Word: garment
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Whoever was the culprit, in Garment's view, only radical surgery and the fullest admission of error could avert catastrophe. But if the President was involved even indirectly, full disclosure would not be the course selected; hence the Administration might bleed to death amid a cascade of revelations. Garment was convinced that the Administration would have to be ripped apart and reconstituted. Nixon would have to put himself at the head of this movement of reform, brutally eradicate the rot, and rally the American people for a fresh start...
...upheaval over Viet Nam. As I considered what this portended for foreign policy, my heart sank. A nation's capacity to act is based on an intangible amalgam of strength, reputation and commitment to principle. To be harnessed, these qualities require authority backed by public confidence. But if Garment was right, authority inexorably would start draining from the presidency. The dream of a new era of creativity would in all probability evaporate. Even preserving what we had achieved-the Indochina settlement, for example-would become precarious...
...deceptively casual manner Garment slumped onto a blue-covered couch that faced the White House front lawn. Never one to beat around the bush, he opened the conversation by asking: "Have you lost your mind...
...still buoyed by the evening's mood of reconciliation when Leonard Garment called at my White House office the next day, Saturday, April 14. What he told me shattered everything. Garment's title, Special Consultant to the President, was grand enough, but without a specific area of responsibility. His emergence into prominence was usually a signal that Nixon was in some distress and required a steadying hand; and in recent days Garment had spent an increasing amount of time with Nixon...
Without waiting for a reply, Garment unfolded an astonishing and shattering tale: within a matter of days my evocation of national reconciliation would look like a plea for mercy and be submerged in a crisis that would make the turmoil over Viet Nam seem trivial. Nixon's enemies were about to be handed the weapon they had been seeking. In the tornado of suspicion about to overwhelm us, my appeal to idealism would sound vacuous if not cynical. The outcome of the recent election might well be reversed; there was likely to be a battle to the death...