PENTAGON SPIES AT THE WHITE HOUSE:
Ognibene, Peter I.
PENTAGON SPIES AT THE WHITE HOUSE PETER J. OGNIBENE Another case of a disease endemic to...
...Philadelphians were deep- rants: Philadelphia's Republican District Attorney Arlen ly divided about Frank Rizzo...
...ernor Milton Shapp, who, realizing even at that early Running for mayor as a Democrat, he won the elec- date he could scarcely run successfully for re-election tion by carrying white-ethnic, blue-collar wards along on the basis of his achievements in office, was maximizwith traditionally Republican areas...
...higher post as assistant deputy chief of naval operations Kissinger...
...Admiral Moorer, in this at the very least, of unethical conduct...
...Although he relationship with the President and his National Security first denied as "ludicrous" news stories that he received Council machinery to dominate the formulation of material through unauthorized channels, he later adAmerica's foreign and military policy...
...He was the kind of proximating statesmanship and decor...
...If a midshipman at Annapolis had received disagree with a particular military policy (e.g., Vieta "carbon copy" of a final exam in advance and failed nam), the public has generally perceived the nation's to report it to his superiorsy when he was later caught, military leaders to be men of integrity...
...The Commonweal: 11...
...It cost him dearly...
...In fact, the chairman of the JCS, Admiral the Oval Office, and he skillfully used his close working Thomas Moorer, was one of the recipients...
...Because NSC has always had news, I heard a three-star general snarl about "those a role in policy-making, it was not at all unusual that purloined Pentagon papers...
...Indeed, he now holds an even What is one to make of the Pentagon's spying on Dr...
...Policy was being made with little information...
...He cratic party leadership found itself stuck with a Mayor- came down squarely on the side of the Republican elect who was offensive to two of the most important Spector...
...ducing only the most crisp and precise documents for Commonweal: 9 the boss...
...Now, it turns out, the Pentagon itself was gon, for example, has a large liaison staff on Capitol Hill, "purloining" official White House documents at the as do other executive departments...
...the strategic arms limitation talks by agreeing to concen- Were there other massacres...
...advance word on the sale of wheat to Russia, generals Measured against more serious scandals, the Pentaand admirals want to know what the White House has gon's pilfering of Kissinger's files seems more comic than in store for their pet weapons projects...
...But, like the eighteenth- For the first few months of his administration, all was century English monarch before him, Philadelphia's well and good...
...Senator Harold have stopped the service from expelling him...
...Although no actual to change the institution or circumstances which led to crimes may have been committed, Admiral Moorer, for the problem, the certainty of the falling ax puts senior one, will end his long naval career under a cloud...
...How many "Cold with the help of wiretaps, to the liaison office...
...Does the cover-up "ethic" pervade all areas of ever, were simply not the sort which could be com- government...
...Meanwhile, the gubernatorial election was still elements of the rank-and-file membership of the party...
...However, no disciplinary But did he ask any of his assistants: "Where did these action was taken when the incident was discovered by papers come from...
...Frankly, I do not...
...Hence, Moorer almost certainly must have ity," and his civilian superior, Secretary of Defense James presumed that the "roughs" and "carbon copies" which Schlesinger, has said that Moorer "should have been crossed his desk were yanked from someone else's files...
...In short, the interests of the bureaucracy and the bureaucratic intrigue, it is understandable...
...According to the Washingever slice of the budget, the military was very much ton Post, "copies of classified documents and verbatim concerned by what it perceived as a loss of influence in notes or secret tape recordings of National Security Richard Nixon's White House...
...THE DECLINE AND FALL OF FRANK ]RIZZO T. LAURENCE BERRY The kind of cop who made civil libertarians appreciate J. Edgar Hoover Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and situation and the Rizzo temperament, trouble was inGeorge III might well have profited by their examples...
...Because the Pentagon same time generals were denouncing Ellsberg...
...Given this tenuous Came the 1972 Nixon-McGovern tilt, and Big Frank backed Nixon...
...The PETER J. OGNIBENE is a Contributing Editor of The New clerical staff of the chairman of the JCS is used to proRepublic...
...Rather, Charles Radford, said to have been the source of certain it seems to be another case of that disease endemic to press leaks from Kissinger's file (e.g., the "tilt" in favor Washington: bureaucratic infighting...
...Apparently not...
...The navy enlisted man, Yeoman challenge to civilian control...
...I have known includes the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, majors who would send a routine letter back to be typed anew if there was a single correction on the page...
...If officials on notice that they will be held accountable for he did not realize he was getting unauthorized material, the actions of their subordinates...
...In this spying intried to scuttle that initiative on the launching pad...
...Instead of bepolicy discussions...
...Even his most fercop who made the civil libertarians appreciate J. Edgar vent detractors were cautiously hoping for the best...
...liberals wouldn't have touched him with a ten-foot pole...
...To anyone who has seen time in the military, the By statute, the National Security Council membership admiral's alibi hardly seems plausible...
...military input...
...observations and conclusions...
...Ex-police commissioner that he was and not an unambiThe morning after election day, Philadelphia's Demo- tious sort, Rizzo waded headlong into the battle...
...In theory this office should have done little more than Although it may not have seemed possible to a civilian move papers from one pigeonhole to another, but we in 1971, when the Pentagon was getting a larger-than- now know it did much more...
...To this end Kissinger was largely suc- coming a sacrificial lamb, Admiral Welander was given cessful...
...Now, he admits, the White House in early 1972, and Schlesinger believes "I should have, perhaps, been more alert and followed "there is a rebuttable presumption against re-opening through on the exact manner in which these papers were the matter for disciplinary purposes, unless major new acquired...
...instance, has acknowledged his "institutional responsibil- Moorer now says the information he got was "essen8 March 1974: 10 tially useless," and it probably was, but that is beside institutions of government...
...That the military resorted to rifling his files is an important billet...
...Perhaps even more significant, came from an authoritarian Italian-American background for more weeks than a few Rizzo, the tough-talking, unand his attitude toward criminals was rather akin to that grammatical ex-cop adopted a demeanor reasonably apof a frontier vigilante lynch mob...
...He did so openly, vehemently, and greeted the Nixon re-election with jocular triumph...
...massacre and the Army's nearly successful cover-up In May 1971, for example, the President and Soviet showed just how far willing officials, who hold positions Party Chairman Leonid Brezhnev broke the deadlock at in public trust, would go to suppress evidence of a crime...
...The British have a delightful habit of firing the top Yet the story did ultimately come out, and the coverman whenever an organization has a major failure or up, it seems to me, only made the revelation that much scandal...
...own, not the Democratic party's...
...Even- the third party in a feud between two gubernatorial aspitually he made Commissioner...
...learn of them unless another ex-military photographer The Army, which was then eagerly looking forward to has pictures to give a curious journalist...
...more alert in this matter...
...Now, that perno claim that the paper was "essentially useless" would ception is likely to change for the worse...
...and the experimentalist Superintendent of Schools within Frank Rizzo is a cop's son who became a cop...
...His was a typical reaction Defense had a liaison office there...
...If one accepts that answer at face value, one facts were to emerge...
...And Hall, but, barring a miraculous comeback, Big Frank is true to his word, Big Frank eased out of office the finished as a political force in the Quaker City...
...Should Hughes, Democrat of Iowa, summed up the situation the Navy's highest ranking officer be held to a lesser succinctly and, I think, accurately when he asked: "If standard than a midshipman...
...interests would certainly have tried to sabotage the While it certainly did not originate with Mylai, that plans through leaks to the press...
...While the chopping block frequently does little more damaging to those involved...
...Perhaps, but we will not trate on reaching an agreement to limit missile defenses...
...him "early retirement," he will retain his high post...
...If, instead, he set in unfortunately, we entertain the theory of executive re- motion the plan to rifle Kissinger's files, he is guilty, sponsibility but not its practice...
...Because one of the surest ways to kill a could be summed up by a phrase often heard in gangmajor change in policy is to have it leaked prematurely ster movies: "Keep quiet and won't anybody get hurt...
...The Pentaspeech file...
...This is his first appearance in these pages...
...The liberal leadership of the Philadelphia Housing Authority Maverick Mayor overplayed his hand...
...must conclude the admiral lacks good judgment...
...Just as Secretary mitted receiving "working papers" and "a collection of of State William Rogers was reduced to an overseer of roughs and carbon copies...
...Some have seen in this incident a grave for plans and policy...
...participants were served...
...The discovery its belated entry to the missile age with its 12-site Safe- of the Watergate break-in was similarly an accident: guard anti-ballistic missile system, would no doubt have the result of a suspicious night guard...
...Nixon's and cosmic, but the incident has nonetheless raised serious Kissinger's international political moves in 1971, how- questions...
...However, he asserted: "I embassies, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird was rele- want to assure the American people that I have never gated to the role of chief military lobbyist on Capitol issued any instructions, or gave [sic] any orders, either Hill...
...For the most part ing his incumbency and the state police to make Arlen the blacks wanted no part of him, and the McGovernite Spector and law enforcement in Philadelphia look bad...
...Although the liaison office was abolished in the wake of Grave Challenge...
...So might have Frank L. Rizzo...
...The Joint Chiefs of Staff had little to do but shuffle directly or implied, to anyone to provide me unauthorized papers to one another...
...The last straw came in the spring of 1973...
...the incident, the man who ran it, Admiral Welander, was not reprimanded...
...First, Rizzo found himself attention and he rose rapidly through the ranks...
...The extent has more generals and flag officers than it could possibly of the operation is now being investigated by the Senate use in military command or staff positions, a rear adArmed Services Committe behind closed doors, but miral, Robert Welander, was not an unusual choice to what has come out so far is sufficient to warrant some head the office...
...Mayor Rizzo hired Lennox Moak, an Mayor said, in effect, damn the torpedoes and full speed aging fiscal wizard, to balance the city budget and preahead...
...The chairman of the JCS kept the the best indication of that success...
...He weeks of his inauguration...
...And while the in- top job, and the world did not learn about "The Plumbcident is deplorable, in the context of Washington's ers...
...Just as the large of Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani war) was simply regrain export corporations wanted (and apparently got) assigned to a naval installation in Salem, Oregon...
...Although many people may the point...
...Hoover, but he had ability and a penchant for attracting Then all hell broke loose...
...He was T. LAURENCE BERRY is a free-lance writer presently living in hardly acting like a man with a precarious political base Philadelphia...
...evitable...
...There was no middle Spector and Pennsylvania's Democratic incumbent Govground-either you loved him or you hated him...
...Is he, In other words, instead of firing Moorer or allowing then, competent to assess the Soviet military "threat...
...the top agencies of our government cannot trust one The most serious consequence of this incident has another, how can we expect the American people to been the further erosion of public confidence in the trust their government...
...In the United States, he has the judgment of a fool...
...The comWarriors" in State and Defense would have tried to kill mon element in these three cases was an attitude that that gambit...
...Henry Kissinger was Council meetings" were transmitted to senior Pentagon one of the very few persons who had regular access to officials...
...This has been a among high-ranking military officers even if his allitera- common practice whenever a department or agency has tive phrasing was stolen straight out of Spiro Agnew's a continuing relationship with another body...
...The one-time police commis- vent the tax increase Candidate Rizzo had promised sioner has two full years yet to run on his term in City Philadelphians would not come if he were elected...
...What other scandals are presently being mitted to paper and widely circulated because vested hidden...
...PENTAGON SPIES AT THE WHITE HOUSE PETER J. OGNIBENE Another case of a disease endemic to Washington: bureaucratic infighting In the summer of 1971, when Daniel Ellsberg's con- Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Office of tribution to the libraries of America was front-page Emergency Preparedness...
...to the press, the JCS had to be frozen out of certain key And nobody did, at least for a time...
...three years away and Rizzo was already committed Frank Rizzo had indeed a political base, but it was his against Shapp...
...In cident, the Pakistan "tilt" news leak ultimately led the July the President announced he would visit China and White House's special investigative unit, "The Plumbers," the Soviet Union the following year...
Vol. 100 • March 1974 • No. 1
