University of Virginia Library

The Watergate: Making Waves

Up until yesterday, the Watergate
and Henry Kissinger; surprisingly or not
surprisingly enough, were never mentioned in
the same context. As fascinated or suspicious
as the public and the press have often been
with the machinations of international
diplomacy and in particular with the
intriguing Kissinger life-style, it is almost a
wonder how the Kissinger name has remained
unimplicated for so long.

No, Henry Kissinger has not been accused
of opening a secret "Re-Elect The President"
bank account in Peking, or of carrying stolen
documents around the world in an attempt to
evade investigators, or of sending envoys to
Chile to store secret microfilm in rotted
telephone poles. Where Mr. Nixon's chief
foreign policy adviser and the Watergate
became intertwined recently was at an
Associated Press luncheon of the American
Newspaper Publishers Association in New
York. It was there that the possible effects
the Watergate scandal might have on the
future of U.S. foreign diplomacy were
discussed. And it was Henry Kissinger who
brought these revelations to the front page of
newspapers around the world.

In acknowledging that the Watergate affair
could affect national foreign relations, Mr.
Kissinger asked if America "can afford an
orgy of recriminations" against those
supposedly involved, or "whether we should
not keep in mind that the United States will
be there longer than any particular crises
–whether all of us do not have an obligation
to remember that faith in the country must be
maintained and its promise should be
eternal."

With regard to this matter, Mr. Kissinger
further commented that "a great deal will
depend on how foreign countries will assess
the degree of authority in this country and
the degree of dedication of the public to the
objectives of its foreign policy."

This is indeed a very grave concern, one
which Mr. Nixon (allegedly a delicate and
successful manipulator in diplomacy) and his
espionage "experts" failed to foresee. Could
not these acts of unethical political sabotage
possibly serve as at least an indirect cause for
North Vietnamese truce violations since they,
unlike the Democrats, are not also about to
be caught off-guard? In other words, do we
give them any substantial basis to
trust in our faithfulness to the peace accords,
especially since they have far more than the
Democrats to potentially lose?

Or, in the Middle East–why should the
Arabs trust the Nixon administration's
oft-repeated commitments to peace in that
area when it has deceived and in certain
instances blatantly lied to even the very
people it is supposed to represent?

Or why should the Soviets cease espionage
operations against the U.S. when we
disgracefully carry these out ironically enough
even on our own citizens?There is an awful
lot more to lose as this scandal continues to
be exposed than might readily be realized.
The Watergate is one of the hottest bits of
news that has hit the entire world news scene
in years. And their peoples are very keenly
aware of every event.

The Washington Post reports that
"Britain's press and broadcasters have been
splashing the Watergate scandal with the
loving care it would usually reserve for an axe
murder at 10 Downing Street."

Papers across the British Commonwealth
run headlines such as, "The Taint of Guilt
Moves Closer to Nixon" and "15 White House
Officials Expected to Quit as Watergate
Scandal Grows." Columnists in even the most
conservative papers write "the smell of the
Watergate scandal's bad eggs" is "extending to
Key Biscayne," and "Nixon has not earned
the name 'Tricky Dicky' for nothing."

Mr. Kissinger, of course, desires more than
anything that those international objectives
and accords which he has successfully strove
for in the past and continues to work towards
are not erased by petty partisan squabbles.
But neglecting or ignoring them now as Mr.
Nixon has tried to do in the past can only
intensify those repercussions abroad. If
America is truly the last bastion of free
exercise and due process as she claims to be
and "expects" the rest of the world to believe,
then she must prove this in a fair and
thorough investigation as should only be
expected.

Mr. Kissinger is perfectly correct in his
analysis, yet the way to protect
against a tidal wave is to construct an
impenetrable dike, not to keep heaping on the
sand; it will only wash away. In this case, the
"impenetrable dike" is a reliable commitment
to what we stand for, and it is time we realize
this to insure continued progress towards
peace.