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Nixon Vowed to 'Ruin Foreign Service'
"Henry says Bill is dumb _ not smart. He is wrong. Bill is smart as hell. Bill is not a clown," Nixon said at the January 1972 meeting.
As for State Department officials, Nixon said he has "much more suspicion of them and much more contempt for them than he (Kissinger) has."
  In this Aug. 9, 1974, file photo, Richard Nixon says goodbye with a victorious salute to his staff members outside the White House as he boards a helicopter after resigning the Presidency. President Nixon said he wanted to "ruin the Foreign Service" before leaving office, according to newly released State Department documents. (AP Photo) (AP) 
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When Rogers was informed shortly after the 1972 election that he was being relieved of his duties, he protested to Nixon that it would look like he was being forced out by Kissinger. Nixon relented and permitted Rogers an elegant exit after Kissinger's appointment to replace him nine months later.
Kissinger, notified that Rogers was being allowed a grace period, responded that it was "a disaster for the P (president) and the country and unworkable for the administration and our foreign policy," the documents show.
"Our problem is not the Foreign Service, it's the secretary and he operates independently of the White House, won't carry out orders and won't do the work, the preparation of his own materials," Kissinger is quoted as saying.
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