FIRST LINE REPORT

WITH MARVIN KALB

AUGUST 3, 1973

MARVIN KALB: Good morning. Henry Kissinger speaks out not on Watergate but around it. That in one minute.

(Announcement)

MARVIN KALB: Henry Kissinger received a silver cup last night, a tribute to his achievements in foreign policy. He was the main speaker at the 71st Annual Convention of the International Platform Association. A ballroom full of people stood up and applauded as he entered, and as he left after delivering a 21-minute speech which never once mentioned Watergate, but which waltzed around this national trauma, a rhetorical minuet.

Not that the people there were unaware of Watergate; but, rather, that they were still able to be dazzled by a famous name and a famous reputation and a famous accent. The women in the audience were especially attentive, not to his message, necessarily, but to his manner and his smile.

When one speaker alluded to Kissinger's interest in the finer things of life, the women laughed appreciatively, not needing any translation. The men listened and nodded wisely.

Kissinger received a Theodore Roosevelt award for public service, and he reached back into history for an 1899 quote from a Roosevelt speech. "Far better it is to dare mighty things," Roosevelt said, "to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the great twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

This was no allusion to Watergate, but the Kissinger belief, even in these days of trial, that America is herself when she is self-confident and buoyant and dashing; not herself when she is uncertain, doubting, traumatized, plunged into an ordeal of political chicanery, a whole nation of different peoples and persuasions banded together in pursuit of a common aim.

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That is Kissinger's vision of America, and it was clear
from his comments last night that that is not his current vis-
ion of his adopted nation. Rather, Kissinger described that
nation as exhausted, battered and beaten down, not by a
foreign foe but by a domestic anguish that, in Kissinger's view,
could destroy his foreign policy achievements, the end to the
Vietnam War, the opening to China, the improvement in relations
with Russia, the revitalizing of old alliances, although this
last point is more rhetorical than real.

One might have thought that by now Kissinger would
be singing and swimming alone, riding the crest of popular
adulation and national unity, but he sees the opposite. He
was quoted recently as saying, "Watergate is our Dunkirk,"
the domestic defeat that could tear down his world edifice.

In last night's address, unlike one four months ago,
Kissinger did not appeal for compassion; the country is beyond
that. He appealed, instead, for a continuing commitment to
common foreign policy aims. "There can be no moratorium," he
said, "in the press for a peaceful world." He seemed to be
asking for the impossible; that people, fed up and disgusted
with all the political shenanigans and illegalities known as
Watergate, could left their sights as one man and lock beyond
Watergate to the ongoing fortunes of the nation. Kissinger
feels this is a unique moment, a time when the United States
can really help create a whole generation of peace, and yet
he fears that this aim, while worthwhile, may be unattainable
because of Watergate, disrupted and destroyed because, by
definition, a nation in convulsion cannot suppress its misery
to walk in triumph toward a new day.

###

[LC]

010A

KISSINGER 8-3

DAY LD

HAK
Scowcroft
LL

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- HENRY A. KISSINGER SAYS THE UNITED STATES MUST NOT ALLOW THE IMPACT OF A "DECADE OF TRAGEDY AND TRAUMA" TO LEAD IT TO ABANDON ITS INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

KISSINGER, PRESIDENT NIXON'S CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS ADVISER, SAID IN A SPEECH THURSDAY NIGHT THE UNITED STATES FACES A "HISTORIC MOMENT," NOT LIKELY TO RETURN, DURING WHICH IT CAN HELP BUILD A STABLE WORLD ORDER.

DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE PAST FOUR YEARS PRESENT A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY FOR ABANDONING "CRISIS MANAGEMENT" FOR A STABLE STRUCTURE OF PEACE, KISSINGER SAID. HE MENTIONED THE WINDING DOWN OF THE WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, THE NEW RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHINA AND THE SOVIET UNION, AND THE RESURGENCE OF EUROPE AND JAPAN.

HOWEVER, KISSINGER SAID, THE UNITED STATES APPEARS TO BE TURNING TOWARD ISOLATIONISM.

"BOTH SELF-CONFIDENCE AND OPTIMISM ARE LESS IN EVIDENCE TODAY," HE SAID. "THE CONSENSUS THAT SUSTAINED OUR INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION IS IN DANGER OF BEING EXHAUSTED. IT MUST BE RESTORED."

CONTRIBUTING TO THE SENSE OF UNCERTAINTY, KISSINGER SAID, WERE A SERIES OF TRAGIC EVENTS OVER THE PAST DECADE--THE ASSASSINATIONS OF THE KENNEDY BROTHERS AND MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AND THE UNPOPULAR WAR IN INDOCHINA.

"THE IMPACT OF THIS DECADE OF TRAGEDY AND TRAUMA HAS BEEN FROFOUND," KISSINGER SAID IN HIS SPEECH TO A BANQUET OF THE INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM ASSOCIATION.

"WE ARE TIRED OF TURMOIL AND EXHAUSTED BY EFFORT. THE ONCE-APPARENT RESERVOIR OF FAITH IN OUR ABILITY TO DO, AND OF CONFIDENCE THAT THE FUTURE WOULD BE BETTER THAN THE PAST, HAS BEEN SERIOUSLY TAXED."

BUT, KISSINGER SAID, "OUR CHILDREN WILL NOT JUDGE US BY THE MAGNITUDE OF OUR ORDEAL BUT ONLY BY THE ADEQUACY OF THE RESPONSE."

IF THE UNITED STATES FAILS TO DO ITS DUTY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, KISSINGER SAID, THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE BORNE "NOT BY THIS ADMINISTRATION BUT BY ITS SUCCESSORS IN THE DECADES TO COME, NOT BY OUR CONTEMPORARIES BUT BY FUTURE GENERATIONS."

THE PLATFORM ASSOCIATION GAVE KISSINGER ITS THEODORE ROOSEVELT AWARD. IT IS GIVEN EACH YEAR TO AN OUTSTANDING OFFICIAL IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

UPI 08-03 01:05 AED

MEMORANDUM

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

July 31, 1973

**MEMORANDUM FOR:** HENRY A. KISSINGER

**FROM:** RICHARD P. CAMPBELL

**SUBJECT:** International Platform Association Award Dinner, August 2, 1973

**Time and Place:** Sheraton-Park Hotel
6:30 p.m. - Cocktails
7:15 p.m. - Dinner (black tie)

**Press Coverage:** Heavy TV and radio as well as normal press coverage. TV will be sound on film.

**Your Remarks:** You are to make 10 minutes of remarks and field questions (which have been submitted in writing) for 10 minutes before dinner.

**The Award:** The award is the Theodore Roosevelt Award for "The Most Outstanding Official in the U.S. Government." It will be presented by Alice Roosevelt Longworth with Lowell Thomas acting as Master of Ceremonies. It has not been announced that you are to be the recipient of the Award. Last year's award went to President Nixon. Other previous award winners are:

* Lowell Thomas
* John F. Kennedy
* Lyndon Johnson
* Ralph Nader
* Bob Hope
* Lawrence Spivak
* Admiral Rickover
* Victor Borge

**The Audience:** The audience will consist of 1,000 - 1,500 officers and directors in organizations throughout the country (executive and service

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clubs, men and women's clubs, forums, town halls, chambers
of commerce, colleges, etc.) that import speakers from out of town.

**The Organization:** The International Platform Association has since its formation by Daniel Webster 150 years ago been the professional association of those who run the thousands of organizations which compose the American Lecture Platform. Its nationwide membership is close to 13,000. Every U.S. president has belonged to the IPA and many have addressed it.

MEMORANDUM

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

August 2, 1973

MEMORANDUM FOR: MR. KISSINGER

FROM: R. P. CAMPBELL

SUBJECT: International Platform Association Program

Tonight at the dinner there will be several minor awards preceding your award. Lowell Thomas will then introduce Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Following her introduction, Archie Roosevelt will make the oral presentation of your award, with the bowl actually being handed to you by Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Your remarks will follow.

The following is a list of people at the Head Table, in the order in which they will sit:

* Chaplain Elson
* Ted Mack
* Archibald Roosevelt
* Mayor Bradley of Los Angeles
* Mrs. Drew Pearson
* Dan Moore (President of IPA)
* Lowell Thomas
* Mr. Kissinger
* Alice Roosevelt Longworth
* Dan Moore, Jr.
* Mrs. Archibald Roosevelt
* Daniel Phillips