US: Dr Henry Kissinger, the former United States Secretary of State, regarded other officials who surrounded his boss, President Richard Nixon, as "self-seeking bastards", according to secret files published yesterday. The same files show Dr Kissinger enjoyed an "extraordinarily close" relationship with President Nixon during his time in office.
Secret Foreign and Commonwealth Office files released to the National Archives in Kew, south west London, give a revealing insight into the relationship between Nixon and Dr Kissinger, whom the president appointed as his National Security Advisor after the 1968 election.
Nixon left office in August 1974, the only US president to so resign, as he was about to face criminal indictment for his part in covering up a burglary at the offices of the Democratic Party in Washington's Watergate building. His vice-president, Gerald Ford, took over and pardoned the disgraced Nixon.
Dr Kissinger's private thoughts on Nixon and his coterie are revealed in a letter from John Freeman, the British Ambassador in Washington, to Sir Denis Greenhill, permanent under-secretary at the FCO.
In the letter, dated June 5th, 1970, Mr Freeman recounts a conversation with Dr Kissinger in which the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize winner revealed some of his innermost thoughts about President Nixon.
Mr Freeman, stressing the details were only for "the most restricted readership", described how "Kissinger's main criticism of the President was directed against those who surrounded him. He said: 'I have never met such a gang of self-seeking bastards in my life'." Mr Freeman's letter continued: "When I observed that the same criticism had been levelled at other national leaders and that perhaps this sort of thing was always said, he replied: 'No, I used to find the Kennedy group unattractively narcissistic, but they were idealists. These people are real heels'."