America has been inescapably hurt

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33230, 21 May 1973, Page 13

America has been inescapably hurt

(By

C. L. SULZBERGER.

of the "New York Times" throught N.Z.P.A.)

PARIS, May 20.

Like the word “Vietnam,” with which it has curiously managed to get entangled, “Watergate” has developed into a sort of code symbol for Ame ricans’ disgrunt lenient with themselves, their leaders, and their destiny — disgruntlement on a scale transcending both in scope and in intensity even the sordid tragi-comedy itself.

A smelly political, moral, and legal scandal has become involved with important issues of national security! and foreign policy, with the) purposes of the United I States, and with bitter de-1 bates about the Constitutioni and the powers assigned to

I the three branches of the ! Government.

By now the whole affair seems tied, willy nilly, to things unrelated to Watergate, like legislative efforts to control United States diplomacy, executive authority to take military actions, and the question of how far special agencies may go in efforts to safeguard national security. Moreover, the evident popular disillusionment and confusion has damaged the nation abroad. Foreign investment in the United States has apparently been drawn down extensively in recent weeks, helping to raise the spectre of economic trouble, to enfeeble the position of the dollar, and to encourage the likelihood of a third, and needless, monetary crisis.

The international stature of the United States has been inescapably hurt. Although the outer world is both more puzzled and less concerned than Ameri-

cans about the Watergate affair and its weird ramifications, it sees a weakening in President Nixon’s authority, and, therefore, in his ability to act on issues which matter most to other countries. The mess that has tarnished the White House fanned a Congressional revolt |— just as Vietnam policy helped to fan a conflict between the generations during the Johnson Administration; and that Congressional revolt has endangered President !Nixon’s efforts to complete I the Indo-China settlement. Historians looking back on 'the 1963-1973 decade, begin!ning with the assassination of President Kennedy and featuring the murders of his brother and Dr Martin Luther King, and thb shooting of Governor Wallace, may perhaps perceive a pattern connecting the chain of disturbances finally punctuated by the Watergate mess. Is it too much to say that the succession of American tragedies canw when an

American dream began to vanish?

The United States dimly became aware that the American century’ forecast after the Second World War was both a misjudgment and a misnomer, the emotional American people turned their disappointed dream into a nightmare. The United States had not sought power: it was thrust upon a nation neither psychologically nor politically ready for it. Efforts by successive presidents — Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson — to rally public support for such a concept were of limited duration. Indeed, President Nixon’s principal role seems to have been an attempt to tailor inherited ambitions to reality. The thought that a pax Americana would be supported for any appreciable period of time proved delusory. The country’s diplomatic commitments were over--extended by pactomania The | country’s military establish-

ment was over-extended in terms of what people were ready to accept. The country's generosity was over--extended in terms of foreign laid.

One consequence w r as that the dollar, which had become a token even more important than gold, was immensely over-valued.

Orderly efforts to adjust this swollen position which, it now becomes clear, the majority of Americans no longer endorse, have been deeply disturbed by movements historians will associate with those two codewords, “Vietnam” and “Watergate.” An unpopular war of a sort unfamiliar to Americans, who had never tasted defeat and could not imagine it. was swiftly succeeded by an unpopular political scandal of a sort that was also unfamiliar and which tarnished the Presidential myth. This, in turn, managed to Trigger off latent discontent Watergate has become

famous even among peoples who have no idea what it implies, and there is grave risk that America will have to pay heavily abroad for this.

I Certainly, w'hen Mr BrezhInev comes to Washington next month, he will have in 'his pocket higher asking ■prices for bargains he hopes Ito finalise.

Chou- En-lai has subtly needled his friends in the White House about evolving policy toward Japan. West Europe, girding herself for another raid on the dollar, is showering scepticism on American intentions to back up the Atlantic alli- ! ance.

I Indo-China once again (threatens to come apart as -suspicion grows that the United States is after all, not I only a paper tiger, but a tatjtered one at that. I And the Middle East and Africa show new signs of (volatile fury.

Where, and when, will it all end?