Why Kissinger Survives

By Hugh Sidey

For seven years Henry Kissinger has defied all the laws of political gravity. Employing his charms, his intellect and his considerable Machiavellian skills, he has survived every governmental crisis and triumph while playing a principal role in most of them. He thrives on palace intrigue. This helps drive his critics up the wall as they look at him now and realize that his long journey through the upper reaches of power is one of the most fascinating of our time.

"It is inevitable," he says about the accumulation of bitterness toward him in much of the press and in Congress. "When you live at this elevation of power for seven years, you gain many critics and very few permanent supporters. There have been no exceptions--Acheson, Dulles, Rusk." His relations with Ford remain as close and open as they have been --though Donald Rumsfeld, from his Pentagon post, is soon likely to be vying with Kissinger for Ford's time. Every day last week, while reporters were writing that he would no longer be able to spend so much time with Ford, he went to the White House for the morning briefing with the President. Yet his manner suggests that he is vaguely more distant from the Oval Office and his routine may change. He knows those 14 months ahead are, as he puts it, a "minefield."

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"The new story around town is that Elliot Richardson is being brought back to take my place. If he is, I know nothing about it. But maybe some Sunday morning I'll be called to the White House and fired." Then he gives a low chuckle.

His refuge is the pursuit of peace and his concern for the national interest. What seems to hang in the balance right now is whether the U.S. will go back to the days of the cold war and bitter confrontation with the Soviet Union, or whether it can keep the new relationship alive. Henry Kissinger sometimes sees himself surrounded by a city full of nihilists who want to dismantle every advance toward some sensible tranquillity.

If there is no accommodation with the Soviet Union now on arms, if no nexus for peaceful co-existence is established, he warns, then we may well slide back into the cold war mentality. "But it will not be like the '50s," says Kissinger. "If there is a confrontation with the Soviet Union and we mobilize and take a stand, it will be sustainable only if the people know that we did all we could to prevent it. We have a great opportunity now. The Soviet leaders are getting older and tired. We are going the only way left."

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So, in his determined pursuit of a viable co-existence with the Soviets, Kissinger looks like a ruthless power grabber--or a clever maneuverer. Maybe that is what he is or has to be.

Many of his friends have urged him to get out right now. They believe any man who stays around so long can only harvest more bitterness. That is one of the melancholy facts of public service. But Kissinger invokes his concern for the nation. Watching the man, one has the idea that Kissinger believes there is a miracle or two left in him, and he wants these 14 months to try to work the old magic. He has found a reservoir of enthusiasm in the Rotary halls of the midlands. The people in the farm areas want Russian markets for their grain, and common sense suggests that these come only with accommodation. And Kissinger still has some basic support in Congress. He has won a little yardage on Turkish military aid and in his battle to prevent Congressmen from looking into his office files.

Henry Kissinger is simply brighter and more adept at the art of human persuasion than any of his adversaries. His survival is rooted finally in the Tightness of his goal, even if his methods sometimes assume the brutal nature of the arena in which he fights. His chief worry is that politics will turn the debate totally to personalities--his, mainly. Then he may have to leave before he wants to. But there he is, still armed with his sense of humor and a greater appreciation than almost anyone else around of what will really matter. "Two years from now," he says, "nobody will give a damn if I am up, down or sideways."

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