Kissinger: A Growing Issue

As he headed for lunch in Nairobi last week, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was besieged by reporters with questions about President Ford's latest primary defeats. "Why blame me?" Kissinger replied. "I was out of the country." Nevertheless, he added, he was checking every morning to make sure that his plane was still parked at the Nairobi airport.

Behind the lighthearted banter was a grimly sober realization: every time Ford loses a primary, Kissinger is bound to get some--or much--of the blame. When the President lost the North Carolina primary, for example, his confidant Mel Laird and his campaign chairman Rogers Morton both remarked that Kissinger would not remain in office much longer. After the more critical setbacks in Texas and Indiana, Kissinger was under even greater fire from a number of top Republicans and White House aides.

Ford's staff was especially outraged that Kissinger gave his speech calling for black majority rule in southern Africa only four days before the Texas primary. "The s.o.b. cost us 100,000 votes," complained one aide. Said another: "The timing of the Kissinger trip was bad enough. So why did Henry have to be quite so outspoken and provocative in reading the riot act to the Rhodesians? Doesn't he realize that there are people in this country who might, see the situation differently, who might think we're abandoning an old friend under pressure from a lot of screaming,

Johnny-come-lately Communist or radical-leaning black nations?" But, the aide was asked, wasn't Kissinger's line justified, to a great extent, from a policy standpoint? "You mean from a foreign policy standpoint," he retorted in what amounted to a stunning show of political cynicism.

There was, in fact, little evidence that Kissinger's speech had cost the President many votes in Texas, or anywhere else for that matter. The local press did not give the address much play; minds were doubtless made up on other issues. What is more, Kissinger's African speech had been cleared by White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney and by Ford himself. The President and Kissinger had gone over its outline in two one-hour sessions, and Ford had indicated his decision to support the revised policy at a Cabinet meeting before the Secretary left for Africa. Finally, the timing was dictated not by Kissingerian whim but by a long-scheduled United Nations trade meeting in Kenya (see THE WORLD); Kissinger did not just wander aimlessly into the Dark Continent.

Yet, there was no doubt that Ronald Reagan believed attacking Secretary Kissinger was good politics. Again and again the Californian lashed out at the Administration for adopting the policies that have inflamed the Republican right wing: Kissinger's having "bowed and scraped" before the Soviet Union in his efforts to maintain detente; his negotiations to "give away" the Panama Canal; his overtures to Fidel Castro last year; his purported pessimism about the future of America and the free world.

Kissinger thus seems bound to become more, not less of a campaign issue as the primaries proceed, and a number of Congressmen have been increasingly critical of him in recent days. After the President met with G.O.P. Hill leaders last week, Michigan Senator Robert Griffin was asked if any of the legislators had called for Kissinger's resignation during the session. Replied Griffin: "There was one who suggested that Secretary Kissinger ought to go."

Even so, the President seems as determined as ever to keep him on. Nor would Ford blame Kissinger for his primary defeats. At a Rose Garden press conference last week, the President said that his staff was analyzing the "total picture." He doubted if any single issue, such as foreign policy, could explain the defeats. "I am sure it was a combination of many, many things." If the election analysis proved Kissinger to be a liability, a reporter asked, would his post be in jeopardy? Replied Ford: "Not at all."

In part, the President's hands are tied. If he dumps his Secretary at this late date, it will appear that he has panicked and knuckled under to the right wing--which is going to vote for Reagan in Kansas City anyway. Moreover, the sacking of Kissinger would be seen as a patently political move and would doubtless cost him votes among moderates and independents in the general election. "We've crossed that Rubicon," says a White House aide who thinks that Kissinger will last out the year. Despite the mounting attacks, a number of polls indicate that Kissinger has lost very little ground with the general public. Last week a Gallup survey showed that 48% of the people still approve of the Secretary while 34% do not; a Yankelovich survey conducted for TIME revealed that 64% have some or a lot of confidence in Kissinger and 32% have no confidence.

For his part, Kissinger shows no signs of quitting. "There may be days when he wants to," said one of his closest aides. "But he won't." In his lighter moments, the Secretary sometimes even jests about remaining in office until the end of 1980. He considered resigning at the end of last year, then decided to stay on, though he knew he would often be cast in the role of whipping boy. In Africa last week he expressed a determination to fight Reagan, who he thinks has measurably lowered the tone of the foreign policy debate. "I cannot do anything other than what I think is in the national interest. I cannot go up and down with every primary," he said. After seven years in power, he is reconciled to growing criticism: "I'm at peace with myself and it doesn't matter what happens week to week."

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