The full Senate is to vote on the nomination of Dr. Henry’ A. Kissinger as Secretary of State tomorrow morning and very few Senators are expected to oppose it. A survey today by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency showed that only four Senators, all Democrats, have thus far expressed opposition. They are Senators George S. McGovern and James Abourezk, both of South Dakota, Harold E. Hughes of Iowa, and Floyd K. Haskell of Colorado. They object to Dr. Kissinger principally for his role in the Indochina War.
While White House aides declined to discuss details pending actual Senate confirmation, preparations are under way for Dr. Kissinger to be sworn in at the White House about mid-day on Saturday in the presence of President and Mrs. Nixon, Dr. Kissinger’s parents, Louis and Paula Kissinger of New York, and his two children, Elizabeth, 14 and David, 10.
A member of the Judiciary swears in U.S. officials and the JTA was informed Dr. Kissinger has selected Chief Justice Warren Burger to conduct the ceremony.
As Secretary of State Dr. Kissinger will be the sixth Jew in history to hold a Cabinet position. The others were: Oscar Straus, named Secretary of Commerce by President Theodore Roosevelt; Henry Morgenthau Jr., Treasury Secretary under President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Secretary of Labor under President John F. Kennedy. Wilbur Cohen was HEW Secretary under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Another Jew, Judah P. Benjamin, also was a Secretary of State but not of the United States. He served under Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
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.
