Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (60501)	12/7/2002 10:25:29 PM
From: Ed Huang	Respond to of 281500

Good article from Helen. The closing paragraph wishes Kissinger tell the truth. I think he will tell a lot of truth by the end. As long as you guys can use those truth, eh.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (60501)	12/7/2002 11:43:27 PM
From: LLLefty	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Helen Thomas writes >>>>I traveled with him (Kissinger) in 1973 to the Middle East as he was leading U.S. efforts to win a cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Egypt. We reporters asked many times if he was bringing a plan to halt the fighting and Kissinger vehemently denied many times that he had one<<<< Either I'm more forgetful than I think I am or Helen Thomas is even more so. Helen was not among the self-styled "Kissinger 14" journalists who traveled the ME circuit when K was negotiating the ceasefire of the Yom Kippur (October) war. They were primarily, as I recall, State Department correspondents, including Ted Koppel and Marvin Kalb. K didn't have a finished plan by any means. He travelled from capital to capital sizing up what was possible before making proposals. K's thinking changed often as his trip Helen seems to be complaining that K failed to lay out for her his blueprint. >>>>As Nixon's national security adviser in the White House, he undercut the late Secretary of State William P. Rogers at every turn. Rogers did not even know that Nixon had dispatched Kissinger to Beijing on the super-secret mission that paved the way for the 1972 resumption of U.S. relations with China.<<<< It was Nixon, of course, who sensibly cut Rogers (not one of our more distinguished Secretaries) out of the tiny circle. Had the K mission to Beijing become public knowledge, it would have caused a domestic furor (remember Senator Knowland and the pro-Taiwan lobby?) and likely scuttled the initiative. K knew well that State was a leaky sieve, in particular the ME division with its stack of Arabists. He had little trust, in fact, in our Ambassaors to some of the concerned countries (including Israel) and kept them somewhat out of the loop, reporting periodically to Nixon whose mind was focused more on Watergate than the ME. All this said, Helen was certainly a fine wire service reporter in her day, as competitive as any in the Washington press corps. But as a columnist, well..... And Henry, well, he is one of our brightest. Whether he is the best for the new task is debatable. I was surprised and he wouldn't have been on my list. But the more I think about it, he may very well turn out to have been a choice that George II will regret.