Prof. Abraham Chayes, Sen. George McGovern’s foreign policy adviser, claimed here that President Nixon’s Middle East policy would change as a result of the Soviet pull-out from Egypt. Chayes, who is in Israel on a five-day visit to explain the Democratic presidential candidate’s views to Israeli political leaders, alleged that Nixon viewed Israel’s security in cold war, bulwark-against-Communism terms.
According to Chayes, the Nixon Administration and especially the President’s national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, believed in summitry to solve world problems. With the Soviet military threat reduced it was likely that the Nixon Administration would try to solve the Mideast problem through Big Power summitry, Chayes said.
He stated McGovern believed that foreign policy should not be conducted by the White House to the extent that it was under Nixon. He acknowledged that a greater role for the State Department “does not sound good for Israel” but said McGovern was aware of the State Department’s pro-Arab history and that inevitably the major decisions must involve the White House.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
