Moynihan Assailed by British Envoy

The public attack by Britain’s Ambassador to the United Nations against his counterpart, U.S. Ambassador Daniel P. Moynihan, is believed here to have been encouraged, if not inspired, By Moynihan’s enemies in the State Department, Ambassador Ivor Richard’s speech before directors of the UN Association of the United States and its wide distribution by British press officer Stephen Day would never have taken place, informed sources said, had not Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger himself given a nod in that direction.

Kissinger has expressed irritation publicly at Moynihan in a recent news conference when he said that he would have criticized Ugandan President Idi Amin but not in the terms Moynihan had used when he referred to Amin as a “racist murderer,” In addition, sniping at Moynihan has ensued from quarters close to Kissinger’s thinking. Today’s Washington Post, describing Richard’s speech, was on the front page under the headline, “Moynihan Raises A Storm.”

British officials in New York, spread the word that the UN Association directors gave Richard a standing ovation after his attack, While he did not name Moynihan, it was clear to those present that he was directing his remarks at the U.S. envoy, Richard likened Moynihan to a Savonarola preaching revenge, cowboy Wyatt Earp thirsting for shoot-outs, and King Lear threatening “terrors of the earth.”

STATE DEPARTMENT MUM ON ATTACK

When Moynihan stood up in the UN against the racism and anti-Semitism of Amin, President Ford declared he said what needed to be said, Moynihan’s flashing authority against those who equated Zionism with racism has evoked a tremendous outpouring of support for him from Americans across the country.

Richard said that “there is nothing whatsoever to be gained by ideological disputations of the most intense sort which one is probably going to lose anyway.” He also said that Europeans feel as strongly as Americans about the anti-Zionist resolution but “we have managed to avoid reacting to the vote in purely ideological and emotional terms.”

At the State Department, spokesman Robert Funseth said that he had seen a press account of the Richard remarks and said “I have nothing to say about them.” He added that Kissinger “has full confidence in Ambassador Moynihan who is a close friend,” Funseth said he was not aware of any U.S. action toward Richard and indicated the Department has little interest in his remarks by saying he was not aware that a text of Richard’s remarks would be sought.