unnecessarily demands focus and specificity for the newnorder. The New World Order is not, never has been, andnnever will be about self-determination or sub-sovereignty ornabout the exercise and propagation of grand schemes ornspecific doctrines; it is instead — simply and boldly — aboutnthe exercise of will and the propagation of Americannhegemony. It is about power, not principle, and in particularnabout the power to play Julius Caesar abroad while playingnNero amidst a burning Rome at home.nBut there is a private as well as a public side to the NewnWorld Order. In addition to the exercise of public power fornthe propagation of American influence and control, therenexists a dimension to the New World Order that involves thenexercise of private power for personal gain, as Bob Feldman’snexpose on “The Kissinger Affair” in the New York publicationnDowntown alleged last March. According to Mr.nFeldman, Mr. Kissinger’s “international consulting firm”ncalled Kissinger Associates — which according to an Apriln26, 1986, article in the New York Times Magazine peddlesninfluence and access to high government officials fornbetween $150,000 and $420,000, fees which surely havenrisen in the five years since the article appeared — has (ornhas recenriy had) among its clients the Fluor Corporation,nwhich received a substantial oil contract from Saudi Arabianshortly before Iraq’s August 2 invasion of Kuwait, and thenKuwaiti government-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation,nwhose oil drilling had been suspended because of thenIraqi invasion. The Kissinger consultant working with thenKuwait Petroleum Corporation in the I980’s was reportedlynPresident Bush’s National Security Adviser throughout thenPersian Gulf War, General Brent Scowcroft, who is reportednto have been on the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s payrollnfrom at least 1984 to 1986. Mr. Feldman says that it was alsonduring this time that General Scowcroft became a directornof Santa Fe International, shortly after it was purchased bynthe Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in 1981. The questionnall this leads to was succinctly posed by Murray Rothbard innthe May 1991 Rothbard-Rockwell Report: “Is it a coincidencenthat it was Scowcroft’s National Security Councilnpresentation of August 3, 1990, which, according to thenNew York Times (February 21) ‘crystallized people’s thinkingnand galvanized support’ for a ‘strong response’ to thenIraq invasion of Kuwait?”nSuzanne McFarlane, Henry Kissinger’s executive assistant,ntold me in a phone conversation that KissingernAssociates has “never,” either before or after the August 2ninvasion, had a Kuwaiti client. Where are all the Woodwardsnand Bernsteins when you really need them?nWe do know, however, that Henry Kissinger serves onnPresident Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board,nwhich gives him access to classified information, and thatnGeneral Scowcroft has recently held stock in a number ofndefense-related companies. He sold these holdings shortlynbefore the Persian Gulf War began, including shares innGeneral Electric, which Scowcroft valued at some $1nmillion, and stock valued at $50,000 in DBA Systems Inc., anFlorida-based military contractor of which Mr. Scowcroftnwas a director before he joined the Bush administration.nUnder the ethics law governmental officials with ties tonmilitary contractors are barred from participating in mattersnof national security. To circumvent any possible legalndifficulties, President Bush — the “ethics President” — hadngranted Mr. Scowcroft a waiver that enabled him tonparticipate in national security issues despite his militaryrelatednholdings. Representative Henry Gonzalez (D-nTexas), chairman of the House Banking Committee, begannto investigate this situation last June. He even wrote a letternto President Bush, saying that he was “deeply concerned”nabout Kissinger’s influence and “especially troubled” bynScowcroft’s involvement in policymaking that could possiblynbenefit him financially.nWe also know that Kuwait’s biggest cheerleader was notnPresident Bush or Congress, but rather America’s preeminentnpublic-relations firm. Hill & Knowlton, which a groupnof wealthy Kuwaitis hired at the cost of $ 11 million for a fewnmonths’ work. It was H & K that created “Citizens for anFree Kuwait,” the organization that conducted show-andtellnpresentations before the Human Rights and ForeignnAffairs committees of the House of Representatives and thatnarranged for members of Amnesty International and MiddlenEast Watch to give detailed testimonies before Congress asnto alleged Iraqi atrocities — the most noted being the onenPresident Bush himself proselytized, that Iraqi soldiersnallowed 312 babies to die after removing them from theirnincubators in Kuwaiti hospitals, a story we now know to benan utter fabrication for propaganda purposes. H & K evennpulled off the unprecedented feat of conducting bothnmorning and afternoon shows before the Security Councilnof the United Nations. As Arthur Rowse asked in the MaynProgressive, “How could a public-relations firm, acting at anmoment of acute international crisis, turn the world’snprincipal deliberative body into an all-day sounding boardnfor one of its wealthy clients?” Perhaps the answer lies in thenfact that the president and chief operating officer of H & Knwas Craig Fuller, who had served as chief of staff to VicenPresident Bush, and that the head of H & K’s U.S. divisionnis Robert Gray, who had been inaugural co-chair for the firstnReagan-Bush administration.nIn 1917 Woodrow Wilson sent American boys off to dienfor the sake of democracy. By the 1920’s, however, it wasnclear to many Americans that the motives for our participationnin World War I were more complicated. Ethnicnantagonisms played a part, but so did the desire for profits.nAmericans did not blindly believe all the scare storiesnrecounted in the muckraking Merchants of Death and laternrevived in the hearings conducted by Senator Gerald Nye,nbut they did know that Wilson’s argument for democracynwas backed by individuals who did well out of the war.nWe knew this once, and then forgot it. The political classnof the United States knows how to make good use of thenpernicious amnesia that is so characteristic of democracy.nPerhaps it is time for another Nye Committee to shake itsnconfidence. <^nnnSEPTEMBER 1991/25n