STATEMENT BY SENATOR JAMES ABOUREZK
OPPOSING THE CONFIRMATION OF DR. HENRY KISSINGER TO BE SECRETARY OF STATE

Delivered in the United States Senate

September 21, 1973

MR. PRESIDENT, it has been said that Dr. Kissinger is a clever, witty, urban and intelligent man. It has been written that he is the most capable Cabinet nominee submitted by President Nixon.

Of the arguments advanced by Dr. Kissinger's opposition, any one is sufficient reason, in my opinion, to justify a vote against his confirmation.

Certainly, wiretapping of his own staff, participating in the deception surrounding the Cambodian bombing, all of the deceptions practiced during the Vietnam War, as well as his refusal to resign as a presidential advisor, are acts which I personally believe to be wrong. They are acts which are not compatible with my notion, or the notion of a great majority of my constituents, of what American political leadership ought to be.

Dr. Kissinger was able to negotiate our withdrawal from Vietnam four and one-half years after the withdrawal was promised by the President. Some say, myself included, that the terms--a simple withdrawal in exchange for our prisoners--could have been negotiated at any time within the last 10 years, had there been a desire to do so.

Since World War II the American people have fallen victim to the games of power played by the few government leaders who have controlled our foreign policy. We have seen, since then, decision after decision in foreign policy made in secret, carried out in secret, then presented to the American people as a fait accompli.

By asking for a more open foreign policy, I do not ask that we be made privy to troop movements, or to the location of nuclear warheads. And I do not believe a Secretary of State should be made to call the Foreign Relations Committee every morning for instructions.

But I do ask for openness and honesty in the basic decision, making process. If the Congress and the American people had been able to