Kissing up to Kissinger The reporters who loved Henry and what they said.

[seemslikeadream]

By Jack Shafer
Posted Monday, Oct. 4, 2004, at 5:23 PM PT

....

All this love did not go unreciprocated as we now learn: Kissinger instructed his secretaries and aides to secretly listen in on his telephone conversations and take notes. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive, transcripts of 3,568 conversations between Kissinger and President Nixon, U.S. politicians, world leaders, ambassadors, Hollywood stars, and a score of journalists are now available at the State Department Electronic Reading Room.
....

The most devoted members of the Kissinger press cult, based on the phone transcripts, were CBS News Chief Diplomatic Correspondent Marvin Kalb, former New York Times Washington editor and columnist James "Scotty" Reston, and Time magazine's Hugh Sidey. But other figures tossed kisses to Kissinger from afar, including political columnist Stewart Alsop, former Los Angeles Times Publisher Otis Chandler, William Randolph Hearst Jr., and former Washington Star owner—and soon to be ex-Riggs Bank proprietor—Joseph L. Albritton.

Kalb sends an FTD-sized bouquet down the line to Kissinger on the evening of Sept. 22, 1973, the day he became secretary of state.

… I did wish you well from the bottom of my heart, the wisdom and the grace and the tolerance that are going to be so necessary to success because I very much have the feeling in the long sweep of history perhaps that your tenure is going to prove to be larger than simply something that has to do with diplomacy. There's a human and a psychological component here which has to be vindicated in a major way and I feel that very strongly and I wish you towering good luck.

.....

Marvin Kalb, Nov. 19, 1975:

The only reason for this call was to tell you that despite all appearances to the contrary in this city you still have some friends. I count myself among them. …

I think there is a terrible viciousness around these days. Even if 20 per cent justified, the 80 per cent is not. …

There are a bunch of bastards running around town, not taking anything into account but personal ambitions. They don't think from one day to the next. They have no idea where they want to go—anything malicious is glorified. I was reading the papers. You do have friends around town and I hope that you will stick with the long picture and not the short one.

more
http://slate.msn.com/id/2107745/

[UTUSN]

1. Kick n/t

[KoKo]

2. Well....there's our evidence of how the media is biased and has an

"inside the beltway" mentality. What more do we need. And, one can only shudder thinking of what's going on today.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. where's CHARLEY frickin ROSE on that list?

he disgusts me utterly with his lapdog act

Kissinger is on his show more often than the tides change

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. This is just how insideous the CIA is

which is what the article didn't tell you...all of these people were no doubt vetted by the CIA for their media positions

[seemslikeadream]

5. Kissinger defends past policies on South American dictatorships

10/5/2004, 4:28 p.m. ET
By SARAH KARUSH
The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Tuesday defended his approach to Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s, saying he had purposely steered clear of "personal attacks" when it came to condemning human rights abuses.

Kissinger's comments followed the release on Friday of transcripts that show he wanted to punish subordinates who criticized Argentina and Chile for human rights abuses. The transcripts were released by the National Security Archive, a foreign policy research center, which said it obtained them from the U.S. State Department after filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

Kissinger said the United States at the time was balancing two concerns in Latin America: keeping communist governments from taking root and discouraging human rights abuses.

"The method we chose — which people can argue about — was that I made two public speeches emphasizing the American concerns on human rights and stating that countries that systematically violated (them) would not be able to get the sort of support, economic and otherwise, that they wanted," Kissinger said at a news conference following a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.

more
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1097001542249220.xml&storylist=mibusiness