The Secret Life Of Henry Kissinger. (cover story)

MEETINGS; KISSINGER, Henry, 1923-; CONFIDENTIAL communications; PUBLIC officers; PRESIDENTS of the United States; RIGHTS; ATTITUDE (Psychology)

The article focuses on the confidential minutes of a sensitive 1975 meeting of senior State Department officials, presided over by then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and attended by Lawrence Eagleburger, currently U.S. President George Bush's Deputy Secretary of State. The minutes, printed offer a revealing glimpse of the attitudes of these men regarding the public's right to know about policies undertaken in its name, and of the accountability of government officials within a democracy. These minutes seem particularly noteworthy today, as the United States prepares for war in the Middle East.