The Word from Washington
THE WORD FROM WASHINGTON Is Gerald R. Ford—our own Jerry—a secret agent of the international communist conspiracy? That sinister and spooky implication lurks in some recent remarks by the sage of...
...Remember him...
...They know what's going on in the committees of Congress...
...That sinister and spooky implication lurks in some recent remarks by the sage of Arizona, Senator Barry Morris Goldwater...
...In fact, Goldwater went on to disclose, the Russians have infiltrated "seven or nine" offices in the hallowed precincts of the United States Senate itself—a breach of security which, he suggested, should surprise no one, since Soviet "spying in this country is so fantastically larger than what we do, that there's no way to talk about i t ." Goldwater said he first learned about the infiltration of Senate offices from Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who came across the sordid details in the course of his recent investigation of the CIA...
...I would say every major industry, every major business...
...against the press for violating the Secretary's privacy...
...As soon as The Post's first edition hit the stands, apologies were flying in all directions: from Canada to Kissinger, from Kissinger to San Clemente...
...But he is, clearly, a shrewd and entertaining commentator on the passing scene, and we can hardly wait until he retires from public life and spills the beans— perhaps as a regular guest columnist in Jack Anderson's space...
...And why would President Ford want to suppress a revelation of communist infiltration at the very core of Government...
...And the room, as it turned out, was wired for sound so that journalists waiting in an adjacent lounge could record the exchange of toasts between Kissinger and his host, Canadian External Affairs Minister Allan Mac- Eachen...
...against Kissinger for shooting off his mouth in alien company...
...The guest of honor was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger...
...Most interesting of all were his reflections on a former employer, Richard M. Nixon: "A very odd man . . . an unpleasant man . . . so nervous . . . an artificial man . . . he didn't enjoy people...
...What they recorded instead was some remarkably candid chitchat between Kissinger and his dinner companions...
...Potomacus...
...There were recriminations, too: against the Canadians for their electronic goof...
...Interviewed on public television by Martin Agronsky, Goldwater offered some hauntingly reminiscent ruminations on the Soviet menace: "They have our country absolutely infilt rated , '' he said...
...I hope you'll print t h a t , " Goldwater recalled telling Rockefeller, and the Vice President supposedly replied, "We will print i t ." But when the Rockefeller Commission's report on the CIA was released, it contained no reference to communist infiltration of Capitol Hill...
...The scene was a private dinner party in Ottawa...
...We have, as we have previously confessed in these pages, some difficulty forming ethical judgments about the Secretary's affairs...
...THE WORD FROM WASHINGTON Is Gerald R. Ford—our own Jerry—a secret agent of the international communist conspiracy...
...I did question him after his paper was published and there was no mention of i t ," Goldwater said, " and he said, 'I could only print what I was allowed to print.' " Now, who but the President of the United States could tell the Vice President what he could and could not print...
...Unless, of course...
...Ever the voluble and gregarious guest, the Secretary of State offered observations on Chou En-lai ("Very ill, and I think he's dying"), John F. Kennedy ("At the time of his death he had not done anything very substantial"), and sundry other prominent personages within his circle of acquaintance...
...There was, apparently, a small media conspiracy to suppress the Secretary's inadvertent , indiscretions, but The Washington Post regarded them as fit to print...
Vol. 39 • December 1975 • No. 12
