Years of Upheaval
Page 179
That night Nixon announced his resignation in a simple speech that was well delivered, without pathos. It stopped short of confessing guilt but it admitted mistakes — not an easy matter for one so proud. I watched the last minute of his speech in the Oval Office from behind the television cameras. When he was finished, Nixon stood for a moment or two ordering his papers and then he placed his hand on the top of Wilson’s desk before turning his back for the last time on the Oval Office. I caught up with him in the passageway next to the Rose Garden. I said: “Mr. President, after most of your major speeches in this office we have walked together back to your house. I would be honored to walk with you again tonight.”
So we walked along the corridor to the residence for the final time. By now we had uttered all the words possible. I repeated that history would treat him more kindly. And he repeated that this would depend on who wrote it. At the door of the residence, Julie Nixon Eisenhower was waiting. She wordlessly embraced her father and escorted him the rest of the way.
James St. Clair, Nixon’s lawyer, was in my office when I returned. I do not know what brought him there. He and I had exchanged only a few words during the preceding months. Now he obviously needed someone to talk to. He reviewed matter-of-factly the various stages of his experience: Nixon’s reluctance to inform even his own lawyer of what he was facing, making St. Clair’s job with his client similar to the Special Prosecutor’s. He was obviously bothered about whether he could have done better, whether something had been overlooked. “It was not a legal case,” I told him. “It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.”
The next morning Nixon’s Cabinet and White House staff were assembled for the last time, packed into the East Room. Many of us could remember the exuberance of two inaugural celebrations and the high hopes of being sworn in there. At 9:30 A.M., the military aide announced President and Mrs. Nixon, followed by the strains of “Hail to the Chief.” The poignancy was nearly unbearable. And then Nixon delivered a speech that was as rambling as the previous night’s had been disciplined, as emotional as the previous night’s had been controlled. It was too much. It was as if having kept himself in check all these years he had to put on display all the demons and dreams that had driven him to this point. He even wore glasses in public for the first time, symbolically forswearing the vanity and image-making of his career. It was horrifying and heartbreaking; and it was unavoidable. Nixon could not leave as the automaton that had been his public personality. I was at the same time moved to tears and outraged at being put through the wringer once again, so that even in his last public act Nixon managed to project his ambivalence onto those around him. When he was praising his mother, I wondered irrationally why he had omitted his wife, Pat, who without his capacity for make-believe must have suffered the most grievously of all.
And then that mood passed, too, as the anguish on the platform engulfed us all. In defeat and disgrace Nixon had at last prevailed; he had stripped us of our reserve; we were naked before these elemental feelings and our hearts in the end went out to this man who transcended his extremity by refusing to act as if he were defeated.
A few minutes later I stood on the South Portico of the White House, from which Nixon had always waved with foreign guests to the crowds that assembled for arrival ceremonies. Down below on the South Lawn, incongruously a red carpet stretched toward the waiting helicopter and an honor guard presented arms for the last time to the President and Mrs. Nixon accompanied by the Fords. The President-designate said a few inaudible words to President and Mrs. Nixon at the foot of the helicopter’s stairs. As he was about to board, Nixon turned to his colleagues for the last time with a wave of his arms that was intended to be jaunty but that conveyed more than anything that he had reached the end of his physical and emotional resources.
Soon the helicopter was just a tiny dot beside the Washington Monument and then it disappeared on the way to Andrews Air Force Base. Ford, President-designate for another ninety minutes, turned and strode firmly toward the White House, his arm around his wife’s shoulders. They were virtually alone; there was as yet no retinue of aides or visible security; Ford appeared subdued and yet confident.
I felt an immense relief. We had traversed a constitutional crisis without catastrophe. Whatever was ahead of us could not match in peril the period of the collapse of our executive authority. Somehow we had preserved a vital foreign policy in the debacle. Yet I reflected also that one cannot engage with impunity in a flirtation with the nihilistic. No one had taken over the Presidency in more challenging circumstances; great crises were surely ahead. And the prayer that had eluded me two nights earlier came to me as I watched Gerald Ford enter the White House: for the sake of all of us, that fate would be kind to this good man, that his heart would be stout, and that America under his leadership would find again its faith.
Over a pontoon bridge into Hanoi, February 1973.
Meeting Pham Van Dong in Hanoi, February 1973 (in the middle, Le Duc Tho).
With Le Duc Tho at the Guest House, Hanoi, February 1973.
With Premier Zhou Enlai and Chairman Mao Zedong in Peking, February 1973.
Zhou Enlai, November 1973.
A flock of Peking ducks at a commune near Peking, November 1973. With HAK are, second from left, Walter Bothe (Secret Service); to his left, Ji Pengfei, Foreign Minister; fifth from left, Robert McCloskey, State Department press spokesman; behind, to HAK’s right, Richard H. Solomon, NSC staff; behind, to HAK’s left, Arthur Hummel, Acting Assistant Secretary of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and far right, Winston Lord, Director, Policy Planning Staff.
Dinner for Edward Heath at Camp David, February 1973. Left to right: HAK, Ambassador Cromer, Secretary of State Rogers, Sir Burke Trend, Robert Armstrong, Ambassador Walter Annenberg, Prime Minister Heath, President Nixon, Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Sir Denis Greenhill.
Meeting with President Georges Pompidou in Reykjavik, May 31, 1973. Left to right: Pompidou, Mrs. Kristjan Eldjarn, President Nixon, President Eldjarn of Iceland.
With Chancellor Willy Brandt after meeting in Bonn, March 4, 1974.
The Big Four Foreign Ministers before dinner in Brussels, December 9, 1973. Left to right: Sir Alec Douglas-Home (United Kingdom); Walter Scheel (Federal Republic of Germany); HAK; Michel Jobert (France).
With Helmut Schmidt in Munich after Schmidt’s accession to the Chancellorship, July 7, 1974.
French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert at the Washington Energy Conference, February 1974.
Being greeted in Tokyo by Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira, November 14, 1973.
The guest house at Zavidovo, May 1973 (see Chapter VII).
Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, interpreter Viktor Sukhodrev, and, standing, Foreign Ministry official Georgi Korniyenko, at Zavidovo, May 1973.
With Brezhnev at the hunting tower, Zavidovo, May 1973 (the picture is autographed by Brezhnev).
Brezhnev, HAK, Sukhodrev in hunting garb at Zavidovo, May 1973.
Brezhnev’s arrival in Washingtom, June 18,1973.
On the Presidential yacht Sequoia on the Potomac, June 19, 7975. Clockwise, from far left: Andrei Gromyko (partially obscured); Nixon; Brezhnev; Viktor Sukhodrev; William Rogers; Anatoly Dobrynin; NSC staff member William G. Hyland; Brezhnev aides A. M. Aleksan- drov and G. E. Tsukanov; Treasury Secretary George Shultz; HAK.
Actress Jill St. John, Leonid Brezhnev, and Andrei Vavilov (interpreter) at Nixon’s San Clemente reception, June 1973.
Nixon, Brezhnev, and HAK at San Clemente, June 1973.
Len Garment and Ron Ziegler answer press questions on Watergate, May 22, 1973.
New White House Team, June 1973: Melvin Laird, President Nixon, Alexander Haig.
After being sworn in as Secretary of State, September 22, 1973. Left to right: David Kissinger; HAK; Elizabeth Kissinger; President Nixon; Paula and Louis Kissinger.
Luncheon in the White House Mess after the swearing in, September 22, 1973. Clockwise from left: Paula Kissinger; Governor Nelson Rockefeller; Nancy; HAK; Louis Kissinger; Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth Rush; Pat Mosbacher; Joseph Alsop.
Waiting for a ride at rhe White House with Brent Scowcroft.
First day at the State Department after sworn in, September 1973
The traveling State Department press corps.
Testifying before Congress as Secretary of State, September 1973.
With the House Congressional Leadership, 1973. Le/i to right: Minority Whip Leslie Arends, Majority Leader Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Thomas Morgan, HAK, Speaker Carl Albert, Minority Leader Gerald Ford.
Opening of the Washington Energy Conference, February 11, 1974.
Walking in the garden with President Sadat’s national security adviser, Hafiz Ismail, Paris, May 20, 1973 (see Chapter VI).
With King Hassan of Morocco in Rabat, on HAK’s first trip to the Middle East, November 5, 1973.
With President Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, November 6, 1973.
Meeting President Houari Boumedienne in Algiers, December 12, 1973. In the middle are Joseph Sisco and Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
With King Hussein in Amman, November 8, 1973.
With President Hafez al-Asad in Damascus, January 20, 1974.
A call on king Faisal in Riyadh, Febeuary 1975.
The US delegation at the Geneva Middle East Peace Conference, December 21, 1973. Front row: Ellsworth Bunker, HAK, Joseph Sisco. Second row: Ambassador Walter Stoessel, John Ready (Secret Service), Harold Saunders, Alfred L. Atherton, Jr. Third row: George Vest, Peter Rodman, Michael Sterner, Lawrence Eagleburger.
Geneva Middle East Peace Conference, December 1973: The Man in the Middle.
Cocktails at Abba Eban’s house, Jerusalem, January 13, 1974. Left to right: Abba Eban, HAK, Moshe Dayan.
Negotiating the Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement, Aswan, January 1974. Left to right: Ellsworth Bunker, HAK, Joseph Sisco, Peter Rodman, Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy, President Sadat, Chief of Staff General Gamasy.
Vice President Hosni Mubarak and President Sadat. With backs to camera, Joseph Sisco and HAK.
Anwar el-Sadat.
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Completion of the Egyptian-Israeli disengagement, at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Israel, January 18, 1974. Left to right: Abba Eban, Joseph Sisco, HAK, Ephraim Evron, Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Signing the Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement at Kilometer 101, January 18, 1974. Signing the agreement, at center top, Lieutenant General David Elazar (for Israel); at bottom, back to camera, Major General Abdel Ghany el-Gamasy (for Egypt); at center right, UNEF Commander Lieutenant General Ensio Siilasvuo (witnessing for the UN). American officials present are State Department Legal Adviser Carlyle E. Maw (top right) and NSC staff member Harold Saunders (lower right).
Ismail Fahmy and Omar Saqqaf say goodbye after a visit to the White House, February 19, 1974.
“Photo opportunity” on the veranda at Giza.
Shuttle scene; working in the compartment on SAM 86970.
Poster presented by the traveling journalists on the Syrian shuttle, May 1974.
Getting ready to board King Hussein’s helicopter, Amman, May 6, 1974.
Arriving home after the thirty-four-day shuttle, at Andrews Air Force Base, May 31, 1974.
With Nancy on a shuttle.
Verification Panel meeting in the Situation Room, 1974. Left to right: Admiral Thomas Moorer, Helmut Sonnenfeldt, Brent Scowcroft, Joseph Sisco, HAK, Paul Nitze.
With Brezhnev in Moscow, March 1974. His “MIRVed” cigarette case is on the table to his right.
Chatting with Senator Henry M. Jackson before delivering testimony to Jackson’s Armed Services subcommittee, June 24, 1974.
THE JUNE 1974 NIXON-BREZHNEV SUMMIT:
At Brezhnev’s villa in Oreanda.
Getting ready for a cruise on the Black Sea.
At Oreanda, by Brezhnev’s swimming pool, waiting for Nixon and Brezhnev to emerge from their tête-à-tête in the grotto. Left to right: Andrei Gromyko, HAK, Anatoly Dobrynin, Alexander Haig, Helmut Sonnenfeldt. (See Chapter XXIV.)
Nixon’s tumultuous reception in Egypt, June 1974.
Nixon’s visit to Egypt, June 1974. Facing camera, left to right: HAK, Nixon, Sadat, Mrs. Nixon, Mrs. Sadat.
Nixon departing the White House, August 9, 1974.
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Appendix
The 1973 Bombing Campaign in Cambodia
Memorandum for the Historian of the State Department from Emory C. Swank, U.S. Ambassador to the Khmer Republic, 1970–73, and Thomas O. Enders, Deputy Chief of Mission, Phnom Penh, 1970–74, and dated October 10, 1979.
(Following this memorandum are Tab A: State Department Instruction 015050, January 26, 1973; Tab B: Letter from William N. Harben, Chief of the Political Section, Phnom Penh, 1972–1973; and Tab C: Letter from John W. Vogt, General USAF, Ret., Commander of the US Seventh Air Force and of the United States Support Activities Group, 1973.)
The 1973 Bombing Campaign in Cambodia
IN a book published earlier this year (Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1979) William Shawcross makes assertions and inferences which misrepresent the conduct and consequences of the 1973 bombing campaign in Cambodia and the roles each of us played in it. Although they are by no means the only errors of fact and interpretation contained in Mr. Shawcross’s book, these are of particular importance historically, because they appear to be the main basis for his conclusions concerning the “destruction of Cambodia.”
According to Mr. Shawcross,
— Embassy Phnom Penh “approved and controlled” the bombing;
— It was instructed to do so by Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Kissinger without the knowledge of the Secretary of State;
— Bombing was “indiscriminate” because out-of-date maps were used rather than photography;
— Control of bombing was shifted to the Cambodian armed forces after a Congressional sub-committee investigation in April 1973;
— The bombing resulted in massive civilian casualties.
None of these statements is correct.
1. Assertion: That from early February 1973 on, Embassy Phnom Penh was no longer to be merely “a conduit, passing Cambodian requests for bombing strikes on to the Seventh Air Force,” but “was to be actively involved in the entire bombing process, selecting, examining, approving and controlling the bombing.”1 Mr. Shawcross cites no source for this statement.
Clarification: The Embassy did not approve or control air strikes; only Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) and its successor command — the United States Support Activities Group (USSAG) — had that authority. The role of the Embassy was to receive FANK requests for air support, validate them “consistent with means and time available” and forward them to MACV for decision. The operative part of the Embassy’s instructions, as sent to Swank in State Department cable 15050, dated January 26, 1973 and classified Secret/NODIS, reads:
“At the time when the FANK [Forces Armées Nationales Khmeres] suspend offensive military operation all U.S. TACAIR and B-52 strikes in Cambodia will cease. RECCE, airlift, medevac and other U.S. air operations that are not ordnance delivery associated are permitted.