Blast From the Past

Oh, that Nixon and his gang.....what a wacky, lovable crew....

Here's an excerpt from a transcript of a telephone conversation between Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, then Kissinger's assistant. Some 20,000 pages of transcripts from Kissinger's archives have new been publicly revealed. It should be noted, before we go any further, that:

The transcripts were released over the objections of Mr. Kissinger after the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization, initiated legal proceedings to make them public.

I wonder why such an honest, open, and transparent fellow like Kissinger would be opposed to letting the public see these transcripts? Surely there's nothing he could be trying to hide.

One juicy, albeit ultimately irrelevant (we all knew Nixon was on something, after all) tidbit:

The episode involving Nixon's drinking occurred on Oct. 11, 1973, shortly after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war erupted. Aides to Prime Minister Edward Heath of Britain telephoned shortly before 8 p.m., hoping to reach the president so the two leaders could discuss the war.

Mr. Kissinger asked: "Can we tell them no? When I talked to the president, he was loaded."

Brent Scowcroft, then an assistant to Mr. Kissinger, said: "Right, O.K. I will say the president will not be available until first thing in the morning but you will be this evening."

Very reassuring. I sure am thankful we don't have a drunk in the White House these days.

Here's more:

"They're pretty terrible," said Melvin R. Laird, the secretary of defense, of the color photographs of the men, women and children killed in the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam.

Henry A. Kissinger, the national security adviser, responded that one of President Nixon's top aides had "heard that the Army is trying to impound the pictures — that can't be done."...

....Mr. Laird told Mr. Kissinger that while he would like "to sweep it under the rug," the photographs prevented it.

"There are so many kids just laying there; these pictures are authentic," Mr. Laird said.

The more things change...