WASHINGTON REPORT: Death of a Salesman
Sisyphus
WASHINGTON REPORT DEATH OF A SALESMAN Henry Kissinger has used up his good time, as they say in the barracks. This exceptional and assertive man is large of intellect, his stewardship of foreign...
...The United States has done little to implement the Shanghai communique of 1972, particularly as it applies to Taiwan...
...And the house of cards being built in the Middle East by Kissinger threatens to fall in on him—and us...
...There are regions of the world besides the Middle East that should command a greater share of attention...
...With one change in his remarks we could also say of Henry Kissinger: "He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine...
...the incumbent President is bereft of vision...
...Kissinger may provide a diplomatic lean-to or three against the surface winds of disagreement, but not against the social earthquakes beneath our feet...
...And, so Henry Kissinger is finding himself somewhat in the position of Willy Loman, the salesman, although the two are in no way otherwise analogous...
...Recently, President Ford sought to beckon self-anointed congressional foreign-policy makers into the "no-partisanship" tent, but no one entered...
...And when they start not smiling back—that's an earthquake...
...His adopted country is in the psychic workshop for repairs after its Southeast Asian adventure...
...The congressional investigations can not be carried out fully without touching on Kissinger—in his roles as Secretary of State and, earlier, as Special Assistant to the President—a President driven from office after his fondness for illegal electronic surveillance and other criminalities was exposed...
...There are a number of ill-omens to choose from...
...Nevertheless, members of Congress on strategic legislative committees are more and more insisting that institutionally Congress should be "in on the take-offs, as well as the landings...
...This insistence has brought forth anguish from defenders of the old-ways such as Henry Brandon of the (London) Sunday Times who in a recent column wrote in a vein so stylish in the 1950s: "All this adds up to the realization here that serious questions have arisen in the minds of foreign leaders how far they can rely on a commitment by President Ford or Dr...
...But as matters now pose themselves, he is in danger of losing even this tribute...
...Not Kissinger, nor a planeload of Kissingers, can settle this problem in insulated negotiating rooms—insulated, that is, from the rightful demands of peoples that their natural resources are theirs to dispose of, as they choose, not ours...
...There is an ominous domestic problem of our own that Kissinger's gifted diplomacy can not put down...
...The technical skills and arts of diplomacy, at which Kissinger excels, can not master this problem...
...Kissinger, and that it undermines the credibility of the West...
...Expecting Kissinger to harness this new-found freedom at the bargaining table would be as if Metternich had been expected to quell the English Luddites and prevent repeal of the infamous Corn Laws...
...There are no Vandenbergs in the Senate these days...
...But, in the long run, the altered relationship between oil-producing states and oil-consuming states signifies a profound and overdue redress between imperial powers and those lands ravaged at will by these same powers, including the United States...
...The debits of the "bi-partisanship" foreign policy following World War II outweigh the assets in the minds of an increasing number in Congress —many of whom were adolescents, or younger, when Presidents ruled the foreign-policy roost during the Berlin airlift, the Korean war and the landing of American troops in Lebanon...
...But Mansfield, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, will undoubtedly raise the matter during this session of Congress—as well as renew his efforts to reduce our troop level in Western Europe...
...What all this means is that there is uncertainty that Kissinger can obtain, as needed, congressional endorsements for whatever arrangements have been agreed to at negotiating tables he is sitting down to these days around the world...
...And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished...
...Senator Mansfield, the mildest of men, has tactfully and repeatedly expressed his distress at this inaction...
...One overriding concern, not of Kissinger's making, is newly born congressional efforts to make, or, at least, guide foreign-policy initiatives...
...But, for his own sake, Kissinger, the grey fox, should have quit while he was ahead...
...The horse has become the rider...
...If he had departed during the transition period of the Ford administration, even his critics would have given their devil his due...
...More than the price of oil is involved...
...And, in fairness, it is too much for one man to bear...
...sisyphus...
...But not the dynamics of what is being now unleashed within the oil-producing states that involves not only Arab ruler against Arab ruler, but Sadat against Gromyko, Assad against Kissinger, and within these undeveloped Arab countries, the dispossessed against the bloated privileged ones, Sadat and Assad and Faisal and Hussein, and finally, Arafat against them all...
...This hazard for Kissinger's personal fortunes will increase...
...Trumpet calls to "stiffen the backs" of oil-consuming nations will not carry the day...
...It comes with the territory...
...Kissinger apparently believes the matter can be let ripen in some fashion...
...A statesman is got to dream, boy...
...But his current employer, President Ford, has no foreign-policy notions other than Henry's...
...Historically, "traditional" disagreements can be settled by diplomacy...
...For more than 30 years, Congress has let Presidents do it...
...There will be many other such legislative initiatives undertaken this year...
...This is the matter of the House and Senate investigations into the wide-ranging activities of the Intelligence Agency...
...He needs a restraining hand, which Nixon, the first President under whom hz served, provided...
...and congressional government is not the best vessel upon which to put to sea on foreign-affairs missions...
...Now the Churches, Eagle-tons, Jacksons, Kennedys and Aspins of the new 94th Congress want to be heard—and obeyed...
...For better or or worse, Senator Eagleton's successful effort to shut-off American assistance to Turkey following its military invasions of Cyprus is one example...
...Israel's existence is at stake, as the oil baronies seek to impose their prices and their ways upon Western Europe...
...Toward the end of the play, Charley, his friend, explained Willy Loman...
...This exceptional and assertive man is large of intellect, his stewardship of foreign policy not without achievement and his mark as Secretary of State will be more indelible than all except that of Acheson and Dulles in this century...
...Senator Jackson's linkage of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union with trade policy is another...
...If so, did Kissinger know / encourage / recommend such depredations at home and abroad...
...The developed countries are paying through the nose for oil...
...Another ill-omen is that of the energy question...
...Nobody dast blame this man...
...Has the CIA exceeded its charter...
...This becomes an impediment for the authoritarian (or parliamentary) governments we seek to negotiate with these days—and, equally so, to Kissinger himself...
...There is much attention, much of it warranted, upon the mischievous, if not malicious, actions of the oil-producing nations of the Middle East...
Vol. 101 • March 1975 • No. 16
