New York, April 25—It is dismaying that the best speech delivered over the past season has received relatively little attention. To be sure, Henry Kissinger was not the principal object of attention at the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ convention. For the most part, the celebrants held form sheets on which only the performances of the presidential candidates were scribbled. In such circumstances Pericles could come and go—and only those easily distracted heard a great analytical oration. The Super Bowl is not the appropriate arena in which to recite poetry.
James Reston, to be sure, noticed it. Only Kissinger, he wrote, gave a “truly presidential” speech. It is probably safer to say that only Kissinger gave a truly non-presidential speech. It was too rich in thought, nuance, balance to serve the galvanizing purposes required of speeches spoken by presidential candidates. It is a speech which is an object of study rather than a stimulus of the senses.
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