a 1971 phone conversation, telling Haig that =20=

he "had handled everything wrong," and calling U.N. ambassador George =20=

H. W. Bush "an idiot." Nixon believed that something more serious was =20=

going on, and it is known that he once mused to Ehrlichman that =20
Kissinger might need psychiatric help....

Although the White House issued a statement attributing to Nixon the =20
decision to put the nation on high alert, and Kissinger repeated this =20=

assertion at a press briefing, it was Kissinger and the six other =20
national-security officials in the early-morning hours who actually =20
chose to do it, though presumably confident that they reflected =20
Nixon's wishes. But how confident could they really have been? As =20
Kissinger would remind Haig the next day, according to the transcript =20=

of a phone call, "You and I were the only ones for it. These other =20
guys were wailing all over the place this morning."...

The extent to which Kissinger had come to believe that decision-=20
making should rightfully rest in his own hands rather than the =20
president's can hardly be exaggerated....

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were symbiotic rivals=97men who =20
shared many similarities, including cynicism and insecurity, and who =20
desperately needed each other despite their often poisonous =20
antagonism and mutual suspicion. Nixon distrusted Kissinger, doubting =20=

his professions of admiration....Kissinger privately referred to =20
Nixon as "that madman," "our drunken friend," and "the meatball mind."=