THE PRESIDENCY by HUGH SIDEY: A Singular Season of Unreality

THE PRESIDENCY / HUGH SIDEY

So far, 1974 has been a charade. From San Clemente to Pennsylvania Avenue, political leaders, the press and sizable portions of the population have been playing one of the most remarkable games in American history.

The game is to make optimistic statements of near-normalcy in the White House and the nation, to print and broadcast them out of a sense of journalistic fairness, and then for some people, out of political loyalty and the fervent hope that believing will be father to fact, to act as if they believe them all.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, dressed in his...