in Iran went virtually unnoticed and unreported, and Khomeini's international support was downplayed - by
The US was the only country surprised by the overthrow of the Shah and the Revolution which brought in the Ayatollah, changing the balance of power forever in the Middle East, and opening the door to political power for radical Muslim Mullahs and radical Islamists -- a political dilemma which may lead to a global war.
The unforeseen consequence of this diplomatic blunder was the displacement of the Shah, who would then be replaced by Saudi Arabia as the dominant force in the Middle East.
[Jimmy Carter, after promising the Shah a US Safehaven, would later covertly offer to return the Shah to Iran for trial in exchange for release of US hostages; interestingly, Noriega wire-tapped Carter's negotiations with the Iranians, alerted the Shah, and offered him safety in Panama. (that's another story)]
The Director of Central Intelligence [and CIA] {DCI},
Richard Helms, was by-passed by Kissinger, who succeeded in excluding Helms from the National Security Council and access to the Oval Office. A series of leaks --
believed to be via Kissinger -- regarding CIA activities and operations, made their way to the Media - resulting in Media-hyped scandals leading to a series of Congressional investigations.
To help maneuver Helms out of the way, Kissinger brought in as Deputy DCI (DDCI), Vernon Walters, the affable Military Attache' in Paris who had smuggled Kissinger into Paris for his secret meetings with North Vietnamese officials; in the absence of Helms, Walters became the acting DCI. As DDCI, Walters could manage the CIA while Helms was distracted by Kissinger's political intrigue.
Kissinger assumed the position of Secretary of State after forcing the resignation of the highly skilled diplomat,
William Rogers. The Intelligence Community recognized that Kissinger's elevated status would give him unprecedented power to destroy intelligence and subvert National Security. He had succeeded in displacing both the
Director of Central Intelligence as well as the
Secretary of State, thus becoming Nixon's principal foreign policy advisor and his only link to the international community.
Ultimately, the
Church Committee established Congressional oversight over CIA's operations, severely restricting the capabilities of the US Intelligence Community -- albeit with only a few positive reforms.
With Helms disgraced by the flood of leaks about the CIA, Kissinger persuaded Nixon to demote Helms and reassign him in 1973 as Ambassador to Iran -- where Kissinger, as Secretary of State, could control him.
[Kissinger had also ordered the termination in Iran of all HUMINT and NSA operations, removing all early indicators of the growing influence of the Ayatollah whose rise to political and religious ascendency would disrupt Iranian stability and eventually would force the Shah to abdicate]
That left a gap in CIA leadership - filled by LTG Vernon Walters.
This was the basis for the Watergate Conspiracy, which was already well underway.
Kissinger was completely insulated since he could, and did, as Nixon's Gatekeeper, limit access to the President, so any attempt by anyone outside the White House to persuade Nixon of Henry's destructive actions would be short-stopped, and the messenger would be terminated.
The Washington Leadership [political, Intelligence, and Military, all recognized that Kissinger was succeeding in an ultimate power-grab in which he would control the State Department, CIA, and the Oval Office - manipulating Nixon. And, the only way to neutralize Kissinger was to dislodge Nixon.
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Vernon Walters
[Meet the REAL Deep Throat] |
Walters was one of the most respected officers in the Military as well as in the Intelligence Community, having been a key operative in the
OSS during WW2, and notable for creating operations which remain classified even today.
[NOTE: I worked for General Walters (directly and indirectly at the State Department) while he was President Reagan's Ambassador at Large. He was a major force in later helping me to create the Defense Clandestine Service.]
Kissinger presumed Walters to be an ally since Walters commiserated with Kissinger on CIA problems. Once installed as
acting DCI, Walters was accepted at the Oval Office, and the White House advisors liked and admired him because of his jocularity and intellect.
 |
Hoover
Beloved by No-One |
Coincidentally,
J Edgar Hoover died, conveniently (
he had been in excellent
health but succumbed to a Breitbart-style heart stoppage), a month before the break-in,
thus he was unavailable to lead an FBI investigation into the Watergate event.
At
the suggestion of Helms' Deputy Director, Nixon appointed
L Patrick Gray, an inexperienced DOJ lawyer, by-passing
Mark Felt [who would later be
dubbed (mistakenly) as
Deep Throat].
As acting Director [DCI] of all US Intelligence agencies, Walters ensured that the FBI was kept out of any meaningful investigative role in Watergate; instead, he personally provided a programmed feed to the FBI's new Director Gray.
What no one realized was that Walters was orchestrating the entire Watergate debacle with Washington Post Editor, including the leaks to Bob Woodward, and even to Mark Felt.
The anomalies of the scandal, though crystal clear to Intelligence officers, never got in the way of the
Washington Post reporting - orchestrated by Walters, and
Ed Bradley, the Managing Editor of T
he Washington Post.
[
Note: Much later, Woodward (hyping his book) appeared as a guest speaker at the National Press Club (where I co-chaired the National Journalism Awards). I took the opportunity to introduce myself while he paraded around with the guests; so I took the opportunity to ask him if he continued his relationship with Vernon Walters after the Watergate Sting was concluded. Oddly, his face turned bright red and he stormed out of the Press Club, and I did not receive an answer to my question.]
The Event [aka: The Sting]:
On 17 June 1972, five men were arrested for breaking and entering the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate complex.
a. They were discovered after a well-meaning but inept building security guard found the
door to the office repeatedly propped open with tape -- which he removed, each time
re-locking the door, and each time, the tape was replaced and propped open again
-- guaranteeing their discovery.
b. Cash found on the burglars was somehow connected by the FBI to a GOP Reelection
Committee Slush Fund.
[
Interesting forensics there, even for today's experts and technology.]
c. The burglars' expertise included senior career intelligence officers notable for their
experience in
second story Black Ops, to include weapons, demolitions, surreptitious entry,
PsyOps, special security, money laundering, espionage, and assassinations.
[Why were highly skilled, senior level intelligence operatives involved in a simple break-in?]
These guys were all highly experienced spooks, e.g.,
(1)
G Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent, directed "
The Plumbers"
to break in to the
DNC Watergate office.
 |
| G Gordon Liddy |
(2)
James McCord had been an FBI security expert and
also headed CIA security;
(3)
Frank Sturgis, with 30 years experience, had served as
a Marine in WWII, operating behind enemy lines. He ran
covert operations in Communist Berlin, and infiltrated
Fidel Castro's inner circle.
(4)
Bernard Barker, was a veteran of
Operation 40,
the
Bay of Pigs, and
Cuban Secret Police.
d. Nixon commented, upon learning of the event:
"It sounded preposterous.
The whole thing made so little sense. Why in such a
blundering way? Anyone who knew anything about
politics would know that a national committee headquarters was a useless place place to go for inside information.
The whole thing was so senseless and bungled that it
almost looked like some kind of set-up."
 |
Cub Reporters
Breaking News |
e. Two
Washington Post cub reporters,
Woodward and Bernstein,
just happened to be assigned to
Night Court to witness the five burglars being charged.
1) Interestingly, Woodward had recently been released from US Naval Intelligence as a junior officer)
(2) Oddly, the intelligence operatives, who had lived both covert and clandestine existences and were completely used to subterfuge, cover identities, arrests, torture, and lying their way out of similar situations, immediately blurted out in
Night Court that they worked for the CIA.
(3) Standard procedure in this type of situation would have been a quick phone call, a release in anonymity -- and then to disappear forever.
(4) Instead, trained, experienced professional spooks spilled their guts in front of two cub reporters, without any prompting, much less an inquiry by the judge.
(5) The only conclusion, from an intelligence perspective, is that these
Plumbers had purposely made a series of highly visible blunders and left a paper trail that a
Cub Scout/Reporter could have followed, creating a highly visible story for them to report.
[But, that would not have eliminated Kissinger, and fortunately,
the naive Woodward and Bernstein were artfully manipulated by Walters and Bradlee.]
 |
Spookdblog debriefing
"WaPo Editor" Ben Bradlee
at the National Press Club |
Thus, the bait was set, Woodward and Bernstein ran with it,
Ben Bradlee blessed it [
in collusion with Walters] and the story grew legs.
[Bradlee was well acquainted with the Intelligence Community and despised Kissinger, and was only too happy to assist.]
Each time the story got stale, our erstwhile reporters were fed some new tidbits and leads by Bradlee, who was fed by Walters - who would then meet covertly with reporter Woodward. [Bradlee told me he regarded Woodward and Bernstein as Useful Idiots.
Meanwhile Congressmen and Senators were urged into outrage and action, until finally, Nixon was forced to resign.
[As a sidelight, the Impeachment investigation included Hillary Clinton's Obstruction of Justice in which she concealed exculpatory evidence from Chief Counsel Zeifman; so, it seems her political corruption record goes back to Watergate]
Kissinger, a Deep State/Shadow Government operative, who had managed the demise of a number of developing countries for the Deep State, was the intended target of this scheme, nimbly exited the Oval Office "Conspiracy Group" to the safety of the Seventh Floor of the State Department, where he could claim ignorance of the alleged plot and crime.
Although Kissinger escaped removal from White House power, his true power base, Nixon, was neutralized. In the final analysis, the Deep State/Shadow Government succeeded in removing both Kissinger and Nixon, and replacing Nixon with Ford, who was a willing stooge for the Deep State and the Shadow Government.
Even so, Kissinger continued to influence foreign policy, but he was not afforded special status by President Ford, who made it a point to regard Kissinger as nothing more than a bothersome popinjay. Kissinger also found himself exiled from the National Security Council.
Such events, once set in motion, are subject to the
Law of Unintended Consequences.
The CIA was not spared its dismantling and the gutting of the
Directorate of Clandestine Services, first by Kissinger, and then by his successor and protege,
Zbigniew Brzesinski; and finally, Carter's DCI,
Stansfield Turner, who delivered the
coup de grace by firing 800 Clandestine Service operatives, world-wide. By the time Reagan took office, the US Human Intelligence capability had been virtually destroyed.
Footnote:
There are those who believe that
Nelson Rockefeller played a role in manipulating the situation to dislodge Nixon and open a path through which he could take to the Oval Office [
i.e., as Vice President]. There may be some truth to that premise, but, Ford did not win re-election, closing that door to Rockefeller, who later died unexpectedly of "
heart stoppage"-- perhaps of the
Breitbart Syndrome.
Predictably, Kissinger continued to pontificate on foreign policy and influences the Media, though most experienced policy-makers regard him as a buffoon. At the first hint of an international crisis, he was been known to show up at local TV stations, demanding that they interview him. Many now ignore him.
[Update: unfortunately, he apparently has advocates in the Trump Administration, which throws us into a panic!]
Kissinger's legacy:
1) The Domino Theory fulfilled, to include the Communization of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
-- notably the Killing Fields leaving millions of dead and suffering in Cambodia.2) Following Kissinger's removal of US Military and all Intelligence operations in Asia,
he sent a letter to Chou en Lai, advising the US would not object if China were to
"expand its influence into Southeast Asia", Chinese troops invaded northern Thailand in 1975
from Laos [but were defeated by troops from Thailand, Taiwan, and Burma].
2) Middle East turmoil immersed in Muslim extremism which is spreading throughout the
Middle East and Muslim countries around the world.
3) Destruction of the US strategic capability in clandestine and covert Human Intelligence
eliminating predictive intelligence in the Middle East and the Far East.
 |
Grigori Rasputin
[Reincarnated as Kissiinger?] |
4) There are those who speculate that Kissinger is the reincarnation of Grigori Rasputin, the confidant of the Tsarist family, and acting "
Tsar"with
Empress Alexandra while Emperor Nicholas was leading his Military in World War 1.
Rasputin was loathed by all [except the Empress];
he essentially disrupted and destroyed the Tsarist government,
leading to the
Bolshevik [communist] overthrow of the
Comparisons of Kissinger with Rasputin seem quite accurate
in that both manipulated their way into the most senior levels
of power and influenced the erosion of both power structures.
The KGB could not have been more effective in
destroying the US Intelligence capability
if they had hired Kissinger themselves
