Mideast ‘Tilt’ Also Vexed Nixon

Richard Nixon, like other presidents, was dogged by perceptions that U.S. policy in the Middle East was biased against Arabs. In papers from his administration released Monday, he denied such a tilt.

The long-tangled U.S. effort to broker peace in the region is laid out in a trove of decades-old documents from Nixon’s administration that reads like headlines from today.

In more than 107,000 pages of Nixon-era papers made public for the first time, the president and his advisors are seen worrying over how to prod Israel and its Arab neighbors toward peace in the Middle East and trying to combat perceptions that the United States is anti-Arab.

“Your help to Israel is seen as hostile to the Arab world,” the Saudi foreign minister tells the president in one 1973 meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. officials and Arab leaders.

Nixon, in response, acknowledges the perception that U.S. administrations “are politically influenced too much on the side of Israel.” But he adds: “As far as I’m concerned I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, affected by domestic politics in my search for peace.”

He also assured Arab leaders that while Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger is Jewish, “he has the same goal as I have--a fair and just settlement to all.”

“Some of my Arab friends, I know, have asked how they can trust Dr. Kissinger,” Nixon said. “But I can say that above all he wants a fair and a just peace.”

Three decades later, the Bush administration is trying to counter similar criticisms that U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East are tilted toward Israel.

“Talking points” for Nixon’s 1973 conversation read like U.S. policy statements from today.

One recommended point for Nixon could be from current Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s playbook: “Our position is that fighting should stop and that it should be followed by a serious diplomatic effort to reach a final peaceful settlement.

“We stand willing to play a part in working for a just and durable peace.”

The conversation took place weeks before Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War.

The documents released Monday include records of Oval Office conversations and telephone calls, papers preparing Nixon for meetings and draft upon draft of evolving foreign policy initiatives.

Nixon’s handwriting is scrawled across some, telling aides “I agree” or asking for specific follow-up actions or changes. Even now, full pages are blacked out for national security reasons and stamped “sanitized copy.”