Letter from Washington

The end of the honeymoon between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the press may be causing Senator Edward Kennedy some worry. The press zeroed in on possible contradictions between the facts, as they are known or described by others, and Mr. Kissinger’s sworn testimony concerning his involvement in secret wiretapping. The press raised the issue only after leaks from the House Judiciary Committee indicated that there are documents and tapes that seem to contradict Mr. Kissinger’s testimony. But there can be no doubt that the press moved in on Mr. Kissinger with a special zeal in order to prove that it does not reserve all its zeal for the pursuit of Mr. Nixon and his cronies. Senator Kennedy knows that the Washington press corps has been baited with this question: where was all that investigative zeal at the time of Chappaquiddick? Does this mean that the press will feel honor-bound to pepper candidate Kennedy with detective-like questions: “Senator, the Coast Guard records show that the tides in the channel that night were such-and-such. Given that, how do you explain . . .”?

Et tu, John? John Ehrlichman, who was sort of faculty adviser to the “Plumbers,” the resident White House burglars, has subpoenaed Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Alexander Haig to testify at his trial in connection with the Plumbers’ burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. If Mr. Kissinger testifies it will focus attention on his repeated assertion that he did not know that the Plumbers existed until the Ellsberg burglary became known a year ago.

Featured Tags

The end of the honeymoon between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the press may be causing Senator Edward Kennedy some worry. The press zeroed in on possible contradictions between the facts, as they are known or described by others, and Mr. Kissinger’s sworn testimony concerning his involvement in secret wiretapping. The press raised the issue only after leaks from the House Judiciary Committee indicated that there are documents and tapes that seem to contradict Mr. Kissinger’s testimony. But there can be no doubt that the press moved in on Mr. Kissinger with a special zeal in order to prove that it does not reserve all its zeal for the pursuit of Mr. Nixon and his cronies. Senator Kennedy knows that the Washington press corps has been baited with this question: where was all that investigative zeal at the time of Chappaquiddick? Does this mean that the press will feel honor-bound to pepper candidate Kennedy with detective-like questions: “Senator, the Coast Guard records show that the tides in the channel that night were such-and-such. Given that, how do you explain . . .”?

Et tu, John? John Ehrlichman, who was sort of faculty adviser to the “Plumbers,” the resident White House burglars, has subpoenaed Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Alexander Haig to testify at his trial in connection with the Plumbers’ burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. If Mr. Kissinger testifies it will focus attention on his repeated assertion that he did not know that the Plumbers existed until the Ellsberg burglary became known a year ago.