Government Dept. Terminates Kissinger's Extended Leave

The Government Department voted last night to stop reserving a professorship for presidential adviser Henry A. Kissinger '50, and thus severed the last formal link between Kissinger and Harvard University.

In a 350-word statement released after last night's departmental meeting, James Q. Wilson, chairman of the Government Department, said that the teaching needs of the Department and the existence of other qualified candidates for Kissinger's position made any further extension of the foreign policy adviser's four-year leave of absence impossible.

"We continue to hold him in high esteem," Wilson's statement said. "Both he and we understand, however, that a vacancy cannot be held open indefinitely: the Department has teaching needs that must be met and there are other candidates for the position whose qualifications warrant review."

University Professor

The Government Department's decision does not rule out the possibility of Kissinger returning to Harvard. Under Faculty legislation, Kissinger could return to Cambridge as a University Professor several years from now, if President Bok decided to offer the position to him.

The University followed this procedure in rehiring Edwin O. Reischauer after he had left the Faculty for more than two years to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan.

According to Wilson, Kissinger said last week that he could not leave his position as President Nixon's national security adviser in the near future. "He simply said he couldn't leave his present assignment." Wilson said. "He indicated he was aware the Department had to move ahead."

Wilson said Kissinger seemed pleased with the Department's concern for him and its kindness in keeping the professorship open for the past four years. "He seemed appreciative and as far as I could tell he was sincere," Wilson said.

No Regret

But Wilson said that Kissinger expressed no regret in breaking his last formal ties with Harvard.

Asked if the Government Department's decision was motivated by any political considerations, Wilson said, "There were none that I heard expressed."

"The question was always: Did we want him or somebody else teaching his subject," he said.

In January 1971, 24 months after he joined the Nixon Administration, Kissinger officially resigned from his professorship because of a Faculty rule limiting leaves to two years.

Before he submitted his resignation, Kissinger and the Government Department worked out a special arrangement which kept a chair in the Department reserved for him until the conclusion of President Nixon's first term in office.

"This was an unusual action," Wilson said, "prompted by the view of his former colleagues that there was not then, and was not likely to be for some time, a scholar in the field of international relations whom the Department would prefer to him."