AMERICAN NOTES: Keeping Secrets

• Share

AMERICAN NOTES Keeping Secrets No one knew. Barring some so-far undetected insight by a journalist, diplomat or gypsy fortune teller, Henry Kissinger's excursion to Peking was a stunningly well-kept secret. Ironically, Kissinger's coup came at a time when the Pentagon papers had provoked new debate over secrecy in government. To many, both in and out of government, the documents' publication proved that government security was as leaky as a sieve, thereby endangering U.S. capability of dealing privately with other nations. Actually, the opposite conclusion could be drawn from the fact that the report—the work of more than 30 people—did not come to even semipublic attention for years. At any rate, the mission to Peking proved that the U.S. Government can almost always outfox the world, and especially the press, when it so chooses. Clearly, secrecy is still eminently possible, and so, it would appear, is the skillful practice of U.S. diplomacy.