6
Thursday, August 23, 1973
University Dally Kansan
Watergate Forces World To See That President Is Not the Nation
By ERNEST R. MAY
At one session of the Ervin Committee, Sen. Edward J. Gurney (R-Fla.) lamented that the Watergate affair was crippling the President's capacity to conduct foreign relations. Many others, including Henry A. Kissinger, have voiced the same complaint. It is arguable that they are wrong, that the governmentional dealings is good rather than bad, and that, if indeed there is need cause for concern, it is in reward to domestic, not foreign, policy.
One consequence of Watergate is that both the White House and the world perceive more clearly that the President and the United States are not one and the same. We have gotten into trouble in the past when Presidents have confused the two.
Mr. Nikon's supposed idol and model, Woodrow Wilson, made such a mistake in 1919. Though aware of potential opposition in Congress and the country, he defined it as our national interest to take part in the League of Nations and a system of collective security. "The Senate must take itsiches," he said, referring to Wilson by the Senate's rejection of the Versailles Treaty was costly to the country and the world.
SUMMARLY, Lyndon B. Johnson and his advisers assumed in the late 1980s that they alone could interpret the national interest in Southeast Asia and that significant changes in global trade should disregarded. The curing of their misunderstanding deeply scarred our society.
On the whole, the outcomes have been happier when Presidents realized that they were relatively weak and that they could take no steps in foreign affairs without assurance that most of Congress and the public would be with them and stay with them.
One of the most constructive periods in the history of American foreign relations was the first part of the Truman administration, which saw the creation of the United Nations and the Treaty Organization. These were actions of a President conscious that his Gallup Poll ratings were as low as 32 per cent, that the opposition party had 514- and 218-majorities in the Senate and House, and that they almost everyone to lose the next election.
THE WEAKENING OF Mr. Nixon by Watergate could be an advantage, for it may discourage him from pursuing foreign agendas andgress and the public might later reupdate.
In balance, the effect in foreign capitals is likely also to be beneficial. Though our system has some advantages over parliamentary systems, it has at least one shortcoming. Foreigners tend to perceive the U.S. as a dictatorship rather than a
democracy. Wein dealing with the U.S., foreign officials see chiefly the President and his agents. They usually have little occasion to notice his critics.
Even when the President is not himself deluded as to who is the U.S., foreigners may be. Stalin probably adopted some of the measures that made the Cold War so dangerous, but there are early efforts for accommodation as indications of a settled American policy. He paid too little attention to Polish-Americans and other ethnic groups, Roman Catholics, anti-communist labor leaders, and to those who supported "an affirmation for no," "impasement" of the Soviet Union.
THE VISIBLE WEAKENING of the Presidency as a result of Watergate may cause leaders in the Soviet Union, China, and elsewhere to become more aware that they should not take the words of a president as the words of the U.S. without independent evidence that what he says will be sustained by Congress and the public.
This is not to contend that we would benefit from complete enfeeblement of the Presidency. Nothing in our history suggests that Congress is a better manager of foreign policy. Congressional initiatives produced the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War and various sily actions of the interwar years and later.
If Watergate and other scandals, such as the secret bombing of Cambodia, awaken so much mistrust in President Theodore Roosevelt that interests and policies, we could be in for
Nixon
worse trouble than we have had before. Probably, however, leaders in the House and Senate are wise enough to recognize this danger and avert it either by acting to restore confidence in Mr. Nixon or by insisting on his withdrawal from office. In regard to our foreign relations, Watergate is thus not likely to have a disastrous effect.
IN REGARD TO domestic affairs, on the other hand, the weakening of the two presidents in recent presidents have probably exercised too much independence in dealing with foreign problems, they have almost certainly possessed too little power to cope with the crisis.
Ervin's Sayings Inborn
The Los Angeles Times
Most domestic policies are determined for all practical purposes by agreements between Congressional committees and chiefs in the executive bureaucracy.
Anyone who has watched the Watergate hearings on television is familiar with the backwoods aphorisms of the committee chairman, Sen. Sam Ervin Jr. (D-N.C.). Indeed, some view him as a not-so-spotter of tall tales and Biblical illusions the Senate's foremost constitutional expert? But if this is an act, he has been doing it ever since he was appointed to the Senate in 1954. With the hearings recessed till next month, the Los Angeles Times presents a collection of Ervinias, from then to now.
On lawyers:
The young lawyer said, "But what do you
know about the evidence and the law are
against you?"
The following story is told in North Carolina: A young lawyer went to an old lawyer for advice as to how to try a lawsuit. The old lawyer said, "If the evidence is against you, talk about the law. If the law is against you, talk about the evidence."
On country wisdom:
"In that event," said the old lawyer, "give somebody hell. That will distract the attention of the judge and the jury from the weakness of your case." (1954)
And the reporter said, "Well, you have lived a long, long time and have seen many scenes."
There is an old story that illustrates the reluctance which characterizes all of us in certain areas. A gentleman, who has rather prominent in his community, attained his 95th birthday anniversary. On that day the newspaper reporters came around to interview him. And one of them asked to be he was. He said, "This is my 95th birthday anniversary."
And he said, "Yes, and I was against every one of them." (1961)
Down in my country, an old mountainaire had been buying his grocery on credit. He went in to pay his grocery bill and the storekeeper told him the amount of the
grocery bill. It was more than the mountaineer thought it ought to be, and he protested. The storekeeper brought out his account books and laid them on the counter and said, "There are the figures, and you know figures do not lie."
Yet another potentially troublesome thorn in the side for the Nixon administration will be an investigation into the use of almost $10 million in government funds for improvements on Nixon homesties in an Clemente, Calif., and Key Biscayne, Fla.
House subcommittee will begin an investigation of the spending next month. Whether the impact of the upcoming imposition is not daunting to Presidential prestige as the Watergate revelations of the past summer and spring were may largely depend on public willingness to continue to give Watergate its foremost attention.
A Senate committee is already investigating ITT for allegedly attempting to emulate Central Intelligence Agency aid in the Iranian nuclear program. Allende as President of Chile in 1972.
According to figures released by the General Services Administration, $6.1 million was spent on the San Clemente site, including $1.7 million for the office complex of the Western White House. Another $3.2 million was reported spent on the Key Biscayne site, including funds for a bellcabper and communications.
The mountaineer said, "I know figures do not lie, but liars sure do." (1965)
If I recall my history correctly, Andrew Jackson was once writing a vote message, vetuing an act of Congress that provided for the establishment of a national bank. Andrew Jackson, in his veto message, said that the act was unconstitutional.
His secretary said to Andrew Jackson, "You can't make that statement in that veto message, because a similar act has been before the Supreme Court and its constitution has been upheld by the Supreme Court. You are sworn to uphold the Constitution."
Andy Jackson said, "I am sworn to uphold the constitution as Andy Jackson unconditionally."
With regard to agriculture, for example, every well-informed person recognizes that decisive power lies with career officials in the Agriculture Department, working in tandem with Chairman James Whitney (D-PA) to coordinate the work of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. The President has almost nothing to do with it and could affect it only marginally even if he made a major effort. In varying degrees, similar conditions exist, housing, transportation, health, refuge, housing, transportation, conservation and defense procurement.
Washington why the convention had created the Senate, instead of reposing all legislative power in the House of Representatives. Washington replied: "The Senate is a powerhouse. It might do the same thing that your sauce is doing. You are cooling hot your hot coffee in your saucer. The constitutional convention created the Senate in order that it would be cooled before it is poured down the halls of the people of America." (1963)
Thomas Jefferson asked George
By reorganization, impoundment and other means, Mr. Nixon set out in his second term to acquire for the Presidency some greater capacity to influence policy in these areas. Watergate seems to have killed this venture.
On one occasion the following question was put to Dr. Edward Everett Hale: "Doctor, when you pray as chaplain of the Senate, do you look at the tragic condition of the country and the many problems existing in the country and then pray the圣职 to senators the wisdom to deal with those problems and to find their solutions?"
In reply to that interrogation, Dr. Hale said: "No. I do not look at the country and pray for the senators. I look at the senators and pray for the country." (1966)
As a result of Watergate, Mr. Nixon and his immediate successors may be more aware of their limitations in foreign policy. The United States is also a more realistic view of what the U.S. is.
On the other hand, this President and those who follow him may be even more impotent to act in the interest of the people whose role in regard to areas of domestic policy.
Colson's memo mentioned that these other documents could implicate a number of high government officials in the ITT case, and in Macell, and, in a couple of instances, Nixon.
(a professor of history, Ernest R. May
and the institute of Politics at Harvard
University)
Guest Book at Nixon Birthplace Reflects Opinions on Scandal
By MIKE GOODMAN
The Los Angeles Times
YORBA LINDA, Calif.-The Watergate scandal has even crept into the leather-bound, gold-lettered guest register in a converted phone booth outside the little white frame house where President Nixon was born in 1913.
civil chief of staff, warning of memos written by both ITT and administration officials that might be in the possession of Richard Kleindienst when he appeared before the Senate for confirmation hearings concerning his appointment as Attorney General.
the book's first 40 pages, covering January 1792, to April 1973, contain little comment on Nixon's troubles or triumphs in the 1960s. In "The Failure of Peking-Moscow visits," the 1972 campaign. Aside from an occasional symbol or slogan scrawled in the message space provided next to the roughly 1,200 signatures and addresses, most remarks that will fly.
"You're great, Nixon (10-28-72)."
"Thank God for Mr. Kim (34-47-33)."
"We'll never see you."
several miles off the beaten tourist path to stand outside the unassuming house where a maintenance man and his family now live presumably are devoted Nikon followers.
But beginning Saturday, May 19 (the register is put out sporadically on weekends), two days after the Senate Watergate hearings opened on national television, the register's comments took a different tone:
"Just do your best (5-19-73)."
From Page Five
"Just do your best (5-19-73)."
"Watergate-Waterloo (5-26-73)."
"Just tell the truth (5-27-73)."
"We're behind you 100 per cent (5-27-73)."
The comments reflected more concern in June.
"Get it together, Dick (6-2-73)."
"Get with it, Richard (6-3-73)."
"Impeach him (6-3-73)."
"God guide you and give you the strength to endure (6-17-73)."
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