As noted in the Introduction, this book is based primarily on interviews with men and women who worked in the American government during Nixon’s first term. Many of those officials were interviewed two, three, or more times, often in different locations. For example, Richard V. Allen, who played a prominent role in bringing Henry Kissinger to the attention of Richard Nixon during the 1968 presidential campaign, was interviewed five times at length in 1979 and 1980, before he became national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan. Allen was one of more than thirty people who were interviewed for the material in Chapter One; only a few of those interviewed, however, ended up being cited by name in the chapter. In some cases, those who were interviewed requested anonymity; sometimes names were deleted for reasons of editorial simplicity. The information itself, once cross-checked and verified, was more significant than the names of all those involved in providing it. Also, rather than listing the date and location of each interview, I have chosen in these notes to describe where the quoted person was living and/or working at the time of our last contact.
The memoirs of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were basic sources. RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (Grosset & Dunlap, 1978) is much less detailed than the two volumes of Kissinger memoirs, The White House Years (Little, Brown, 1979) and Years of Upheaval (Little, Brown, 1982). Three other foreign policy studies were very useful: Kissinger, by Marvin and Bernard Kalb (Little, Brown, 1974); The Illusion of Peace, by Tad Szulc (Viking, 1978), and Uncertain Greatness, by Roger Morris (Harper & Row, 1977). All references to these works are attributed as they occur in the text, and no further attribution will be included in these notes.
Another essential source was the daily reporting in the New York Times and the Washington Post on Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy. I relied heavily on dispatches in these two newspapers in describing the background of the events of the period; footnoting each article would obviously add little of substance to these notes. I have chosen instead to cite only those articles—usually by Washington columnists—of special significance.
Richard Allen, when last interviewed, was an international business consultant in Washington. A brief description of his early contacts with Henry Kissinger can be found on page 52 of Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975), Nixon speech writer William Safire’s account of the Nixon presidency. Kissinger’s colleagues at Harvard were correct in recalling that he was a Democrat in the early 1960s; the town clerk of Belmont, Massachusetts, where Kissinger lived, listed him as a registered Democrat as of September 18, 1962. Max Kampelman, Humphrey’s former aide and adviser, was practicing law in Washington when interviewed. The anecdote about Nixon and Lansdale can be found on page 196 of Papers on the War (Simon & Schuster Touchstone, 1972), by Daniel Ellsberg. Daniel Davidson was practicing law in Washington when interviewed; so was Paul Warnke. Morton Halperin was director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington. John Negroponte was, as of early 1983, the American Ambassador to Honduras. John Mitchell was a Washington consultant. The quote from Jack Valenti can be found on page 374 of his memoir A Very Human President (W. W. Norton, 1975). A full transcript of Joseph Kraft’s public-television interview, with station WETA in Washington, is in my possession. The Theodore White anecdote on Nixon and Kissinger can be found on page 270 in The Making of the President, 1972 (Atheneum, 1973). For a full discussion of the intrigues during the last days of the 1968 presidential campaign, see The Man Who Kept Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA, by Thomas Powers (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), pages 197–200. Also see pages 727–735 in An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968 (Viking, 1969), by three London Sunday Times journalists, Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, and Bruce Page. Thomas W. Ottenad of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did excellent reporting on the issue of who did what in the last few days before the 1968 election. Anna Chennault’s memoir was published by Times Books. She was president of an international consulting firm in Washington at the time of our interview. Clark Clifford’s postelection criticisms of Thieu can be found in “Clifford Asserts Talks May Go On Without Saigon,” by William Beecher, New York Times, November 13, 1968. William Buckley’s memoir was published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Edward Rozek’s review, entitled “Whitewashing the White House,” was published in Survey, an English quarterly, Spring 1980. Rozek was a professor at the University of Colorado when interviewed. Buckley and Frank Shakespeare were reached through their offices in New York City. Carl Kaysen was teaching at Harvard University when interviewed.
The revised Nixon-Kissinger NSC system has received relatively scant academic study. One exception is a two-part analysis published in Foreign Policy, the quarterly magazine, in the Winter 1971–72 issue, “Kissinger’s Apparat,” by John P. Leacacos, and “Can One Man Do?,” by I. M. Destler. Kissinger’s early 1950s intelligence background is outlined in Who’s Who. His service with the 970th CIC unit in Germany is cited in The Belarus Secret (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), by John Loftus; see page 117. Morton Halperin supplied me with his unpublished manuscript on the NSC system, as well as many of the original planning papers, all unclassified, that he prepared for Kissinger in late 1968 and early 1969. Bryce Harlow was living in retirement near Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, when interviewed. Roger Morris was a free-lance writer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Daniel Ellsberg was active in the nuclear freeze movement and living in Berkeley, California. William Rogers was practicing law in Washington and New York; Elliot Richardson was practicing law in Washington. U. Alexis Johnson was retired from the Foreign Service and living in Washington. Richard Moose was an investment counselor in New York and Washington.
The interview that caused Richard Allen’s troubles was with U.S. News & World Report, November 18, 1968, and was titled “ ‘We Must Present a United Front to the Soviet Union.’ ” The December 26, 1968, Evans & Novak column was also published in the Washington Post and was headlined “Nixon’s Appointment of Assistant to Kissinger Raises Questions.” The columnists described Allen as considered a member of the “sandbox right.” Donald Lesh was executive director of the U. S. Association for the Club of Rome, in Washington, when interviewed. Martin Anderson was interviewed while he was working in Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign; he subsequently joined Reagan’s White House staff. Patrick Buchanan was a newspaper columnist living in McLean, Virginia, when interviewed. Jacob Beam described some of his encounters in the Nixon White House in his memoir, Multiple Exposure (W. W. Norton, 1978). Retired from the Foreign Service, he was living in Washington. Paul Nitze was still involved in strategic planning in Washington when interviewed; in 1981 he was named by President Reagan as Ambassador to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force negotiations in Geneva. William Porter was retired and living in West Point, Massachusetts; he provided me with portions of an unpublished memoir. Robert Finch was living in Los Angeles. Richard Sneider was a business consultant in New York City.
Kissinger’s private lunch in Saigon was held at the home of Barry Zorthian, then the senior American spokesman in Saigon. The lunch produced a dispatch by Jack Foisie, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, that was disputed by Kissinger and Clark Clifford. Their subsequent letters were made available by the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas. Foisie’s story, as published November 2, 1965, in the Washington Post, was headlined “Saigon Political View Dismays LBJ Envoys.” Mathew Meselson was teaching at Harvard University when interviewed. Joseph Kraft’s praise for Kissinger’s Foreign Affairs article can be found in the Washington Post of December 19, 1968: “Kissinger Article on Vietnam Hailed as Best Augury to Date.” William Kaufman was teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when interviewed. John Court was a businessman in Cincinnati, Ohio. NSSM-I, when made public through the efforts of Ellsberg in late April of 1972, produced many newspaper dispatches. Among the best were those on consecutive days beginning on April 25, 1972, by Murray Marder, Michael Getler, and Stanley Karnow of the Washington Post. Eisenhower’s Mandate for Change was published by Doubleday in 1963; see pages 179–182. More on the Korean War threat can be found in Firsthand Report, by Sherman Adams (Harper and Brothers, 1961); see also Eisenhower: Portrait of the Hero, by Peter Lyon (Little, Brown, 1974) pages 535–536. The footnoted study of the Korean War bombing can be found in the Winter 1953 issue of the Air University Quarterly Review, “The Attack on the Irrigation Dams in North Korea,” a study prepared by the magazine’s staff. It was cited in “U.S. Involvement in Vietnam,” by Noam Chomskey, in Bridge: An Asian-American Perspective, October-November 1975. A blow-by-blow account of the destruction of the North Korean dam system was published on pages 623–629 of The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950–1953, by Robert Frank Futrell, Brigadier General Lawson S. Moseley, and Albert F. Simpson (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1961). For a partial text of Nixon’s off-the-record talk to the southern delegates in Miami Beach, see pages 461–464 in An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968, by Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, and Bruce Page (Viking, 1969). The Herald published its transcript, “What Dick Nixon Told Southern Delegates,” on August 7, 1968. Richard Whalen’s memoir is Catch the Falling Flag (Houghton Mifflin, 1972); the Nixon quote is on page 27. Nixon’s “madman” threat to Bob Haldeman is reported on page 122 in Haldeman’s memoir, The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978).
Colonel Ray Sitton later served, as a three-star general, as director of the Joint Staff of the JCS in the Pentagon; he was living in retirement in Calhoun, Georgia, when I talked with him. Roger Morris, the former Kissinger aide, assembled much of the known literature on Haig, including congressional testimony, in his 1982 biography, Haig: The General’s Progress (Playboy Press, 1982). See also “Mr. T & Colonel Haig,” by Lucian K. Truscott IV, in the New York Village Voice, May 17, 1973. Robert Houdek was serving in the State Department when interviewed. The Buckley anecdote about Haig can be found on page 57 in United Nations Journal: A Delegate’s Odyssey (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974). For the “Kissinger’s Kissinger” reference, see “The Rise of Dr. Kissinger’s Kissinger,” by Fred Emery, London Times, January 20, 1973, page 15. Kevin Buckley’s article on “Speedy Express” was published in Newsweek June 19, 1972. Many official documents dealing with the secret B-52 bombing of Cambodia, some of them marked top-secret before declassification, were made available to me under the Freedom of Information Act. Some of these documents had earlier been supplied by the Department of Defense to William Shawcross, the British journalist, when he was researching his acclaimed study of the Nixon-Kissinger policy toward Cambodia, Sideshow (Simon and Schuster, 1979). Shawcross supplied me with other documents he had accumulated on the bombing. Harold Knight’s testimony was given on July 16, 1973, before the Senate Armed Services Committee. I had written an extensive account of his activities which was published the day before the New York Times’s “Cambodian Raids Reported Hidden Before ’70 Foray.” Former Green Beret Randolph Harrison was an editorial writer for a newspaper in Orlando, Florida, when interviewed. Kissinger’s comment deploring the falsification of the B-52 bombing records came in an interview with me that was published in the New York Times on July 20, 1973.
Nixon’s never delivered Vietnam speech of March 31, 1968, can be found on pages 283–294 of Whalen’s Catch the Falling Flag (Houghton Mifflin, 1972). Melvin Laird was a senior counselor in the Washington editorial office of the Reader’s Digest when interviewed. Robert Pursley was retired from the Air Force and working as an investment analyst in New York City when interviewed. William Rogers’ speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors was reported in the New York Times on April 17, 1969: “U.S. to Emphasize Diplomatic Steps on Loss of Plane,” by Max Frankel. Patrick Anderson’s profile of Kissinger for the New York Times Magazine, “Confidence of the President,” was published on June 1, 1969; the discussion of the EC-121 incident can be found on page 42. The quote from the Times about diplomatic action can be found in Frankel’s April 17 dispatch. See page 124 of Haldeman’s The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978) for the quote about Kissinger’s overreaction in the crisis. Donald Riegle’s account of his 1969 meeting with Kissinger can be found on page 25 of his memoir, 0 Congress, with Trevor Armbrister (Popular Library, 1975). Riegle gave me copies of his October 1, 1969, correspondence with Kissinger. Nguyen Co Thach was Deputy Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam when interviewed in Hanoi in August 1979; he was named Foreign Minister later in 1979 and a member of his nation’s ruling politburo in 1982. I first interviewed Thach for “The Talk of the Town” in the New Yorker; see “Observer from Vietnam,” October 23, 1978, pages 29–32.
The basic sources for this chapter were the hearing record entitled Dr. Kissinger’s Role in Wiretapping, published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 29, 1974. The volume includes the censored text of eight days of secret hearings on the wiretapping in 1973 and 1974, as well as public testimony. Many of the relevant documents not published by the Senate can be found in the proceedings of the Impeachment Panel of the House Judiciary Committee, especially the volumes of Book VII, White House Surveillance Activities and Campaign Activities, May-June 1974. An excellent summary of the wiretapping imbroglio can be found in The American Police State, by David Wise (Random House, 1978), especially the first three chapters. Walter Pincus wrote effectively on Alexander Haig’s role in Watergate and the White House cover-up in a series of articles in 1973 and 1974 for the New Republic; see especially “Alexander Haig,” October 5, 1974. The pleadings of Morton Halperin and his attorneys, especially Mark Lynch of the American Civil Liberties Union, provided much new information, as did the depositions in the Halperin case, which are on file at Lynch’s office at the Center for National Security Studies, in Washington. Kissinger’s statement that his office logs were “sporadic and undeveloped” was made in a written response, filed January 18, 1976, in the Halperin case. The FBI document on Kissinger’s early contacts cited in the footnote was printed in the Nation magazine, November 10, 1979, in an article by Sigmund Diamond, who obtained it under the Freedom of Information Act. John Ehrlichman was working as a novelist and living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when interviewed. The Goldwater letter to John Mitchell and other documents cited here—such as those from the FBI and the White House—are now part of the Halperin wiretapping case on file in federal court in the District of Columbia and are also available through Mark Lynch. In some cases, documents were also published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or the House Impeachment Committee. Beecher’s New York Times dispatch of May 9 was headlined “Raids in Cambodia by U.S. Unprotested.” The story was positioned, under a one-column headline, at the bottom of the right-hand column of the front page—far from dramatic display. Beecher’s May 6 dispatch dealing with the EC-121 incident was headlined “Aides Say Nixon Weighed Swift Korea Reprisal;” that story received much bigger play at the bottom of page one, with its headline running across three columns. Laurence Lynn was teaching at Harvard University when interviewed. Charles Cooke was a state education official in Sacramento, California. Jeb Stuart Magruder’s memoir, written with Washington journalist Taylor Branch, is An American Life: One Man’s Road to Watergate (Atheneum, 1974). See David Wise’s The American Police State, at pages 63–64, for a discussion of the Romanian “spy” allegations against Marvin Kalb.
In The Final Days (Simon & Schuster, 1976), their study of Nixon’s fall from power, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, aided by Scott Armstrong, graphically described the day-to-day atmosphere inside the National Security Council in a chapter on Kissinger, pages 184–201. Their reporting was of course focused on the Watergate scandal and not on the foreign policy of the Nixon Administration. Spurgeon Keeny was living in Washington when interviewed. Anthony Lake was teaching at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. Guido Goldman’s comments about Kissinger’s office were provided in an interview with WETA, the Washington public television station, as part of its research into the Kissinger years for a 1977 documentary; I have a copy of the transcript. William Watts lived in Washington; as did Ivan Selin. Dr. Roger Egeberg was working for the federal government.
Charles Colson was directing a prison reform project in Great Falls, Virginia, when interviewed. Uncertain Greatness (Harper & Row, 1977), Roger Morris’ study of Kissinger, has a discussion of White House racism that, amazingly, was not noted by the press upon the book’s publication; see page 131. Jeanne Davis was living in Warrenton, Virginia. Richard Pederson was president of the American University of Cairo. The quote from William Safire’s Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975) can be found on page 170.
Robert Ellsworth was working as a consultant in Washington when interviewed. Kissinger’s quote about Vietnam protesters can be found in “Strategist in the White House Basement,” by Gerald Astor, Look, August 12, 1969, page 53. The Halperin article that seemed to presage the Nixon Doctrine is “After Vietnam: Security and Intervention in Asia,” in the Journal of International Affairs, Volume XXII, Number 2, pages 236–246; see especially page 243. The letter from Ellsberg and five Rand colleagues protesting the Vietnam War was published October 12, 1969, in the Washington Post. Joseph Kraft’s criticism of it, “Breaching the Code,” was published on the same day in the same paper; Kraft had been given a copy of the letter prior to its publication. Kissinger’s suggestion to Donald Riegle that he had made a mistake in not trying to make a deal with “sincere” doves can be found on page 25 in 0 Congress (Popular Library, 1975). Seth Tillman was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute when interviewed. Joseph Urgo was working in a New York City restaurant when interviewed. The Newsweek cover story was published on October 20, 1969. Dwight Chapin’s memorandum is reproduced in part on pages 81–83 in Magruder’s An American Life (Atheneum, 1974). Vice President Spiro Agnew’s speech criticizing the news media was given extensive play in the nation’s press; a full transcript was published in the New York Times, November 14, 1969, beginning on page one. William Gulley’s memoir, Breaking Cover (Simon and Shuster, 1980), written with Mary Ellen Reese, describes the White House fears of demonstrators on pages 165–169. Alexander Butterfield was an executive of an insurance company in Los Angeles when interviewed.
For a full account of the Greek civil war and the “Truman Doctrine,” see Intervention and Revolution, by Richard J. Barnet (World Publishing Company, 1968), especially Chapter Six. Elias Demetracopoulos was Washington correspondent and North American editor for the Greek newspapers Makedonia and Thessaloniki when interviewed. The cited Boston Globe article was “Thomas Pappas: portrait of a wealthy immigrant, political kingmaker,” by Christopher Lydon, October 31, 1968. Pappas’ close links to Ambassador Tasca were reported August 14, 1974, by Steven V. Roberts in the New York Times, “U.S. Is Replacing Envoy to Athens.” One source told Roberts that Pappas would see the Ambassador “three or four times a week” when in Athens. (Tasca’s information about the junta’s campaign contributions to the 1968 Nixon election campaign raises the question whether the CIA, which was financing the Greek intelligence operations at the same time, was aware that some of its funds were being returned to the United States for use in the presidential election. This question was not looked into by the Senate Intelligence Committee during its CIA inquiries in 1975 and 1976. Sources close to the committee have said that its investigation was abruptly canceled at Kissinger’s direct request. He urged the committee to drop the investigation, one official said, on the ground that relations between the United States and Greece could be “severely harmed.”) Demetracopoulos’ confrontation with Murray Chotiner was first reported by Jack Anderson in his column distributed for release on February 12, 1975. Harold Saunders was a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington when he discussed his role in Greek affairs. William Rogers testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 14, 1969; Laird testified one day later. The quote from Laurence Stern can be found on pages 66–67 in The Wrong Horse (Times Books, 1977), his study of American policy in Greece and Cyprus. The New York Times article announcing the end of the arms embargo was “U.S. to End Restriction on Arms Aid for Greece,” by Neil Sheehan, September 19, 1970. See a report from Washington by Elizabeth Drew in the Atlantic Monthly, June 1970, which discussed the Biafran war and referred to Nixon’s campaign remarks on the war. Dr. Jean Mayer was president of Tufts University when interviewed. Justice Louis Mbanefo’s comments can be found in “Biafran Leaders Grow Bitter Over U.S. Role in War,” by Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, November 8, 1969.
The best account of the Nixon-Kissinger manipulation of the SALT process can be found in Doubletalk: The Story of SALT 1 (Doubleday, 1980), by Gerard C. Smith. John Newhouse’s Cold Dawn (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973) is also insightful. Herbert Scoville, Jr., and George W. Rathjens have written widely on various SALT issues. Jack Ruina was teaching at MIT when interviewed. George Rathjens was a State Department consultant. The Ruina-Rathjens paper outlining the MIRV issue was provided to me by Rathjens. Paul Doty’s praise for Kissinger was in his paper given at the International Colloquium on “Science and Disarmament” in Paris, January 15–17, 1981. Walter Slocombe was a senior arms control official for the Department of Defense when interviewed in late 1979. Sidney Drell was teaching at Stanford University. Richard Garwin was an IBM executive in Westchester County, New York. Herbert Scoville was retired from government service and was living in McLean, Virginia.
The quotation from Henry Brandon’s book, The Retreat of American Power (Doubleday, 1973), can be found on page 304. The internal intelligence debate over whether the Soviets had tested a MIRV is discussed in Thomas Powers’ The Man Who Kept the Secrets (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), pages 211–212; it was also the subject of a series of excellent analyses by Representative Les Aspin, Democrat of Wisconsin. See especially Aspin’s press statement of February 7, 1980, available from his office. John Huizenga was retired from the CIA and living in Washington when interviewed. Alton Frye was a Washington arms control consultant. He described his experiences on the MIRV issue in A Responsible Congress, published for the Council on Foreign Relations by McGraw-Hill in 1975. See Chapter Three, “Congress and MIRV: An Exercise in Legislative Catalysis,” pages 47–66. Gerard Smith was a partner in a Washington consulting firm. Phillip Farley was teaching at Stanford University. Raymond Garthoff was at the Brookings Institution. The first American MIRV contract was made known by the Baltimore Sun, “Contract for MIRV’s Reported,” by Nathan Miller, June 27, 1969. See the Washington Post for March 13, 1970, “MIRV Disclosure a Slip, Officials Say,” for an account of Secretary Seaman’s role. Senator Albert Gore’s complaints were reported in the New York Times on November 13, 1969, “Nixon Said to Bar Arms Testimony,” by Robert B. Semple, Jr. Lawrence Weiler was living in Washington when interviewed. Two papers by Raymond Garthoff were especially useful: “SALT: An Evaluation,” in World Politics, October 1978, and “Negotiating with the Russians: Some Lessons from SALT,” International Security, Spring 1977.
The “secret” war in Laos began to be exposed in the press in late 1969; see a series in the New York Times in October, especially reports by Henry Kamm on October 21 and 28. For an account of the American combat deaths in Laos, see “Deaths of 27 Americans in Laos Disclosed by U.S.,” by James M. Naughton, New York Times, March 9, 1970. Jerome Doolittle was working for the Federal Aviation Authority when interviewed; in 1982 he published a novel, The Bombing Officer (Dutton), based on his experiences in Laos. Richard Barnet wrote about his visit to Hanoi in the New York Review of Books for January 29, 1970, “How Hanoi Sees Nixon,” page 19.
William Shawcross’ Sideshow (Simon and Schuster, 1979) is essential to an understanding of the Cambodian situation in the spring of 1970. Prince Sihanouk gives his view of events leading to his ouster on pages 49–59 of his memoir, My War with the CIA, as related to Wilford Burchett (Pantheon, 1972, 1973). The Pentagon publicly released statistics on its secret operations inside Cambodia and Laos on September 10, 1973. The John McCarthy trials were thoroughly covered by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Two articles stand out: “U.S. Is Reported to Have Hired Sihanouk Forces for ’67 Missions,” in the Times, January 28, 1970, and “ ‘Terminated’ Agent May Haunt U.S.,” by Murray Marder, in the Post’s “Outlook” section, February 8, 1970. Forrest Lindley was living in Washington when interviewed. Samuel Thornton’s account of the Navy’s anti-Sihanouk activities was first made available to William Shawcross, who shared the material with me. When I talked with Thornton later, in Phoenix, Arizona, he was able to demonstrate that he had indeed served in sensitive intelligence offices in South Vietnam. As of late 1982, he was working in La Jolla, California. Gerald Hickey’s memorandum of October 1970 was prepared as “A Working Note” for the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. The document, though unclassified, is marked “Not for Public Release”; a copy is in my possession. Professor George Kahin’s testimony can be found beginning on page 79 of Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, Supplemental Assistance to Cambodia, February 24 and March 6, 1975. Stephen Linger was working in Frederick, Maryland, when interviewed.
For a good example of how the White House, led by Kissinger, handled the press on the crucial question of Hanoi’s intentions, see “Cambodian Decision: Why President Acted,” by Hedrick Smith, in the New York Times of June 30, 1970. Smith wrote that Nixon was “haunted” by the intelligence reports of North Vietnamese movement against Cambodia. The CIA analysis expressing doubt on the efficacy of the Cambodian invasion became a case study for the Senate Intelligence Committee. See pages 79–83 in Book 1 of the committee’s final report on foreign and military intelligence, published April 26, 1976. A copy of Roger Morris’ and Anthony Lake’s resignation letter was provided to me. The citation from Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975), William Safire’s memoir, can be found on page 186. The quotation from Haig is on page 187. William Beecher was the national security correspondent for the Boston Globe when interviewed. Jonathan Moore was director of the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University. The best account of Nixon’s early-morning visit to the Lincoln Memorial is on pages 202–211 of Before the Fall. The anecdote about Kissinger’s April 17, 1970, appearance at the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies in Washington was provided by one of the students who arranged the demonstration. Walter Pincus was a reporter for the Washington Post when interviewed. For specific details on the B-52 and other bombings in Cambodia, see the 1973 Senate Armed Services Committee hearings, Bombing in Cambodia. The CIA dispute over the significance of Sihanoukville is discussed on pages 216–219 in The Man Who Kept The Secrets, by Thomas Powers (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979). The Pentagon statistics supplied to Senator Muskie’s office were made available to me under the Freedom of Information Act.
A critical account of the government’s action in the Berrigan case can be found in The Age of Surveillance (Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), by Frank J. Donner, pages 87–90. David Halperin was working for a New York law firm when interviewed. H. R. Haldeman’s quote on Kissinger can be found on page 135 in the paperback edition of his The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978). Murray Marder was still reporting for the Washington Post when interviewed. Stuart Loory’s assessment, “Kissinger Image Shows Signs of Wear and Tear,” was published on July 5, 1970, in the Los Angeles Times. Loory was managing editor of the Chicago Sun-Times when interviewed. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt’s memoir, On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976) is among the most honest books by those who served in the Nixon Administration. An account of his job interview with Kissinger can be found on page 46. Ray Cline was retired from the government and associated with Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies when interviewed. Tom Charles Huston was an attorney in Indianapolis, Indiana. The CIA’s Operation Chaos, a facet of its domestic spying program, was investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee; see its 1976 published reports.
A detailed summary of American policy in the Middle East can be found in Decade of Decisions, 1967–1976 (University of California, 1977), by William Quant, a former Kissinger NSC aide. Two memoirs were especially useful: The Rabin Memoirs (Little, Brown, 1979), by Yitzhak Rabin, who was Israel’s Ambassador to the United States during much of the Nixon-Kissinger era, and The Road to Ramadan (Quadrangle, 1975), by Mohammed Heikal, a confidant of both Nasser and Sadat. See Chapters Eight through Ten in Rabin, pages 143–218, for his views of the early White House diplomacy. For an insight into Israeli-Arab tensions in Palestine immediately following World War II, and a plea for understanding on both sides, see I. F. Stone’s Underground to Palestine and Reflections Thirty Years Later (Pantheon, 1978). Much, obviously, has been written about Jabotinsky and other founders of Revisionist Zionism, but one recommended newspaper analysis, by Mark Bruzonsky, a Washington consultant on the Middle East, appeared in the Washington Post’s “Outlook” section, November 16, 1980, titled “The Mentor Who Shaped Begin’s Thinking: Jabotinsky.” Egypt’s early notification of the first Rogers plan, is reported in Mahmoud Riad’s memoir, The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East (Quartet, London, 1981), page 109. Joseph Sisco was a Washington consultant when interviewed. Riad’s meeting in Moscow is described on pages 112–114 of his memoir, Nasser’s meeting in Moscow on pages 84–89; Nasser’s attempt to “try again” with another initiative in May 1970 can be found on page 92. Murray Marder’s controversial article in the Washington Post, “U.S. Seeking to Oust Soviet Troops in Egypt,” was published July 3, 1970. Nasser’s problems after agreeing to the ninety-day American ceasefire proposal are outlined in Heikal, pages 95–97. The quotation from Michael Brecher’s work, Decision in Israel’s Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, London, 1974), can be found on page 514. Mahmoud Riad’s quote on the nearness of peace in the Middle East can be found on pages 156–157 of his book. The cited column by Joseph Alsop was published September 9, 1970, in the Washington Post, under the title “Dobrynin on Mideast.”
A special sensitivity about the Middle East should be noted. Dozens of American officials, ranging from NSC aides to Nixon Administration ambassadors, were interviewed for the chapters dealing with the Middle East, but only a few officials agreed to be quoted by name—not out of lack of conviction or fear of retribution, but solely in an attempt to avoid losing any influence on policy making.
L. Dean Brown was affiliated with the Middle East Institute, in Washington, when interviewed. The war in Jordan has been very much overlooked by scholars. In its Spring 1973 issue, Foreign Policy carried two opposing accounts of the war, the only such studies that could be found in American periodical literature. Henry Brandon of the London Sunday Times summarized the Nixon-Kissinger view in “Were We Masterful . . .” and University of Iowa historian David Schoenbaum wrote “. . . Or Lucky?” Schoenbaum’s article raised direct questions about what actually had taken place in the war, questions to which there were, at the time, no answers. Nasser’s concern about the war was reported on pages 98–103 of Mohammed Heikal’s The Road to Ramadan (Quadrangle, 1975); those pages also include the footnoted exchange involving Qaddafi. Alexis Johnson’s speech after the crisis was reported by Schoenbaum. Andrew Killgore had retired from the Foreign Service and was a Washington consultant when interviewed. The full text, or outtake, of Nixon’s 1977 interviews with David Frost was made available to me with Frost’s approval. Mahmoud Riad’s account of the war in Jordan can be found on pages 158–166 of his The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East (Quartet, London, 1981). Kissinger’s concern about the lack of nuclear options in the Jordanian crisis was reported by John Edwards in Super Weapons: The Making of MX (Norton, 1982), pages 67–69. Haig’s praise of Nixon’s leadership can be found on page 87 of Nixon’s Quest for Peace (Luce Books, 1972), by Frank van der Linden. The author, a conservative columnist who reflected the White House’s view, was granted an unusual amount of access to Nixon and his top aides for his book, which was published during the presidential campaign.
Kissinger’s excitement over the reconnaissance photographs was described on pages 125–126 of The Ends of Power, by H. R. Haldeman (Dell, 1978). The reference to Cuba’s love for soccer can be found in Sports Illustrated, November 5, 1979, page 25. Roy Burleigh was interviewed in Tallahassee, Florida, where he went to live after his retirement from the CIA. He died of cancer in 1980. Representative Dante Fascell’s hearings were released on September 26, 1971; the testimony was given in September, October, and November 1970. Major Gerald Cassell’s testimony was taken September 28, 1971, and published immediately by the Fascell subcommittee. Cyrus Sulzberger’s comments on his meetings with Kissinger and Helms can be found on pages 655 and 660 in his memoirs for 1963–1972: An Age of Mediocrity (Macmillan, 1973). Jerry Friedheim was working in Reston, Virginia, when interviewed. Tad Szulc was interviewed in Washington. James Reston’s New York Times column in defense of the Nixon-Kissinger policy, “Back to Cuba and the Cold War,” was published September 27, 1970. Elmo Zumwalt’s account of the Cienfuegos affair can be found on pages 310–313 of On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976). The Soviet complaint about Cienfuegos, as relayed to Gerard Smith, was reported on page 215 of his Doubletalk (Doubleday, 1980). The reference to “fearing the worst” is in “U.S.-Soviet Ties: An Uncertain Crisis,” by Max Frankel, New York Times, October 15, 1970. For an overview of the dispute, see “Soviet Submarine Visit to Cuba,” by Barry M. Blechman and Stephanie E. Levinson, in the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, September 1975, pages 30–39. The authors conclude that even a Soviet submarine base in Cuba “would not pose qualitatively new military threats . . .”
The major sources for the chapters on Chile are two reports of the Senate Intelligence Committee: Covert Action in Chile, 1963–73, published December 18, 1975, available in Volume 7 of the Committee’s publications, and Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, a separate volume published November 20, 1975; see pages 225–254. Background material on the Allende election and economic conditions can be found in Allende’s Chile, by Edward Boorstein (International Publishers, 1977), and The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Chile, by Arturo Valenzuela (Johns Hopkins, 1978). For a different view, see The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile, 1964–76, by Paul E. Sigmund (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977). Another basic source for much of the information about the CIA’s role in Chile during the Frei years was former Ambassador Edward Korry, whom I interviewed extensively in late 1980. Korry also made available to me copies of his sworn statements to the Justice Department and the Senate Intelligence Committee; many of his assertions were subsquently confirmed. He published some of his account in the March 1978 issue of Penthouse magazine, “The Sell-out of Chile and the American Taxpayer,” beginning on page 70. For a discussion of my complicated reportorial relationship with Korry, see “New Evidence Backs Ex-Envoy on His Role in Chile,” by Seymour M. Hersh, New York Times, February 9, 1981. For a different point of view, see “The 2,300-Word Times Correction,” Time magazine, February 23, 1981, page 84. Charles Radford was working in Kelso, Washington, prior to his reenlistment in 1982 in the submarine service of the Navy. Kissinger’s remark to Admiral Zumwalt is on page 318 of Zumwalt’s On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976). Statistics on American aid to Chile can be found on page 34 of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Covert Action report. Charles Meyer was a business executive in Chicago when interviewed. The Nixon-Valdez meeting is described on pages 30–33 of Armando Uribe’s memoir, The Black Book of American Intervention in Chile (Beacon Press, 1975). Gabriel Valdez was interviewed in New York, where he was an official with the United Nations Secretariat. Walt W. Rostow was a professor at the University of Texas when interviewed. The Senate Multinational Subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee held hearings in March and April, 1973, into the ITT-White House link; its report was issued on June 21, 1973. The subcommittee also published, in a separate appendix, all the available ITT correspondence and files. For a good overview of the ITT issue, see “Reflections: Secrets,” by Richard Harris, in the New Yorker, April 10, 1978, pages 44–86. Data on ITT’s Special Review Committee, chaired by Terry Sanford, former Governor of North Carolina, are available from the corporation; these reports are undated. For more data on the CIA’s disinformation programs inside Chile, and their impact on American newspapers and magazines, see “Halperin Alleges 4 Instances of CIA Exploitation of Media,” by John Jacobs, Washington Post, January 5, 1978; the article was based on Morton Halperin’s testimony to a House subcommittee. Former Ambassador Ralph Dungan was living in Washington when interviewed.
The Cord Meyer anecdote can be found on page 185 in his memoir, Facing Reality (Harper & Row, 1980). Samuel Halpern was living in Alexandria, Virginia, when interviewed. Kissinger’s Chicago backgrounder with the press is reprinted, beginning on page 541, in the appendix to the 1973 Senate Multinational Subcommittee hearings, published June 21, 1973. Paul Wimert was interviewed at his Waterford, Virginia, farm. Major Carlos Donoso Perez’s report in Santiago of the Schneider shooting is reprinted on page 50 of The Murder of Allende (Harper & Row, 1975–76), by Robinson Rojas Sandford, a Chilean journalist. Copies of some of John J. Murray’s documents are in my possession. See “The Multilateral Development Banks and the Suspension of Lending to Allende’s Chile,” by Jonathan E. Sanford, a research monograph of the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service, published August 6, 1974, for data on lending cutbacks in Chile. The role of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service in Chile was initially reported in the National Times of Australia, March 15–21, 1981, page 11.
John Marks was a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics when interviewed. Charles Cooke made many of his files available to me. Wayne Smith was a managing partner of a major accounting firm in Washington. Richard Smyser was still in the Foreign Service, assigned in Washington. The quotation from John Osborne was published as “Love That Pap!” in the New Republic, November 28, 1970; it was reprinted on page 179 of Osborne’s The First Two Years of the Nixon Watch (Liveright, 1971). Benjamin Schemmer’s The Raid (Harper & Row, 1976) is the best source by far on the failed Son Tay mission; see also my report “POW Site Raid Based on Data Six Months Old,” distributed by the Reporters News Service and reprinted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other newspapers on January 29, 1971. Kissinger’s comment at the private Harvard Faculty Club dinner was relayed by a participant, who kept a journal. Schemmer was interviewed in Washington in early 1981. Samuel Adams was a farmer and livestock breeder in Waterford, Virginia, when interviewed. Laird’s top-secret trip report to Nixon, released under the Freedom of Information Act, was dated January 16,1971, and is available from the Pentagon. Michael Maclear, author of The Ten Thousand Day War (St. Martin’s Press, 1981), made many of his raw interview notes, transcripts, and outtakes available to me; an extensive interview with Alexander Haig was among them. Daniel Ellsberg’s comment about T. S. Eliot can be found on page 273 of his Papers on the War (Simon & Schuster Touchstone, 1972). Stephen Genetti was interviewed at Radford, Virginia, where he was a college student. General Nguyen Duy Hinh’s after-action pamphlet, “Lam Son 719,” was published under an Army contract on July 31, 1977, by the General Research Corporation of McLean, Virginia.
The Max Frankel article, “U.S. Foreign Policy: A Firm Nixon Style,” was published January 24, 1971, as the seventh in a New York Times series on U.S. foreign policy. Andrew Hamilton was living in Washington when interviewed. H. R. Haldeman’s analysis of Nixon’s reasons for installing the White House taping system—a fear of Kissinger—can be found on pages 258–259 of his The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978). Nixon’s appointment calendars for the years 1969—1974, as maintained by the Secret Service, are in my possession. Chester Crocker was a research fellow in Washington when interviewed; he joined the Reagan Administration in 1981 as an Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Morton Halperin’s essay in the New York Times, “Vietnam: Options,” was published November 7, 1970, on the Op-Ed page. Many of the FBI summary letters and much of the FBI documentation cited in this chapter are on public file in Halperin’s wiretapping lawsuit, which was still pending as of early 1983 in federal court. Leslie Gelb was a foreign policy reporter for the New York Times in Washington when interviewed. J. Blair Seaborn’s warning to Hanoi can be found on page 291 of The Pentagon Papers, as published by the New York Times (Bantam, 1971). For a full account of the Times’s role in publishing the Pentagon Papers, see Without Fear or Favor (Times Books, 1980), by Harrison E. Salisbury, especially pages 70–133. Lloyd Shearer was still editor-at-large of Parade and living in Los Angeles when interviewed. Derek Shearer’s report on the Ellsberg-Kissinger confrontation was included in “An Evening with Henry,” in the Nation, March 8, 1971, pages 296–299. Tom Oliphant’s story, “Only 3 Have Read Secret Indochina Report; All Urge Swift Pullout,” was published March 7, 1971, in the Boston Sunday Globe. Orlando Letelier’s cable to Santiago was made available by his widow, Isabel.
Charles Colson’s recollection about the ride to the Sequoia can be found on pages 43–45 of his memoir, Born Again (Chosen Books, 1976); he elaborated further in interviews with me. Gerard Smith’s aborted lobbying effort in behalf of Kissinger is reported on page 149 of Doubletalk. (Doubleday, 1980). See Garthoff’s articles “SALT 1; An Evaluation,” in World Politics, October 1978, and “Negotiating with the Russians: Some Lessons from SALT,” International Security, Spring 1977, for an analysis of the Nixon-Kissinger misjudgments in the 1970–1971 SALT negotiations. Smith’s criticism of Kissinger’s manipulations at SALT strategy meetings is on page 108 of Doubletalk. Smith’s memoir, especially pages 121–445, is essential for an understanding of the issues and personalities involved, and will not be specifically cited further. Elmo Zumwalt’s criticisms of the backchannel SALT negotiation can be found on pages 348–353 of his On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976). Teddy Gleason of the International Longshoremen’s Association was interviewed by telephone in his New York office. The best account of the 1971 grain transactions with the Soviet Union is in “U.S.-Soviet Grain Deal: Case History of a Gamble,” by Murray Marder and Marilyn Berger, in the Washington Post, December 7, 1971. Their article dealt extensively with the various political and economic problems inherent in the negotiations between the White House and the anti-Communist unions, but did not link those dealings to SALT. The most thorough analysis of U.S.-Soviet grain trading can be found in Merchants of Grain (Viking Press, 1979), by Dan Morgan, who was reporting on international agricultural and economic matters for the Washington Post. The anti-Soviet quotes from Gleason can be found in Marder and Berger. Jay Loveston, the AFL-CIO director of international affairs, was interviewed in Washington. Frank Drozak was president of SIU when interviewed. Brand was still with the Transportation Institute of Washington. Day-by-day reporting on the grain sale negotiations was provided by Richard Basoco, maritime editor of the Baltimore Sun; see especially his articles of mid-June 1971. Jesse Calhoon was still president of the MEBA when interviewed. See the Congressional Record for July 26, 1972, pages 25443–25467, for the close Senate vote on the Cargo Preference Act. President Gerald Ford’s veto late in 1974 is described on pages 226–227 of his memoir, A Time to Heal (Harper & Row/Reader’s Digest, 1979). Andrew Gibson’s news conference remark can be found in “U.S. to Let Russians Buy $136 Million in Feed Grain,” by William M. Blair, New York Times, November 6, 1976. The legal action over the SIU’s $100,000 political contribution was reported in the New York Times, February 4, 1973, “Seafarers Gave $100,000 to Nixon.”
For an insider’s account of Nixon’s long-held wish to visit China, see pages 266–267 in Safire’s Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975). Nixon’s desire to visit China, expressed to Paul Dixon, the columnist, in 1960, was cited by the Kalb brothers in their biography at pages 217–218. Nixon’s Foreign Affairs article, “Asia After China,” was published in October 1967. His comments at the Republican National Convention in 1968 were cited by Stanley Karnow in Mao and China (Viking, 1972), on page 493. Ross Terrill’s reporting on China was particularly useful; he kindly supplemented his writings with additional notes and documents. Ambassador Manach’s comments to Terrill can be found in 800,000,000 (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1972), beginning at page 144. Roxanne Witke’s revealing biography of Chiang Ching, Comrade Chiang Ch’ing (Little, Brown, 1977), discusses Mao’s fear of the Imperial City at page 372. Two well-researched monographs on China’s foreign policy strategy in the late 1960s and early 1970s were prepared by the Rand Corporation for the Director of Net Assessment in the Defense Department. See “Chinese Foreign Policy Factionalism and the Origins of the Strategic Triangle,” by Thomas M. Gottlieb, November 1977, and “Sino-Soviet Conflict in the 1970s,” by Kenneth G. Lieberthal, July 1978. The unclassified studies were approved for public release. Another useful study is China-Watch by Robert G. Sutter, a former analyst for the CIA (Johns Hopkins, 1978). Sutter was a researcher for the Library of Congress when interviewed. Allen S. Whiting was a professor at the University of Michigan when interviewed; he discussed his meetings with Kissinger in “Sino-Soviet Détente,” published in the June 1980 China Quarterly, pages 334–341. The memorandum presented to President-elect Nixon in late 1968 was published in the Congressional Record on August 6, 1971, beginning at page 30765. Its publication was part of a right-wing attack on Nixon’s China policy. Haldeman’s diary note about Kissinger’s excitement over China appears on page 129 of his memoir, The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978); Haldeman’s strange thesis concerning imminent warfare between China and the Soviet Union takes up the next six pages. Stoessel’s classified cables reporting on his Warsaw meetings are in my possession. He was assisted in his discussions with the Chinese by Paul H. Kreisberg, the State Department expert on China, who was director of the Office of Asian Communist Affairs, and by Donald M. Anderson, a Foreign Service officer. Kreisberg was director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York City, when interviewed. Marshall Green was retired from the Foreign Service and living in Washington when interviewed.
Edgar Snow’s seminal role in the signaling between China and the United States is well documented. See Snow’s The Long Revolution (Random House, 1972); his June 30, 1971, essay in Life magazine, “China Will Talk from a Position of Strength,” and two articles in the New Republic magazine: “The Open Door,” March 27, 1971, and “Aftermath of the Cultural Revolution,” April 10, 1971. His widow, Lois Wheeler Snow, provided me with Snow’s private reflections, including some of Chairman Mao’s off-the-record comments, as tape recorded by Snow in Peking in December 1970. G. W. Choudhury was teaching in Durham, North Carolina, when interviewed. China’s concern about nuclear weapons in Vietnam is reported on page 136 in Terrill’s 800,000,000 (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1972). The advice from Professor John Fairbank can be found on pages 59–61 in his China: The People’s Middle Kingdom and the U.S.A. (Harvard University Press, 1967). Hanoi’s Foreign Ministry documents on its dealings with China during the period of détente with the White House were provided to me during a visit to Hanoi in July-August 1979, and subsequently made public. See “The Truth about Vietnam-China Relations over the Last Thirty Years,” as reproduced in the U. S. government’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service for Asia and the Pacific, October 19, 1979. Enver Hoxha’s memoirs were produced by the Albanian government in two volumes, the first dealing with 1962 to 1972 and the second with 1973 to 1977. They are available in English from the Albanian Mission to the United Nations in New York. Both volumes were published in Tirana, Albania, in 1979. The poems found on a factory bulletin board in Sian were included in Ross Terrill’s The Future of China: After Mao (Delacorte Press, 1978), pages 296–297. Huang Hua’s comment to Wilfred Burchett was relayed by Burchett to Terrill. The White House’s adroit maneuvering with the television media was reported by Don Oberdorfer in “The China TV Show,” Washington Post, February 20, 1972. John Scali was a television reporter for ABC News when interviewed. The Alsop column, “Jade Body-Stockings,” was published July 21, 1971, in the Washington Post. Chou En-lai’s fears about the revival of Japanese militarism were reported by Ross Terrill, beginning on page 133, in 800,000,000. The notes of Kissinger’s secret briefing in 1974 to the Joint Chiefs of Staff are in my possession.
Many White House and Watergate Special Prosecution Force documents dealing with the Plumbers unit and the official investigation of its activities can be found in Book VII of the House Impeachment Panel’s White House Surveillance Activities and Campaign Activities, May-June 1974. See also two of my New York Times articles, “The President and the Plumbers: A Look at 2 Security Questions,” December 9, 1973, and “Nixon’s Active Role on Plumbers: His Talks with Leaders Recalled,” December 10, 1973. The journalist Nick Thimmesch has also been a persistent critic of Kissinger’s role in the Plumbers affair. See, for example, “How Kissinger Fooled Us All,” New York magazine, June 4, 1973, beginning on page 48, and his “Henry and the Plumbers,” in New Times magazine, July 12, 1974. The Ellsberg article on Laos was published in the New York Review of Books as “Murder in Laos” on March 11, 1971. Melville Stephens was working in London when interviewed. Walt Rostow’s conversation with Haig, as quoted by Harrison Salisbury, can be found on page 210 in Salisbury’s Without Fear or Favor (Times Books, 1980). The anecdote about Senator Mathias’ role in making the Nixon Administration aware of the NSSM 1 leak was described in interviews by Ellsberg and his attorneys and subsequently confirmed by Mathias. Mathias was still in the Senate, Charles Goodell a Washington attorney, and Charles Nesson a professor at Harvard Law School when interviewed. Haldeman’s account of Nixon’s rage at “the goddam Gelb material” can be found on pages 286–287 of his memoir, The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978). G. Gordon Liddy’s report of Mardian’s threat can be found on pages 155–156 of his Will (St. Martin’s Press, 1980). John Ehrlichman’s office notes, as censored for national security material, were published in Appendix III of the House Impeachment Committee, May-June, 1974, pages 89–263 (including some telephone transcripts). Additional notes were supplied to me by Ehrlichman. I also obtained access to internal Special Watergate Prosecution Force records and transcripts, which included some previously censored Ehrlichman notes. Liddy’s discussion of firebombing the Brookings Institution is on pages 171–172 of Will. The Kissinger aide’s office notes are in my possession. Kissinger’s briefing to Time magazine was held February 4, 1974; a declassified transcript was made public under the Freedom of Information Act. Egil Krogh was teaching law in San Francisco when interviewed. W. Donald Stewart was a private investigator in suburban Virginia. The cited Time article, “Questions About Gray,” which gave details of the White House wiretapping, was published March 5, 1973. J. T. Smith was practicing law in Washington when interviewed. The FBI’s William Sullivan had been discussing intelligence matters with the author for six months before Watergate.
For Senator Symington’s attack on Rogers, see “Symington Hits Kissinger Role As the ‘Real’ Secretary of State,” by Murray Marder, Washington Post, March 3, 1971. James Reston’s immediate defense of Kissinger, “The Kissinger Role,” was published the same day. Reston’s second column on the issue, which praised Rogers, was published April 25, 1971, under the title “The Quiet One.” Anwar Sadat’s decision to make concessions and seek a settlement was extensively reported in Mohammed Heikal’s The Road to Ramadan (Quadrangle, 1975), especially pages 114–155. See also Chapter Five, “Standstill Diplomacy,” in William Quandt’s Decade of Decision (University of California, 1977), pages 128–164. Sadat gave his view of the negotiations in an extraordinary interview published December 13, 1971, in the international edition of Newsweek: “Sadat: ‘We Are Now Back to Square One.’ ” Donald Bergus was retired from the Foreign Service and on an academic fellowship in Washington when interviewed. Eugene Trone was living in suburban Virginia. Michael Sterner was in the Foreign Service, assigned to Washington. The Bergus incident was extensively reported by the Washington Post: see Marilyn Berger’s “Envoy ‘Paper’ Compromises U.S. in Mideast,” June 29, 1971, and “Rabin Meets Rogers on Cairo ‘Paper’ Flap,” the next day. Quandt’s reporting on the July 16, 1971, NSC meeting is on page 143 of Decade of Decision. Mahmoud Riad’s skepticism about Kissinger’s policy is spelled out on page 201 of his memoir; see Chapter Ten, “The Year of Decision,” pages 182–208, for Riad’s shrewd analysis of the continuing power struggle in Washington.
David Binder’s study of Willy Brandt and his Ostpolitik is The Other German: Willy Brandt’s Life and Times (New Republic Books, 1975); the quoted excerpt is from page 272. Kissinger’s and Sonnenfeldt’s dislike of Brandt is mentioned on page 266. Egon Bahr was retired from public office in the Federal Republic of Germany when interviewed in Washington. Kenneth Rush was also retired from public life when interviewed in Washington. Martin Hillenbrand and James Sutterlin were retired from the Foreign Service when interviewed. The cited New York Times dispatch hailing Nixon’s role “President Broke a Berlin Impasse,” by Lawrence Fellows, was published August 31, 1971. David Klein was retired from the Foreign Service when interviewed.
See “The General’ Gambit,” Newsweek, November 16, 1969, at page 54, for an account of General Minh’s early start in the 1971 presidential campaign. D. Gareth Porter, who was bureau chief in Saigon for Dispatch News Service in 1971, provided me with a full file of his articles on the South Vietnamese election; Porter’s political coverage was more thorough than that provided by the major United States newspapers, which focused on the battlefield. Much of the detail about Minh’s campaigning and his popularity in the South came from Porter. For additional information, see his study of the war, A Peace Denied (University of Indiana, 1975), at pages 95–97. Nixon’s tough talk about antiwar demonstrators was published September 24, 1981, in the New York Times: “1971 Tape Links Nixon to Use of ‘Thugs.’ ” The complete transcript of the tape is in my possession. The Xuan Thuy interview with Peter Weiss and Richard Barnet was published in the New York Times on February 6, 1972: “Hanoi Rules Out a Partial Accord.” For details of the CIA’s attitude toward the 1971 elections, see Frank Snepp’s Decent Interval (Random House, 1977), especially Chapter Two. The embassy documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act are in my possession. The Vietnam Elections Project, headed by the late Theodore Jacqueney, received little press coverage at the time. Family members and former associates provided many of Jacqueney’s papers to my researcher, Jay Peterzell. Peterzell also interviewed Richard Winslow, Oliver Davidson, and Jerry Ruback. Frank Mankiewicz was president of National Public Radio when interviewed. The “same old story” quotation is in “Kissinger Talks to Ky, Minh,” by Peter A. Jay, Washington Post, July 6, 1971. Gloria Emerson’s article was “Thieu Using U.S. Surveys in Vote Campaign,” New York Times, February 2, 1971. The deposition revealing the American bribe offer to General Minh was taken by the ACLU’s Mark Lynch in Washington, and is available through him. The Joseph Kraft column appeared August 24, 1971, in the Washington Post, under an apt headline, “The Fix in Saigon.” For Senator Jackson’s election-eve warnings, see “Jackson Warns on Aid to Saigon,” by John W. Finney, New York Times, September 11, 1971. Robert Shaplen’s dispatch, “Letter from Vietnam,” was dated November 1 and published in the New Yorker November 13, 1971, beginning at page 77. Former Senator George McGovern was interviewed in Washington.
The most comprehensive and questioning account of American policy in the India-Pakistan war was written by a former senior State Department official, Christopher Van Hollen, and published in Asian Survey, April 1980, as “The Tilt Policy Revisited: Nixon-Kissinger Geopolitics and South Asia.” Jack Anderson has published his “how I did it” account in The Anderson Papers (Random House, 1973), written with George Clifford; see pages 205–269. The imminence of war between India and Pakistan was hardly a little-known fact in mid-1971; see, for example, “India vs. Pakistan: Is This the Next War?” in the August 23, 1971, edition of U.S. News & World Report. See also “Pakistan Seems Likely to Push Its Repression of Bengalis in the East,” by Peter Kann, Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1971. A full account of the various atrocities of the war, and the incidents leading up to it, was published in two volumes of Bangla Desh Documents, by the Indian government. Many of the foreign newspaper accounts cited in this chapter were reprinted in those volumes. A copy of the April 6, 1971, State Department dissent cable is in my possession. Ambassador Kenneth Keating’s cable was made public by Jack Anderson in late 1971, along with dozens of other classified cables and memoranda on the India-Pakistan war. Anderson gave me copies of all his materials, including a number of documents that he did not publish at the time. G. W. Choudhury’s comment about “false hope” from Nixon and Kissinger was made in an interview with me in Washington. For evidence of continued arms shipments after the March 25, 1971, West Pakistani invasion of the East, see “Kennedy Bares 2 Arms Deals with Pakistan,” by Lewis M. Simons, Washington Post, October 5, 1971. Morarji Desai shows his intense feelings about Indira Gandhi most explicitly in the third volume of The Story of My Life (S. Chand & Company, New Delhi, 1979); see especially Chapter Fourteen, “Indira Gandhi Dilutes Democracy,” beginning on page 57. The volumes are available from the Indian Embassy in Washington. There have been some reports alleging that Mujibur Rahman’s assassination in 1975, when he was President of Bangladesh, may have had an American involvement. See “The intrigue behind the army coup which toppled Sheikh Mujib,” by Lawrence Lifschultz, The Guardian, London, August 15, 1979, page 13. And see Lifschultz’ book on Bangladesh (with Kai Bird), Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution (Zed Press, London, 1979; distributed in the United States by Monthly Review Press). Indira Gandhi’s caustic comments about Kissinger came in an interview with Jonathan Power, “Indira Gandhi’s Quest,” published in the Washington Post’s “Outlook” section December 30, 1979. Winston Lord’s interview is reprinted in part on page 156 of Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution. Senator Barry Goldwater inserted the Kissinger backgrounder in the Congressional Record for December 9, 1971, at page 45734. See “Goldwater Identifies Kissinger as ‘Sources,’ ” by Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times, December 11, 1971. Admiral Zumwalt’s detailed account of the crisis begins on page 360 of On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976). Gandhi’s letter to Nixon at the close of the war is included in the Indian government’s Bangla Desh Documents. Her footnoted comment raising questions about the American “inferiority complex” is in the “Outlook” interview with Power.
For a detailed account of Yeoman Radford’s White House spying, see three publications of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1974, with the overall title Transmittal of Documents From the National Security Council to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Part 1 was published February 6; Part 2, February 20 and 21; Part 3, March 7, 1974. The committee’s final report, Unauthorized Disclosures and Transmittal of Classified Documents, was published December 19, 1974. See pages 369–376 in On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976) for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt’s version of the military spying. Admiral Welander, who was living in Annapolis, Maryland, after his retirement from active duty, refused to discuss the spying. Kissinger’s private lunch with the Time editors and reporters took place on February 4, 1974. Coleman Hicks was general counsel of the Navy Department when interviewed. Tom Braden’s column, “Net Effect of the Anderson Leaks,” was published January 11, 1972, in the Washington Post. Kraft wrote of “Undermining Kissinger” in the Post on the same day, and Marquis Childs’s column, “Kissinger—New Target,” appeared in the Post on January 20, 1972. Bob Woodward’s disclosure of the alleged plot to kill Jack Anderson “Hunt Told Associates of Orders to Kill Jack Anderson,” was published September 21, 1975, in the Washington Post, G. Gordon Liddy’s similar understanding can be found on pages 207–214 in Will (St. Martin’s Press, 1980). Les Whitten, Jack Anderson’s associate, was interviewed in his suburban Washington home. Whitten also made available the CIA’s files on project “Mudhen,” as declassified under the Freedom of Information Act. Charles Sither had left the White House and was working in Los Angeles, as a security official for the Occidental Oil Company, when interviewed.
Samuel Adams’ article in Harper’s magazine, “Vietnam Cover-up: Playing War with Numbers,” was published in May 1975. Adams later aided CBS television in the production of its controversial 1982 special report on the issue. Kissinger’s caustic comment to William Safire about Hanoi’s manipulation can be found on page 401 in Safire’s Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975). See pages 272–281 in Wilfred Burchett’s At the Barricades for an account of his private breakfast with Kissinger. I. F. Stone’s trenchant and perceptive analysis, “The Hidden Traps in Nixon’s Peace Plan,” was published in the March 9, 1972, New York Review of Books, beginning on page 13. Newsweek’s praise for Kissinger can be found in “Talking with the Enemy,” its cover story for February 7, 1972. The cited New York Times dispatch, published January 27, 1972, was “President’s Adviser Asks Public to Back Initiatives,” by Robert B. Semple, Jr. Nixon’s private memorandum to Haldeman and Colson is in my possession. Arthur Downey was practicing law in Washington when interviewed. Noel Koch was a public relations consultant in Washington. Secretary of State Rogers’ attack on Muskie, as orchestrated by Nixon and Colson, was page one news in the New York Times: “Rogers Says Muskie Hurt Prospects of Peace Talks,” by Terence Smith, February 10, 1972. Colson told of the John Mitchell complaint on pages 66–67 of Born Again (Chosen Books, 1976).
Ronald Walker was an employment consultant in Washington when interviewed. Roger Sullivan, the National Security Council’s expert on China during the Carter Administration, was an international trade consultant. Chou En-lai’s interview with the London Sunday Times was published December 5, 1971, as “Midnight Thoughts of Premier Chou,” by Neville Maxwell. James Thomson was curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University when interviewed. Alfred Jenkins was living in Bennington, Vermont. Stanley Karnow was a free-lance journalist. For a good example of Karnow’s reporting during the summit, see “Nixon Pledges Pullout of Forces in Taiwan,” Washington Post, February 28, 1972. His cited article in Foreign Policy magazine, “Playing Second Fiddle to the Tube,” was published in the Summer 1972 issue; it was paired with an equally critical piece by John Chancellor of NBC television, “Who Produced the China Show?” Dean Acheson’s “mistake” is discussed on pages 355–365 of his Present at the Creation (Norton, 1969). For Eisenhower’s attack, see “Eisenhower Scores Acheson ‘Mistake,’ ” by James Reston, New York Times, September 23, 1952. See page 192 in Henry Brandon’s The Retreat of American Power (Doubleday, 1973) for Kissinger’s account of Rogers’ role as told to Brandon. David Kraslow was publisher of the Miami News when interviewed. Summit coverage in the Los Angeles Times also led to immediate questions; see “Nixon Seen as Giving More Than He Got—in Short Run,” by Robert C. Toth, February 28, 1972. Kraslow’s lead story that day described the Shanghai Communiqué as “oblique and ambiguous” on Taiwan’s status. Safire’s account of the Cabinet meeting is on pages 409–416 of his Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975). A copy of Kissinger’s background briefing at the Federal City Club is in my possession.
A perceptive account of North Vietnam’s and the NLF’s strategy in the spring offensive can be found in a monograph by David W. P. Elliott, “NLF-DRV Strategy and the 1972 Spring Offensive,” Interim Report Number 4, January 1974, published by Cornell University’s International Relations of East Asia Project. Elliott’s general conclusions about what the North Vietnamese were trying to do were borne out by their interviews with me in 1979 in Hanoi. General John Vogt was retired from the Air Force and living in Annapolis, Maryland, when interviewed; his oral history was taken August 8–9, 1978, by the Air Force and declassified in part early in 1982, at the general’s request. For a full account of the Lavelle incident, see the September 1972 hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Nomination of John D. Lavelle, General Creighton W. Abrams, and Admiral John S. McCain, published October 10,1972. Otis Pike retired from Congress and was a Washington journalist when interviewed. See page 380 in Zumwalt’s On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976) for his quotes from Laird. The cited William Beecher dispatch was “On the Side of Restraint in Vietnam, an Aide says,” New York Times, April 18, 1972. James Reston’s April 18 column was aptly titled “Mr. Nixon’s Temper.” Shaplen’s article was “Letter from Vietnam,” dated May 6 and published in the May 13, 1972, New Yorker. Representative Ronald V. Dellums, California Democrat, inserted much of NSSM 1 in the Congressional Record of May 10, 1972; see pages E4975 to E5005. See pages 297–299 in The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978) for Haldeman’s account of his and Nixon’s machinations against Kissinger. Safire’s assertion that Kissinger put out the word in backgrounders can be found on page 402 of his Before The Fall (Doubleday, 1975). Tad Szulc was the first journalist to describe fully the Vietnam negotiations that took place during Kissinger’s two Moscow visits in the spring of 1972; NSC aides and North Vietnamese officials subsequently confirmed the main points of Szulc’s reportage. See “Behind the Vietnam Cease-Fire Agreement,” in Foreign Policy, Summer 1974, pages 21–69. Kenneth Clawson was interviewed in his suburban Washington home. His attack on the Times was issued May 18, 1972, by the White House.
It should be noted again that I have relied heavily on Gerard Smith’s memoir, Doubletalk (Doubleday, 1980), and found it to be exceedingly accurate. John Newhouse was a Washington free-lance journalist and author when interviewed. Joseph Alsop’s column linking SALT and grain, “A View of the Summit,” was published May 24, 1972, in the Washington Post. See Safire’s memoir, Before the Fall (Doubleday, 1975), pages 432–439, for an account of Kissinger’s discussion of trade with Leonid Brezhnev. Elmo Zumwalt’s comments about the SALT process in 1972 are on pages 400–410 of his On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976); the quote about Soviet boats is on page 403. For Navy Secretary John Lehman’s 1981 complaints about the Trident, see “Trident Woes Put Military-Industrial System in Doubt,” by Philip Taubman, New York Times, April 4, 1981. Philip Odeen was interviewed in Washington, where he was working for an accounting firm. Barry Carter was a professor at the Georgetown University law school. Interviews with Raymond Garthoff—and his published analyses—continued to be invaluable in providing an insight to the actual bargaining at the summit in 1972. Safire’s praise for the Nixon-Kissinger negotiation team is on pages 442–443 of Before the Fall. Gerald Smith’s 1969 freeze proposal was released to the Federation of American Scientists under the Freedom of Information Act and made public by the federation October 30, 1982. See “1969 study called freeze verifiable,” Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio, October 31, 1982. Kissinger’s briefing of Congress and his colloquy with Senator Henry Jackson took place June 15, 1972, in the White House; a complete text of questions and answers was on file in the White House press office. For an example of Senator Jackson’s subsequent complaints, see “Jackson Raps Arms Curbs,” by George C. Wilson, in the Washington Post of July 19, 1972. Representative John Ashbrook’s attack on SALT can be found in the Congressional Record for May 24, 1972, beginning at page 18687. The cited Newsday newspaper article was “Details of Missile Treaty,” by Martin Schram, May 20, 1972. Schram was reporting for the Washington Post when interviewed. See page 451 in Before The Fall for Nixon’s heroics in Moscow as reported by Safire. For Gelb’s SALT challenge to Kissinger, see “Soviets Said to Get Missile Concessions,” by Leslie H. Gelb, New York Times, June 22, 1972. The dispute simmered in the Times for a week. Royal Allison was a consultant in Washington when interviewed. For a lively account of Kissinger’s extraordinary press conference in Moscow, see “Kissinger’s Nightclub Act,” by Murray Marder, Washington Post, May 28, 1972.
Essential information in this and subsequent Vietnam chapters was provided by Huang Due Nha, Nguyen Van Thieu’s close aide. Nha supplied copies of previously unavailable—and unknown—draft peace agreements, many of them marked top secret, that were exchanged between Washington and Hanoi in the late summer and early fall of 1972. Copies of this material are in my possession. For more on Nha, see “Thieu’s Top Emissary,” by Lawrence Stern, Washington Post, November 30, 1972, and “Saigon’s New Chief Spokesman,” by Fox Butterfield, New York Times, January 11, 1973. He was also interviewed by the Kalb brothers. Kissinger’s lunch with Norman Mailer was described in Mailer’s St. George and the Godfather (Signet Special, 1972), pages 114–121. The Westmoreland quote from Hearts and Minds was provided by Peter Davis. Rogers’ interview before the Republican convention in Miami Beach was the lead story in the Miami Herald on August 20, 1972: “Vietnam Peace This Year Is Predicted by Rogers,” by James McCartney, of Knight newspapers. A White House denial came quickly; see “U.S. Discouraging Hints of Success at Peace Parley,” by Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times, August 22, 1972. For Nixon’s comment about ending the war, see “A Conversation with President Nixon Aboard Air Force One,” by Stewart Alsop, Newsweek, September 4, 1972, pages 24–25. Kissinger’s comment about going to Hanoi was made to Dorothy McCardle of the Washington Post and published in the newspaper’s “Style” section August 24, 1972. Ellsberg’s activities at the Republican convention, cited in the footnote, were page-one news in the Washington Post for August 23, 1972: “Ellsberg Says Nixon Tried Frogman Ploy,” by Chalmers M. Roberts. The New York Times also treated Ellsberg’s allegations seriously: “Ellsberg Says Escalation Was Part of Nixon’s Plan,” by R. W. Apple, Jr., August 23, 1972. See page 25 of his Decent Interval (Random House, 1977) for Frank Snepp’s assessment of Pham Van Dong’s National Day Speech and Brezhnev’s alleged comment to Kissinger about it. Haig’s complaints to Zumwalt about Nixon can be found on page 399 of Zumwalt’s On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976). Joseph Alsop’s September 18, 1972, column in the Washington Post was headlined, “Imaginable Hat Trick,” a reference to ending the Vietnam War and the summits in Moscow and Peking. Albert Sindlinger was interviewed in his Media, Pennsylvania, offices; the pollster gave me copies of some of the material he had given the White House through Charles Colson. Colson subsequently verified much of Sindlinger’s account. Samuel Lubell’s column, “How the ‘Psych War’ Affects Everyone,” was distributed for publication August 16, 1972, or thereafter; a copy of the original release is in my possession. Lubell briefly described his White House meeting in a letter to me dated January 20, 1982. The transcript of Senator George McGovern’s speech on Vietnam was published in full on October 11, 1972, in the New York Times, page 29. A reference to Frank Snepp’s ignored intelligence report can be found on page 26 of his Decent Interval (Random House, 1977). The cited Joseph Alsop column, “A Niche for Kissinger,” was published in the Washington Post on October 23, 1972. James Reston’s upbeat column was published October 18, 1972, in the New York Times, “Don’t Cheer Yet, But . . .”
John Dean’s description of the White House coaching session for Ronald Ziegler was given on June 25, 1973, his first day of public testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, known as the Senate Watergate Committee. Dean’s testimony was published in Book 3 of the committee’s hearings into Watergate and Related Activities, June 25 and June 26, 1973. at page 965. The volume also includes a set of notes from the coaching session that Dean submitted into evidence, at pages 1200–1209. The caustic comments about the American press and its role in Watergate can be found on page 204 of Watergate: The Full Inside Story, by the London Sunday Times team, Lewis Chester, Cal McCrystal, Stephen Aris, and William Shawcross (Ballantine, 1973).
The Kalbs’ account in Kissinger of the Kissinger-Thieu meetings was especially useful in this chapter. Charles Whitehouse had retired from the Foreign Service and was living in Washington when interviewed. The Canadian television interview with Nguyen Van Thieu was conducted by Michael Maclear in London, in early 1980, for his book on Vietnam, The Ten Thousand Day War (St. Martin’s Press, 1981), and for his subsequent syndicated television series; the full text of Thieu’s remarks was made available by Maclear. Tran Kim Phuong was interviewed at his home in suburban Washington, where he has lived since the fall of Saigon in 1975. The Los Angeles Times dispatch was “U.S. Sources Deny Viet Breakthrough,” by Robert C. Toth, October 19, 1972. Le Chi Thao was living in suburban Virginia when interviewed. Westmoreland’s advice to Nixon can be found, beginning at page 393, in his memoir, A Soldier Reports (Doubleday, 1976). Thieu’s interview with Oriana Fallaci was held in Saigon in January 1973; it can be found, beginning on page 45, in a reprint of Fallaci interviews, Interviews with History (Houghton Mifflin, 1977). Arnaud de Borchgrave’s interview with Pham Van Dong was published in the October 30, 1972, issue of Newsweek, “Exclusive from Hanoi.” Michael Maclear’s contrasting dispatch in the New York Times was published in late editions of October 22, 1972, on page 4. Maclear was interviewed in Toronto, where he was an independent film producer. The full text of Nixon’s October 23, 1972, cable to Hanoi was supplied to me by the North Vietnamese government. Reston’s column dealing with Nixon’s lack of trust was titled “First Things First,” New York Times, October 22, 1972. John Ehrlichman’s account of the final negotiations can be found on pages 313–316 of his memoir, Witness to Power (Simon & Schuster, 1982). Kissinger’s interview with Oriana Fallaci was first published in the November 16, 1972, issue of L’Europeo magazine; its first publication in the United States was in the December 16, 1972, issue of the New Republic, beginning at page 17. Kissinger’s bureaucratic enemies began circulating inside the White House the text of the L’Europeo interview, including Fallaci’s personal report and analysis of her subject. One copy of Fallaci’s personal notes, which appeared in L’Europeo but not in the New Republic, was made available to me. It was believed to have been prepared in John Scali’s office. The five-page memorandum was dated November 20, 1972, and reproduced on White House stationery, with no other indication of where it originated.
For Murray Marder’s report that Nixon did not want to settle the war before the election, see “Deliberate Stall Seen on Peace,” Washington Post, November 9, 1972. Zumwalt’s account of Nixon’s rage at the black power issue begins on page 239 of On Watch (Quadrangle, 1976). The Nhan Dan editorial and Jean Thoraval’s dispatch for Agence France-Presse are cited on page 152 of A Peace Denied (Indiana University, 1975), by Gareth Porter. Zumwalt’s description of the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting with Nixon begins on page 412 in On Watch. The Tom Braden column, headlined, “Vietnam Stalemate,” appeared in the Washington Post, November 24, 1972. Laurence Stern of the Washington Post ably summarized many of the rumors about the Nixon-Kissinger dispute in a dispatch published December 3, 1972, “Rumors on Kissinger’s Status Rush into Peace News Void.” Colson’s public comments about Kissinger’s role in the bombing were aired February 7, 1975, in an interview with Barbara Walters on the NBC-TV Today show; see the account in the Washington Post for February 8, subtitled, “Kissinger Urged Bombing, Colson Says,” by Douglas Watson. Colson’s second volume of memoirs, Life Sentence (Chosen Books, 1972), describes the incident on pages 27–30. For an account of Haig’s rapid rise to the rank of full general, see “Kissinger Aide Given No. 2 Army Post Over 243 Senior Generals,” by Michael Getler, as published in the Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1972. For Admiral Moorer’s puzzling analysis of the Christmas bombing, see “The Christmas Bombing of Hanoi—or How the POWs Got Home,” in foundation, a publication of the Naval Aviation Museum, March 1981, beginning at page 18. James Reston’s column of December 13, 1972, was headlined, “Mr. Kissinger in Paris.” Kissinger’s remarks to Nick Thimmesch were reported in his June 4, 1973, New York magazine article, “How Kissinger Fooled Us All,” at page 52. Kissinger’s comments to John Osborne were reported in the New Republic for December 16, 1972, “Kicking Sand.” Reston’s column loyally suggesting that Kissinger was opposed to the Christmas bombing was titled “Nixon and Kissinger” and published in the New York Times, December 31, 1972. Kissinger’s remark to Thimmesch about the effectiveness of the bombing is in Thimmesch’s New York article. The military’s accounting of the number of casualties in the B-52 bombing of Hanoi can be found in “What Christmas Bombing Did to North Vietnam,” U.S. News & World Report, February 5, 1972, page 18. The Haig television interview was with Michael Maclear. Admiral Moorer’s desire to continue the Christmas bombing was expressed in his foundation magazine article, page 24. Gerald Warren was editor of the San Diego Union when interviewed. While working in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, I spent several months investigating the link between the demoralized 6990th Air Force Service Service unit and the high loss rate of B-52 bombers over Christmas. I have partial transcripts of some of the subsequent courts-martial. Charles Iverson, Tom Bernard, and Thomas Eskelson were interviewed after they concluded their Air Force careers. James Reston’s New Year’s Eve warning was in his “Nixon and Kissinger” column. Haldeman’s account of Nixon’s rage at the Reston column is on pages 135–136 in The Ends of Power (Dell, 1978). Some of Nixon’s secret pledges to Thieu, contained in top-secret letters, were made public by Nguyen Tien Hung, Saigon’s former Minister of Planning, at a news conference in Washington on April 30, 1975, as the South Vietnamese government was being overthrown. See “Thieu Aide Discloses Promises of Force by Nixon to Back Pact,” by Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times, May 1, 1975. The Times carried the full text of the cited letters. Thieu’s April 21, 1975, farewell speech in Saigon was major news in the United States, but no reporter followed up the implications of Thieu’s revelation that Nixon had considered the peace agreement “mere sheets of paper.” Tom Wicker’s column, “Mr. Thieu Tells His Side of It,” was published April 22, 1975, in the New York Times. A full text of Thieu’s speech was translated and distributed by the U.S. government’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service on April 22, 1972. Newsweek’s effusive—and misleading—description of the January peace agreement, “At Last, the Vietnam Peace,” was published February 5, 1973, beginning on page 18; the specific quote about Saigon’s “sovereignty” is on page 23. Thieu’s immediate moves against his opposition following the peace agreement are summarized on pages 179–184 of Gareth Porter’s A Peace Denied (Indiana University, 1975).
Gerald Ford’s account of the Mayaguez incident can be found on pages 275–285 of A Time to Heal (Harper & Row/Reader’s Digest, 1979). The most thorough study of the bungling was prepared by the Comptroller General of the United States and published on October 4, 1976, by the Subcommittee on International Political and Military Affairs of the House Committee on International Relations, as Seizure of the Mayaguez, Part IV. The subcommittee held investigatory hearings in May, June, July, and September 1975, published as Part I, May 14 and 15, 1975; Part II, June 19 and 25 and July 25, 1975; Part III, July 31 and September 12, 1975.