Angry Nixon vowed to 'ruin' diplomatic corps

POSTED: 2:08 a.m. EST, January 4, 2007
Story Highlights
• Former president told Kissinger that "his one legacy is to ruin the Foreign Service"
• Nixon "outraged" by State Department performance on foreign economic policy
• Nixon reportedly viewed Foreign Service as dominated by liberals

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Embittered by career diplomats during his first term, President Nixon said he wanted to "ruin the Foreign Service" before leaving office, according to newly released State Department documents.

The former president's darker side was further revealed on Wednesday by newly released FBI files which show the agency ran criminal background checks on Senate witnesses critical of William Rehnquist's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1971 at the request of the Nixon administration. The disclosures were among 1,561 pages released by the bureau under the Freedom of Information Act.

Days after his re-election on November 7, 1972, Nixon vented his frustrations about the diplomatic corps during a meeting with his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger.

Just before saying he was going "to take the responsibility for cleaning up" the department, the president told Kissinger on November 13 that he was determined that "his one legacy is to ruin the Foreign Service. I mean ruin it -- the old Foreign Service -- and to build a new one. I'm going to do it."

Linkhere