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LOS ANGELES - Former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger delayed telling President Richard Nixon about the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to keep him from interfering, according to book excerpts published in Vanity Fair.
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, is by presidential historian Robert Dallek, who spent four years reviewing the Nixon Administration's recently opened archives, including telephone transcripts and tapes.
The historian said that when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on October 6, 1973, the Israelis told Kissinger at 6am, but 3 1/2 hours passed before he spoke to Nixon.
Dallek also had access to national-security records and the diaries of Nixon's first chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman. He said the documents revealed a complex relationship between two men who were both prone to paranoia, insecurity, manipulation, and ruthlessness.
They also showed Kissinger's increasing power as the President was incapacitated by the Watergate scandal.
Dallek said Nixon did not believe Kissinger should handle Middle East policy because "anybody who is Jewish cannot handle" it. Nixon was quoted as saying Kissinger might be "as fair as he can possibly be, he can't help but be affected by it. Put yourself in his position. Good God ... his people were crucified over there. Jesus Christ! Five million of them popped into big ovens! How the hell's he feel about all this?"
Kissinger told Nixon chief of staff Alexander Haig that the war had started an hour before telling the president. Kissinger phoned Haig, who was with the President in Florida, saying, "We are on top of it here."
He also urged Haig to lie to the media by telling them that "the President was kept informed from 6am on," so as not to let it appear that Nixon was out of the loop.
Dallek also said that according to a telephone transcript, Nixon asked Kissinger on October 7 if there had been any message from Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on the Middle Eastern hostilities and Kissinger said, "Oh, yes, we heard from him." Then Nixon had to ask, "What did he say?"
On October 23, Kissinger and Haig headed a group of national security officials to devise a response to Brezhnev. Without Nixon's input or knowledge, Dallek said, they decided to raise America's level of military readiness to Def Con 3, a level reached only once before.
Dallek said that before they convened, Kissinger asked Haig if he should wake the President and Haig replied, "No".
Thirty minutes later Haig asked, "Have you talked to the President?" Kissinger replied, "No, I haven't. He would just start charging around ... I don't think we should bother the President."
- REUTERS
