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Kissinger Scared Away From U-M

Kissinger Scared Away From U-M image Kissinger Scared Away From U-M image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
April
Year
1975
OCR Text

Henry Kissinger isn't coming to Ann Arbor for U-M commencement, and local organizers are declaring a victory. Kissinger announced cancellation of his speech Wednesday in Washington, citing "the press of business."

Meanwhile, plans for a counter-commencement outside Crisler Arena on May 3, the date Kissinger was scheduled to address the 1975 graduating class, are moving ahead. Dick Gregory, Jane Fond and Tom Hayden have tentatively agree to speak, with possibilities for many more. The gathering will celebrate the success of local organizers to "disinvite" Henry, as well as the liberation of Indochina from U.S. control.

Slipping Out Of The Spotlight

The Secretary of State's announcement followed close on the heels of acceptance by nationally known radicals to address the counter commencement. This led to speculation that Kissinger cancelled due to expected mass demonstrations. Since Henry's "tentative" agreement three weeks ago to speak at the University of Michigan graduation, local groups have been organizing against his appearance. The Coalition to "Disinvite" Kissinger had been circulating petitions to protest his invitation by University officials.

The decision to have the Secretary as commencement speaker was settled on by a committee appointed by the Regents, without the advice or consent of the graduating class, nor the University community as a whole. The committee settled on Kissinger from a list compiled by the Regents and the administration. Arch-liberal Kingman Brewster, President of Yale, will speak in Henry's place.

"Kissinger probably had advance agents, like the FBI or the Secret Service, checking out the situation in Ann Arbor," said one organizer. "When they reported that mass protests were likely, Henry may have decided it wouldn't help his already falling image."

The Secretary of State's public image has slipped in recent weeks, with press reports that U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Eliot Richardson, is eyeing the important cabinet position. Other reports cite differences between Ford and Kissinger, as well as animosity between the Secretary and other of Ford's advisors.

Kissinger also lost ground as he continued to press for military aid for Saigon, even when it became obvious to most Americans that no amount of aid would save the Thieu government. His efforts to hamper evacuation of American citizens from the collapsing country have increased Congressional anger towards the foreign policy maker. The failure to initiate talks in the Mideast earlier this month also contributed to Henry's fall from favor.

The Kissinger Contribution

Kissinger's decision not to attend the commencement will probably be a disappointment for many at the ceremony, especially career-oriented graduate, proud parents and generous alumni. After all, up until recently the American public and media stood predominantly in awe of the man. Chalked up to Kissinger's credit were the Strategic Arms Limitations agreements (SALT) and the trade agreements with Russia, as well as the trips to Peking which finally resulted in Richard Nixon's handshakes with the leaders of the Chinese Revolution.

Then there was the jet-stop diplomacy which produced a ceasefire to the 1973 Mid-East War, after that more diplomacy which brought disengagements in the Sinai and along the Golan Heights. And to cap it all, there were the protracted negotiations with North Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government, which ended in the 1973 Paris Peace Accords and a Nobel Peace Prize for Mr. Kissinger. (The North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho refused the prize, because "peace" had not arrived as yet.)

Through all of this, Kissinger not only rose steadily in recognition and popularity, but even managed to retain his image of dignity when most other top Nixon-administration officials were being exposed as common criminals. Despite his close service to the former president, Kissinger became the most visible measure of stability in the government as it was handed over to Gerald Ford.

The Other Side Of The Coin

But recent events, revelations and world movements no longer permit a benign attitude toward Kissinger's appearance. Large numbers of Americans probably first sensed something was wrong in 1973, when it was learned that three and a half years earlier Kissinger had asked for--and received--wiretaps on seventeen newsmen and members of his staff.

The justification for the taps was, naturally enough, national security, but the news leaks the taps were intended to plug seemed to have more to do with Nixon administration subversion than national security. National security was said to be endangered by a New York Times story reporting, for the first time, an action which was being carried on without the knowledge of the American people of the approval of Congress, the secret bombing of Cambodia.

Kissinger turns out to have been the chief architect of U.S. carpet, cluster and napalm bombing of Indochina, especially the Christmas bombing, although he lied about it so we didn't know what was happening and could do nothing to stop it. Kissinger kept U.S. aid continuing to Thieu, in violation of his own accords.

The cost of our commencement guest's policies in Cambodia, according to official U.S. estimates, were one million of Cambodia's seven million people killed, and more than a half of them made refugees. The cost in Vietnam has been even greater, and the torture is only coming to an end now with the demise of two brutal, puppet dictatorships.

Kissinger is also the man who plotted credit sanctions and approved $8 million in CIA expenditures to "destabilize" the Popular Unity government of Chile, then denied that the United States had anything to do with the overthrow of that government until he was exposed last fall.

The result of this policy was a bloody coup, which has protected U.S. (read: Rockefeller) investment at the cost of death, torture and exile for thousands of Chileans, as well as the extinction of the entire nations civil liberties.

In the Middle East, Kissinger's inconclusive and dubious diplomacy hasn't forestalled the threat of another military conflict, but it has spread around enough arms and nuclear plants to help start World War III.

He can also be credited for directing covert support of the white supremacist government in South Africa, several other CIA-supported coups in South America and an unreckonable amount of groundwork for bloody, repressive and mostly secret U.S. interventions in the future.

An end to the lying is nowhere in sight. Contrary to his public word that no secret agreements had been convenanted with Thieu at the time of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, a confidential exchange of letters has just been revealed documenting exactly that.

As the director of U.S. foreign policy and a long-time Rockefeller employee, Kissinger is a threat not only to civil liberties and national self-determination around the world, but to constitutional government in this country. Attorney Mark Lane, in Ann Arbor earlier this month, offered to seek a court order enjoining a war criminal from crossing state lines to incite violence.

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Kissinger

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The Honorable Path

By inviting Kissinger to speak at the spring commencement, the University of Michigan offered to honor and legitimize the chief architect of U.S. foreign policy at a time when this policy's service in the cause of political repression and economic justice is becoming more and more obvious.

In return, the University would have been legitimized by Kissinger, and the benefits are very concrete. Since Class of '34 alumnus Gerald Ford was plucked out of obscurity by Nixon, it should be noted, the University of Michigan has done very well in this regard. The prestige accruing to the University from hosting national leaders means great respect in--and more more money from-- the state legislature as well as from the federal agencies, to say nothing of the alumni.

Besides the glamor which a "star" like Kissinger sheds on the entire University, there also has to be reckoned the effect of Kissinger's visit on University president Robben Fleming. Long at home among mighty men like Robert McNamara, Lynn Townsend of the Chrysler Corporation, and the national education lobby, Mr. Fleming has recently been considered for such important posts as the U.S. Secretary of Labor and the presidency of the University of California system. Although his reputation as a labor and ant-subversion strategist is well established, a successful showdown with the radicals before a national television could have increased his stature.

But all that ends with Kissinger's cancelation. In essence, the radical community won although the University, Kissinger and mostly the mass media will never admit it.