elbow, Kissinger could see that Bush was advancing towards the conclusion that Nixon
had to resign. "It was cruel. And it was necessary," thought Kissinger. "More than enough
had been said," was the Secretary of State's impression. Kissinger was seeking to avoid
backing Nixon into a corner where he would become more stubborn and more resistant to
the idea of resignation, making that dreaded Senate trial more likely. And this was the
likely consequence of Bush's line of argument.
"Mr. President, can't we just wait a week or two and see what happens?", asked Saxbe.
Bush started to support Saxbe again, but now Nixon was getting more angry. Nixon
glared at Bush and Saxbe, the open advocates of his resignation. "No," he snapped. "This
is too important to wait."
Now the senior cabinet officer decided he had to take the floor to avoid a total
confrontation that would leave Nixon besieged but still holding the Oval Office.
Kissinger's guttural accents were heard in the cabinet room: "We are not here to offer
excuses for what we cannot do. We are here to do the nation's business. This is a very
difficult time for our country. Our duty is to show confidence. It is essential that we show
it is not safe for any country to take a run at us. For the sake of foreign policy we must act
with assurance and total unity. If we can do that, we can vindicate the structure of peace."
The main purpose of this pompous tirade had been to bring the meeting to a rapid end,
and it worked. "There was a moment of embarrassed silence around the table," recalls
Nixon, and after a few more remarks on the economy, the meeting broke up.
Kissinger stayed behind with Nixon to urge him to resign, which Nixon now said he felt
compelled to do. Bush sought out Al Haig to ponder how Nixon might be forced out.
"What are we going to do?", asked Bush. Haig told Bush to calm down, explaining: "We
get him up to the mountaintop, then he comes down again, then we get him up again." [fn
55] Kissinger walked back to his office in the West Wing and met Gen. Brent Scowcroft,
the NSC Director. Kissinger told Scowcroft that "there was precious little support for the
President. Kissinger, no mean hypocrite in his own right, thought that Saxbe had been
"weak-livered." Bush and Saxbe had both been petty and insensitive, Kissinger thought.
He compared Bush and Saxbe and the rest to a seventeenth- century royal court with the
courtiers scurrying about, concerned with themselves rather than with their country.
During this cabinet meeting, Bush was already carrying a letter to Nixon that would soon
become the unkindest cut of all for Chariman George's wretched patron. This letter was
delivered to Nixon on August 7. It read as follows:
Dear Mr. President,It is my considered judgment that you should now resign. I expect in your lonely embattled
position this would seem to you as an act of disloyalty from one you have supported and helped in
so mnay ways. My own view is that I would now ill serve a President whose massive
accomplishments I will always respect and whose family I love, if I did not now give you my
judgment. Until this moment resignation has been no answer at all, but given the impact of the
latest development, and it will be a lasting one, I now firmly feel resignation is best for the
country, best for this President. I believe this view is held by most Republican leaders across the