Qtec
10-10-2003, 05:38 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Rumsfeld: Nixon's Loathesome Dove
By Al Kamen
Friday, October 10, 2003; Page A25
A new generation of American antiwar critics may decry Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's moves in Iraq. But there was a time when other critics -- such as President Richard M. Nixon and then-national security adviser Henry A. Kissinger -- saw him as an incorrigible peacenik, an annoying White House dove, according to a most interesting article in the November Atlantic Monthly by James Mann.
Using the Nixon Tapes -- the gift that will forever keep on giving -- Mann found Nixon one night fretting about "the Rumsfeld problem."
Rumsfeld, then a former congressman working on the White House domestic policy staff, was "becoming a troublesome anti-war advocate," Mann writes in this excerpt from his upcoming book "Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet."
In an April 7, 1971, chat, Nixon, Kissinger and then-Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman talked about the war in Vietnam. "I think Rumsfeld may be not too long for this world," Nixon said, a few minutes later suggesting, "Let's dump him."
In a generally conservative administration, Rumsfeld had been on the moderate-to-liberal wing, credited by some with saving President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society anti-poverty program, the Office of Economic Opportunity. His assistants there included two young fellows, Dick Cheney and Frank Carlucci.
At a staff meeting earlier that day, Rumsfeld had pressed Kissinger on why the administration couldn't move faster to get out of Vietnam. Nixon worried later that Rumsfeld would quit.
"He's ready to jump ship," Nixon said in his meeting with Kissinger and Haldeman.
Haldeman disagreed. "I doubt if he ever would, just because [staying on] serves his interests more than not."
"He's just positioning himself to be close to The Washington Post and the New York Times," Kissinger said. (This is what the shrinks might call "projection.")
"Well then, let's dump him after this" speech to the nation that evening, Nixon said. "Good God, we're sending him . . . on a two-month holiday to Europe. . . . For what purpose?"
"To get him out of town," Kissinger said. Mann notes that Kissinger then "gently reminds his boss that Rumsfeld's 'holiday' in Europe had originally been their idea."
And when Rumsfeld returned from that trip, he brought some vague political dirt with him, saying that one U.S. ambassador "gave us a pile of bad stuff about [potential Democratic challenger Edmund S.] Muskie and his extracurricular activities." It apparently amounted to naught, however
<hr /></blockquote>
Just as I thought.
Q
Rumsfeld: Nixon's Loathesome Dove
By Al Kamen
Friday, October 10, 2003; Page A25
A new generation of American antiwar critics may decry Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's moves in Iraq. But there was a time when other critics -- such as President Richard M. Nixon and then-national security adviser Henry A. Kissinger -- saw him as an incorrigible peacenik, an annoying White House dove, according to a most interesting article in the November Atlantic Monthly by James Mann.
Using the Nixon Tapes -- the gift that will forever keep on giving -- Mann found Nixon one night fretting about "the Rumsfeld problem."
Rumsfeld, then a former congressman working on the White House domestic policy staff, was "becoming a troublesome anti-war advocate," Mann writes in this excerpt from his upcoming book "Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet."
In an April 7, 1971, chat, Nixon, Kissinger and then-Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman talked about the war in Vietnam. "I think Rumsfeld may be not too long for this world," Nixon said, a few minutes later suggesting, "Let's dump him."
In a generally conservative administration, Rumsfeld had been on the moderate-to-liberal wing, credited by some with saving President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society anti-poverty program, the Office of Economic Opportunity. His assistants there included two young fellows, Dick Cheney and Frank Carlucci.
At a staff meeting earlier that day, Rumsfeld had pressed Kissinger on why the administration couldn't move faster to get out of Vietnam. Nixon worried later that Rumsfeld would quit.
"He's ready to jump ship," Nixon said in his meeting with Kissinger and Haldeman.
Haldeman disagreed. "I doubt if he ever would, just because [staying on] serves his interests more than not."
"He's just positioning himself to be close to The Washington Post and the New York Times," Kissinger said. (This is what the shrinks might call "projection.")
"Well then, let's dump him after this" speech to the nation that evening, Nixon said. "Good God, we're sending him . . . on a two-month holiday to Europe. . . . For what purpose?"
"To get him out of town," Kissinger said. Mann notes that Kissinger then "gently reminds his boss that Rumsfeld's 'holiday' in Europe had originally been their idea."
And when Rumsfeld returned from that trip, he brought some vague political dirt with him, saying that one U.S. ambassador "gave us a pile of bad stuff about [potential Democratic challenger Edmund S.] Muskie and his extracurricular activities." It apparently amounted to naught, however
<hr /></blockquote>
Just as I thought.
Q