Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 46

Perspective 6 2 Tr.De, October 23, 1373 Frank Starr James Resion Stayskal -Li YA Daily crises only add to suspicions Terms for Agnew prove to be wise Seen from today's vantage' point, Richardson seemed as close to clairvoyant as one can be for, with the impeachment of the President now a live issue, prolonged uncertainty over the status of the Vice President would certainly have been unbearable. And if there was any doubt about that, the Soviet scare that attended Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's press conference on Thursday must have swept it away. For the first time, tough, blunt questions about the President's ability WASHINGTON- If the past week'i events did nothing eUe, they demonstrated the wisdom of an Elliot Richardson decision that at the time was greeted with healthy skepticism. When he agreed nearly three weeks ago to let Spiro Agnew off with a no-contest plea on one count of tax evasion despite massive evidence of other violations, it was agreed that this represented cronyism at its worst. Indeed it seemed so, for certainly you or I in similar circumstances would not have been offered a similar chance, and the argument that it was done "in the national interest" was like a handful of smoke.

THAT VAGUE ronrrpt. the national interest." has been so abused by so many officials who claim clairvoyant ability to identify "the national interest" at the drop of a hat only to do something unpopular under its name that it is and should be greeted more often than not with suspicion. But events have borne out the decision of the former attorney general. Richardson's argument was that it was not in the nation's interest to undergo the prolonged grand jury investigation, indictment, trial, sentencing, impeachment, and possibly a constitutional struggle over whether impeachment or conviction comes first. Seen from today's vantage point, Richardson seemed to be as clairvoyant as one can be.

"Saturday night special, Sunday night special, Monday night special, Tuesday night special Wayne Stayskal is on vacation. This cartoon previously appeared in Chicago Today. between the White House and the Kremlin, the trustful personal relations between Kissinger and Ambassador An-atoly F. Dobrynin of the Soviet Union, and the new "partnership for peace" between the U. S.

and the U. S. S. are we to believe that the only way Nixon can send Brezhnev the message is to put American forces all over the world on alert? Secretary of State Kissinger apparently believes the answer is yes. When all the facts can be made known, he told the reporters, "I'm absolutely confident that it will be seen that the President had no other choice as a responsible national leader." If this is the kind of world we're living in, the crisis of confidence in the administration at home is all the more serious.

For even when he is faced with a genuine problem, as he was In the Soviet maneuvers in the middle of the night, he is accused of handling it in a spectacular way to defend himself. If he had made any one of the concessions he was forced to make under fire, he might have avoided the present poisonous atmosphere. But now if he hands over the tapes, people say he has doctored them, and even when he staggers from one move to another, he is met with the cynical remark: "A crisis a day keeps impeachment away." "It is a symptom of what is happening to our country," Kissinger said in his press conference, "that it could even be suggested that the United States would alert its forces for domestic reasons." One reporter asked Kissinger If the Soviets thought the President was so weakened that they could take advantage of his weakness, and the secretary of State didn't dismiss the notion. "Speculation about motives is always dangerous," he said, "but one cannot have crises of authority in a society for a period of months without paying a price somewhere along the line." THE PRICE at home, however, is higher than the price abroad. Overseas, Nixon still has immense power, and when he deploys it, skillfully or otherwise, he can still get results, as the improving Middle East situation demonstrates.

Not so in Washington. "There has to be a minimum of confidence," Kissinger said, "that the senior officials of the American government are not playing with the lives of the American people." This is precisely true, and the tragedy is that even in this latest Middle East crisis, the President didn't get that "minimum of confidence," which is why, even when his brinkmanship works, the movement for a new government goes on. New York Times News Service WASHIXGTON-The main thing is that a direct confrontation between the policies and military forces of the United States and the Soviet Union in the Middle East has been avoided for the time being, but you have to wonder how long the American people are going to be dragged along the brink by a jumpy government they no longer trust This town is seething with doubt and suspicion. The Watergate scandals, the disgrace of Vice President Agnew, the resignation of Richardson, the firing of Cox and Ruckelshaus, the indictments of Cabinet officers and White House aides, and the endless rumors of financial fiddling have taken their tolL The impression given here is of an uncertain administration, defying the courts and Congress one day and submitting the next, announcing Presidential speeches or press conferences in the morning and canceling them in the afternoon, giving promises and breaking them, and overreacting to imagined conspiracies at home and imminent catastrophies abroad. LET US assume, as I do, that the President ordered a worldwide alert of U.

S. military forrcs solely because he had genuine reasons for believing that the Soviet Union was about to send Soviet troops into the Middle East. Assume also that this dramatic move was no contrivance to divert attention from the President's domestic troubles. Things are bad enough without Inventing dishonorable motives that can't be proved. The administration did not say so directly, but the fact is that it did have solid information: That the U.

S. S. R. had put seven air-borne divisions on "high alert." That the big transports that had been air-lifting war material from the Soviet Union to Egypt were suddenly withdrawn. That these transports were diverted to the Soviet Union close to the places where the seven Soviet air-borne divisions were located.

Also Soviet diplomats, furious at the Israelis for grabbing more territory after the cease-fire, began talking in rough and threatening tones, and Sen. Scoop Jackson of Washington reports that Moscow delivered a highly ominous note to the U. S. on the eve of the U. S.

military alert. This was obviously a delicate moment. The Soviets were either maneuvering to scare the Israelis back to the cease-fire lines, a typical use of Soviet power, or they were preparing to occupy Egypt, destroy the detente with Washington, and even risk war with the U. S. The President chose to assume the worst.

He did not merely alert the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean; he alerted everything worldwide, and this raises some interesting questions. After all we have heard about the "hot line" Between the lines 7 to govern not only at home but to carry the country thru an international crisis were raised publicly. That amounted to an absolute nadir of confidence in the nation's President and his authority, and in those circumstances the office of the Vice President, historically maligned and belittled, becomes vital indeed. If there is such doubt about the President's ability to govern justified or not that resignation and impeachment are seriously discussed as they are now, uncertainty about a Vice President is unacceptable. The Congress may consider itself fortunate that it had a constitutionally nominated candidate before it for consideration before the impeachment question became so serious.

For a nomination by a President squarely facing the possibility of impeachment proceedings or by a speaker of the House serving as President would raise more questions. IT REMAINS true, as it was when he was nominated, that Gerald Ford was probably the best choice the President could make, trusted by both sides of the Congress, acceptable to his party, not a likely contender for the 1976 Presidential nomination, and apparently clean. That is, of course, a question that must be pursued thoroly and settled promptly, and some 60 FBI agents are prowling his native Grand Rapids as an audit team scours his records. House Speaker Carl Albert, to his credit, has said the Judiciary Committee must get on with the confirmation of Ford assuming the agents find nothing unfavorable without delay and without reference to the impeachment proceeding. He is right.

Two Soviet newsmen recently wrote an article about their recent crosscountry auto tour of the United States. They admired all the sights but saw things American travelers overlook: Evidence of a repressive capitalist society. Some excerpts: "Woods and meadows ran alongside the road, but no one in America would think of stopping at will, stretching out on the grass, unwrapping food or going into the woods in search of berries. Private property!" "The roads were spotless. No paper debris, cans, or even cigaret butts.

We saw the sign everywhere: 'Keep America Doubtless, it was effective, but just as often we saw the strict, laconic line: 'For litter, $100 This operates even more effectively." Services that help college students write term papers and cram for exams are common and controversial, but who'd have thought similar if less comprehensive help was available to grade schoolers? The service is operated by Bobley Publishing Co. For $., a pupil can subscribe to the Student's Grade Improvement Program and get research on five subjects a school year. "We're not a homework mill or a term-paper mill." said Bobley's Edward Bobley, president of the Woodbury, Long Island, N. firm. But isn't it possible some kids turn in the material as their own, just like the big kids in college? "Even if they do steal some of it," says Bobley, "they learn something from copying it.

But that's not our purpose." appears Nick Thimmesch James Reston's column ilarly in Chicago Today. Vernon Jarrett CIA quietly tries to regain its composure i 'm ir' iiii New realty law has hidden intent nomic questions because the power game in the world today moves toward that area. The CIA also collects such seeming trivia as depths of harbors, the conditions of caves, and biographical information about officialdom of every nation in the world. The United States, like all major nations, had an intelligence-collecting service thru its history, but it wasn't until the intelligence disaster accompanying Pearl Harbor that we realized the need for a central information-collecting agency. There are eight major intelligence-gathering units in the U.

S. government, but the CIA and the FBI have to be considered the key ones. Of the estimated $4 to $5 billion spent across the government on intelligence, the CIA receives about $500 million. The CIA, because it is supersecret, is credited or blamed for all manner of events. When Colby testified in Senate confirmation hearings, he had to deny that the CIA engineered the 1967 coup in Greece, ousted Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk, made a private deal with Cambodian Premier Lon Nol, and conducted the Phoenix program in Viet Nam as one of assassination.

Denials aside, what's important is that many Americans and certainly the majority of young people believe the CIA is responsible for these acts and more. The CIA has few opportunities or forums to make denials and is vulnerable on this score. One consequence is that the CIA has a difficult time signing on the "cream" of college graduates. ALL MAJOR nations and many minor ones have their CIAs. The Soviets have their KGB and GPU, France has its SDEC Service for Documentation and Counter-Espionage.

The British won't admit to anything, but M-6 is their CIA, and its director, Maurice Oldfield, had to leave his post recently when his name was publicly revealed his "cover" was blown. Perhaps one sign of the times concerning the CIA is the one put up this summer on the highway leading to its huge central building here. The sign, which directs traffic, is the first CIA sign ever seen in these parts, tho thousands of people drive to work at the CIA each day. Los Angeles Times Syndicate Kissinger and others in the administration haven't been satisfied with the usefulness of information provided by the CIA, particularly that coming out of the agency's top study unit, the Office of National Estimates. That body is about to be abolished, and some critics claim this means the CIA will consequently be less objective in its evaluations for the White House and State Department.

The CIA also seems to have pulled back from clandestine operations which, while forming only a small part of its overall activity, brought the agency an aura of intrigue and adventure and also fierce criticism. The CIA's role in toppling governments has always been exaggerated, but even in its current "hold-down" phase, officials have not dismissed the possibility of such activities in the future. The CIA's basic work is just what its title denotes an information-collecting agency but one unsurpassed in the world. Its staff tends to be more academic than spy-master types. Indeed, some 21 per cent hold advanced degrees, and fully one-third come from the social sciences.

Increasingly, CIA staffers concern themselves with eco LANGLEY, a middle-age gent which it is forced to suddenly run, the Central Intelligence Agency is catching its breath these days following a series of disquieting experiences. Since it was established in 1947, the CIA has always been able to blunt congressional criticism, shield its staff and budget figures, win loyal support from Presidents, and otherwise work in relative secrecy. The very nature of this organization makes powerful people curious and resentful when they can't find out what's going on. But in recent months, its role in the Laotian war, the bad luck the agency fell into in the Watergate affair, hefty manpower cuts, and the departure of two directors within six months left the CIA gasping, if this silent agency could gasp at all. ITS NEW DIRECTOR, William Egan Colby, 53, an old pro who describes his job as "hiring out," has been a settling influence since he took over last month.

His predecessor, James R. Schlesinger, in the few months he was in office, severed some 1,000 people from a payroll estimated at 18,000 and indicated changes designed to please Dr. Henry A. Kissinger. cense of a realty broker who dares negotiate the sale of a home to a black person buying in an all-white community.

The only thing required is for an angry group of whites in such a community to bring charges of racial "panic peddling" before the state's Department of Education and Registration. The department's hearing officer may hear the charges and bring them before the department's special real estate commission, which has the power to suspend licenses. What is panic peddling? The realtors that wrote the law say its the use of "race, color, or religion, or national origin" to create "alarm or fear" among residents of all white or predominantly white areas where blacks are most likely to seek homes. The law doesn't use such words as "white" and "black." But the implication is quite specific. This law is designed to create fear and panic among nondiscriminatory brokers in order to ease panic in white communities that can tolerate the presence of perverts and mobsters but quiver at the thought of an award-winning black chemist living in "their" neighborhood.

IT IS INTERESTING that the Chicago Real Estate Board helped contrive this new law. The Chicago Real Estate Board was among the Northern strategists that in 1921 wrote regulations governing its own membership providing for the "immediate expulsion" from the board of "any member who sells a Negro a property in a block where there are only white owners." As early as 1917 the CREB waged a saturation campaign of racial fear and hysteria in lily-white communities. It spent time and money and legal help in the formation of anti-black neighborhood "improvement" associations and in the writing of the old racially restrictive covenants which the United States Supreme Court voided on May 3, 1948. Fifty-six years later, Illinois realtors the true panic-peddlers of yesteryear have now appointed the state to pick up where it left off. Incidentally the Chicago Real Estate Board is "THE NORTH shall rise again! "White voters in North Carolina, Georgia, and Los Angeles can help to elect all the black mayors that they want to.

Traditional Old South universities can show off all the black football and basketball stars that they can find. "And all you Dixie proprietors of motels, hotels, and dining rooms can be as courteous to black patrons as long as you choose. "But let me tell you something boy, we 100 per cent Americans of the North shall not be deterred in our determination to keep America racially segregated." I NEVER HEARD any Yankee politician use those exact words, but any close observer of the total Northern scene as symbolized by Chicago must have heard that message over and over and again. And it shouldn't be surprising. When it comes to working out the subtleties of racist strategies, the North, even during the early days of slavery, probably was more adept than the South.

The slave rationale of the Pilgrim Fathers stands today as a classic when compared to the crude efforts of Southern apologists. Recently good old Illinois picked up the flag of Northern hypocrisy and started waving it again, just like old times. The state legislature has come forth with a very innocent-appearing Illinois Real Estate Brokers' and Salesmen's Act of 1973, which is supposed to improve the professional and ethical standards of the real estate business. Now how could anybody object to such a long overdue move? However, couched in this display of ethical concern are paragraphs 17, 18, and 19 of Section 15 of the act, which has caused it to be identified as the new "anti-panic peddling law." Tb law was written by representatives of the Illinois Association of Real Estate Boards, which represents local realtors and boards thruout the state. The most powerful local board, of course, is located in Chicago.

Section 15 of the new act makes easy the suspension or revocation of the li Michael Kilian How Richard M. Nixon got into this mess UN IT IS A dark and stormy night in November, 1962. A man is walking down a lonely country road in Southern California, dragging a small cocker spaniel on a leash behind him. The man swears. "Come on, Checkers.

They may not have me to kick around anymore, but I've still got you." There is a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning and a mysterious stranger suddenly appears. He is wearing a cape, has an extremely ruddy complexion, and has very pointy ears. "What? Who are you? What do you want?" "I go by many names. Mr. Lucifer will do.

I've come to offer you a deal." "I'm not interested. I've got enough troubles. I've lost my last two elections. I'm out of a job. I can't even get work in the used-car business." year or something.

We'd even throw in a luxury Fifth Avenue apartment. "Then we'd fix it so that the nomination doesn't go to Rocky. Instead, we'd have it go to some fellow who says he'd be willing to drop atomic bombs in defense of liberty. The Republicans go down in a landslide. They spend the next couple of years looking for a new leader.

You campaign for them in the 1966 congressional elections and become the most popular Republican around. In 1968, you're the overwhelming choice for the nomination." "Yes, yes, go on." "We fix it so that some third-party character draws all the rednecks and backlashers away from the Democrats and you're easily elected. Then we provide this genius to help you with your foreign affairs and presto! detente with Red China, detente with Russia, "THAT'S WHAT I've come to talk to you about your troubles. I can offer you a way to solve them." "Oh yeah? How?" "Remember that wish you made back on election night in 1950?" "Sure. I wished Jackie Kennedy would go marry a fat Greek." "No, not that wish.

I mean that wish you made about being President of the United States. You even said you'd do anything if you could be President." "Yeah, I remember. But forget it. The Republican Party wouldn't run me for mayor of Chicago right now. Besides, Rocky's got the 1964 nomination all sewed up." "Yes, but not if we put in the fix." "Fix? Keep talking." "For starters, we'd fix up something for you to do for a few years.

A New York corporation lawyer for $100,000 a an end to the war in Indochina, and a lasting world peace. You become one of the greatest Presidents in history!" "Okay. I'll take it! What d'you want in return?" "Merely your soul." "Hmm. Do you mind if I go over this with a lawyer?" "Which lawyer?" "A guy in New York named John Mitchell." "I know him well. I was afraid you were thinking of Daniel Webster." "JUST ONE more thing.

You didn't say anything about a second term." "That's part of the deal. No second term." "But what if I run again anyway?" "You'll be sorry." "Will you try and get me?" "No. We'll just leave you entirely on your own.".