The Nation: Pat's Acupuncture

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Until the very last moment, Daniel Patrick Moynihan claims, he did not know whether he would quit as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. "I made up my mind 30 times," he said. "It's like Mark Twain said: 'Giving up smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times.' " Last week Moynihan finally made up his mind: he was resigning.

Nobody was more surprised than his boss. Only five days before, Moynihan had assured the President that he would remain at the U.N. On learning the news, Ford frowned and asked, "Why?"

Institutional Loyalty. The answer was complex. Moynihan explained that Harvard insisted on his returning this semester; otherwise, he would lose his tenure. He had been granted two two-year leaves: the first to work as an aide to President Nixon, the second to serve as Ambassador to India. He had only been back one semester when he took the U.N. job. Harvard is insistent on "institutional loyalty," says Harvard Sociologist David Riesman. "There would be not much leeway with anyone, particularly someone like Moynihan who had shown a somewhat tenuous or peripatetic relationship to the institution."* Though he did not mention it, Moynihan may also run for the Senate. He had once said it would be "dishonorable" for him to desert the U.N. to go into politics. The pledge might be mitigated if he spent several intervening months at Harvard. Some New York Democratic leaders have suggested that he would make the strongest candidate against Republican James Buckley.

Moynihan said he was "leaving the door open, without in any way trying to open it myself." But it would hardly contribute to an image of stability for Moynihan to have served at the U.N. for eight months, bounce back to Harvard for a few months and then bounce into New York State politics.

The main reason for Moynihan's resignation, however, was his dispute with many State Department professionals. Henry Kissinger had grown increasingly impatient with the outspoken, unpredictable ambassador, whom he considered to be often out of control. Besides, Kissinger did not like being upstaged by Moynihan. Above all, he was nettled by Moynihan's attacks on the State Department. Says a presidential confidant: "Pat was using political acupuncture on Henry, and Henry finally shrieked."

What finally caused Moynihan to resign, friends say, was a column by New York Timesman James Reston that said "Messrs. Ford and Kissinger support him in public and deplore him in private." Moynihan figured that Kissinger fed that directly to Reston. The day after the column appeared, Moynihan quit. His critics believe he had been looking for just such an excuse.