Beyond the Watergate Crisis Is the World

By Hugh Sidey

And the world keeps on moving--some 3,496,000,000 other people who may be fascinated with our internal miseries but whose self-interest comes first.

It is a new and special mission of a profoundly concerned Henry Kissinger somehow to preserve and nurture the fragile global tranquillity that has been achieved, to push it beyond the poison of Watergate and define a bipartisan national purpose and leadership that can keep up the momentum for peace.

His charter comes from the beleaguered Nixon. Kissinger has been a busy man these past few days, talking into the night with his old patron Nelson Rockefeller, spending hours in gentle advocacy with Democratic and liberal Republican Senators, seeking out editors and friends to search for grounds for unity.

He is not seeking absolution for himself or Nixon of the Administration's troubles, nor is he seeking diversion. That time is past. He knows that doubts and distrust now plague him. He has had his moments of arrogance and made mistakes, but his work has transcended those things, and that is why people still listen.

Thoughtful men know Kissinger is right, even while harboring doubts that Richard Nixon is constitutionally capable of any cooperative enterprise. There must be some new sense of leadership.

The other day Kissinger sat at the round table in the corner of his office in the White House, a melancholy place now. Something Chou En-lai had told him on his first visit to China came back with special poignancy, almost like a poetic refrain. "There is turmoil under the heavens, and we have the opportunity to end it," Chou had said in the summer of 1971. That line--that language--alone was almost enough to make Kissinger an admirer of Chou's. It is Kissinger's purpose for being. His deep worry is that the chance may be slipping through our fingers as we stop everything and pour all of our attention and energy into Watergate.

"The opportunity for a lasting peace transcends a particular Administration," says Kissinger. "It has to do with us as a people. We have got to broaden the base so this effort can become truly national and enduring beyond a single Administration. This country has seen so much agony in the past ten years that we must unite in some sense of purpose."

Kissinger still is a bit overweight and fighting it. His hours are full. There still are light flicks of humor in his conversation.

Yet, he is changed in a subtle way. He was stunned by Watergate; his prodigious intellectual energies have been idling. He seems just now to have given them renewed impetus. For Kissinger, the special world of the White House that gave him so much protection and so much support over these past 4 1/2 years is shattered. His work is threatened.

"It is a national emergency," he says. "History will not wait until we sort ourselves out internally. I'm not saying that we shouldn't sort ourselves out internally. But while it goes on the world keeps moving, and we cannot neglect it."

The faces of the men he has met in his extraordinary journeys keep floating up in front of him. They are no longer names on yellow cables, or legends out of textbooks. They are colleagues, the most remarkable collection any living man can claim.

"We are dealing with old men in China," Kissinger says quietly. "They have come to certain insights from their long experience. We must make that relationship permanent. The pace at which things have moved in two years, from a secret trip to China to de facto ambassadors, shows how urgent they consider it. In the Soviet Union we have the last generation that went through the whole Communist history. The men there now were in the revolution and World War II, and we must use their experience to bring about a lasting peace. The next generation will be different--born into it. In Europe we still have a generation that formed the Atlantic Partnership. The emotional conditions of that partnership still exist, although adjustments are required. We must strengthen our relationships. Japan is emerging into great-power status for the first time since the end of the war. The underdeveloped world still needs attention, and there are crisis areas like the Middle East."

The anguish of Kissinger rises as he talks. In one sense the world has been his for these past years. He has listened to all its cries for help and to its threats. He has flown to its remote corners and its grandest cities. Almost like a parent with a willful child, there is great love but great concern.

"We can't stop. We can't conduct foreign policy as a partisan matter. I realize that many people are very bitter. I understand that it is the responsibility of this Administration to take the first step in turning this into a national effort. This should not be difficult, because our foreign policy has been based on our common interests as a people. It is essential for the remainder of the President's term that we preserve the chance for a lasting peace. People have to ask what they genuinely want to do. We can't be so mesmerized by the past that we will forget that question."

The historian and scholar in Kissinger feels special pain. He has studied those interludes in the affairs of men that have changed civilization. He senses we are on the brink of one now.

"If we look at history we see that there are certain periods and circumstances that have offered the opportunity for peace.

Basic relationships are more important at such times than any conflict. We have China entering the world, the Soviet Union acting like a great power and less like a revolutionary, and the United States understanding she is no longer on a crusade. The leaders of these nations have learned the limits of previous policy. They now relate to each other in a constructive way; the tensions we see now are a healthy sign of growing. We are developing a code of conduct with our former adversaries and a system of competition with our friends. We just can't stop for 3 1/2 years. These are all green shoots. They must be allowed to grow. We have no monopoly on perception. We need everybody's help. We can't conduct foreign policy without the nation's leadership behind us. If there is indifference or nagging at every initiative, it deprives the people of confidence. The country is so absorbed in its internal drama that a lot of people say, To hell with foreign policy; we're too tired; we need a rest.' " It is not impossible that there is some opportunity to be seized in the Watergate disgrace, Kissinger believes.

When the trauma has passed, it could bring people to a common cause.

"Watergate could throw us back to essentials," he says. "We could come together on the fundamentals. Most leaders in the other nations are still with us. They feel that our policy has been creative. They will continue to believe that if they can count on us. But if we do not live up to our commitments now, they will have to begin to reassess their relationships based on what we can deliver."

The world keeps moving. Henry Kissinger looks out over the White House lawn. Bathed in the golden sun of a summer afternoon, all the world with all its nations and all its leaders come together for a moment. He talks finally of those who possess the power and have that chance to end "turmoil under the heavens."

"The only reason for being in these positions is to leave something behind that makes life better. Power is so transitory."

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