Finding Common Ground For Peace

September 30, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Richard Nixon, Russia | Leave a Comment 

In May 1972, RN was the first American President to visit Moscow.

In what he called a working visit,  RN and the Soviet leadership agreed to cooperate on science and technology, expand trade, and limit nuclear strategic arms.

His message to the Russian people was sincere and principled: “a pledge to continue the quest for peace among all nations.”

Loyalty

September 30, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under In Memoriam | Leave a Comment 

Veteran journalist, former CBS newsman, and NPR senior analyst Daniel Schorr remembers his longtime friend, William Safire.

“When you are a friend of Bill Safire,” Schorr said. “It doesn’t change:”

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Palin, 37, And 37 Years Ago

September 30, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under China, Richard Nixon, Sarah Palin | Leave a Comment 

An overlooked part of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s speech in Hong Kong earlier this month notes that a constructive Sino-American relationship is predicated on what 37 accomplished thirty-seven years ago:

Nothing of what I am saying should be seen as meaning conflict with China is inevitable. Quite the contrary. As I said, we welcome China’s responsible rise. America and China stood together against fascism during World War II, before ravages took over in China – we were ready to stand together with China to shape international politics after World War II. Much has been accomplished since President Nixon’s fateful visit. And again, we stand ready to work with what we hope will be a more open and responsible China on the challenges facing the 21st century.

(Hat Tip: Tom Van Oosterom)

‘He Was Anything But A Nattering Nabob Of Negativity’

September 30, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under In Memoriam | 2 Comments 

The New York Times colorful and left leaning columnist Maureen Dowd remembers her late colleague.

Featured Articles — September 30, 2009

September 30, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

Forget the Nukes By Robert Kagan, The Washington Post
The Most Fruitful Target Is Iran’s Weakening Regime.

It’s Time to Confront Hugo Chavez By Jorge Castaneda, RealClearWorld
In early September, Colombia’s biggest businesses surprised everyone by declaring their wholehearted support for the country’s president, Alvaro Uribe, in his deepening conflict with Venezuela. If they lost the huge export market next door, well, that would simply be too bad.

Where Did ‘We’ Go? By Tom Friedman, The New York Times
I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing.

A Pragmatic Look at Obama’s Pragmatism By Jonah Goldberg, The Los Angeles Times
‘When John McCain said we could just ‘muddle through’ in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights,” Barack Obama thundered as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in Denver last year.

It’s A Family Affair

September 29, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Nixon family, Republican Party, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

The New York Times continues to chronicle the election of Ed Cox as the Chairman of the New York State Republican Party.  That was unanimously accomplished this morning at a meeting in Albany.

The Nixon family took center stage at the state Republican Party’s conference on Tuesday, as county leaders gathered to elect Edward F. Cox, Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, as the party’s new state chairman.

Mr. Cox’s wife, Tricia Nixon Cox, was in attendance and hard to miss in a fire-engine red ensemble. So was the couple’s son, Christopher Nixon Cox, who ran John McCain’s New York campaign alongside his father and will most likely have some role in the state party.

“We will rebuild our party, and we will win elections,” Mr. Cox said in his speech to the gathering. He promised to win back one Congressional seat and retake a majority in the State Senate, and even raised Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as a Democratic bogeyman.

During the 2008 presidential election, Christopher Cox, RN’s grandson, served as the  Executive Director of the McCain campaign’s New York operations.

Hard to miss: the Coxes yesterday in Albany, New York, where Ed was named State GOP Chairman.

Sixty-Five Cents That Changed A Life

September 29, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under In Memoriam, News media, Nixon Administration figures | 2 Comments 

Victoria Moran is the author of a number of successful books on self-help and spirituality published by Harper and several other major imprints, and has appeared twice on Oprah Winfrey’s show. In 1976 she was a writer for a local magazine in her hometown of Kansas City, living from paycheck to paycheck and hardly thinking about whether the future might hold something for her beyond that metropolis. Then one day, as she was riding the bus, a man tried to board it who was lacking exact change for the sixty-five-cent fare. Rather than see the driver turn him away, she offered to pay the fare herself. The stranger thanked her for her kindness, introduced himself, and they fell into conversation. That chat changed her life. The rest of the story is here. Hint: the man on the bus, six years before, had, with the help of a Baltimorean of note, familiarized America with a word referring to the Indian subrulers of the Moghul empire.

William Safire     1929-2009

September 29, 2009 by Ronald H. Walker | Filed Under In Memoriam | 4 Comments 

William Safire’s snapshot of Vice President Nixon and Premier Khrushchev in the kitchen of the model house at the American Exhibition in Moscow.  Safire captured the then-unknown Leonid Brezhnev, who would unseat Khrushchev five years later, standing significantly over RN’s shoulder.   Safire later wrote: “After the reporters and the crowd had left the house, I went back to the now historic kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out a beer and sat down on the range to think things over.  I decided to go to work for Nixon, if I could; he didn’t get upset when he was caught off guard, he knew how to seize an opportunity, he obviously had respect for —and knew how to play to— the press, he had a sure grasp of issues, and, cornball though it sounds, he made me feel proud of my country.”

The nation is the poorer for Bill Safire’s passing. As a columnist, commentator, and author, he enlightened and enlivened the public square for four decades. And the extended Nixon Family is shocked and saddened by the loss of a brilliant thinker and writer, a witty companion, and a dear friend.

Bill met Richard Nixon in Moscow in 1959.  He was the PR man for the builder of  the “average American house” that was one of the most popular features of the American Exhibition there. When the Vice President and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev arrived for the official opening, Bill took advantage of some general confusion to lead everyone into the kitchen of his house.   The result was the legendary Cold War confrontation that became known, to Bill’s particular satisfaction, as the “Kitchen Debate.”

Bill began writing for Mr. Nixon, and in January 1969 he became one of President Nixon’s principal White House speechwriters and advisers.

Bill knew how to get inside ideas, understand them, and then explain them in ways and words that everyone —from the smartest expert to the man in the street— could understand.

RN appreciated Bill’s brilliant pen, his wise counsel, his independent judgment, and his loyal friendship.

Bill was a sharp reporter who knew how to listen. As a result he scored many scoops for his column in The New York Times. He could also write about ideas and issues and personalities — and, of course, words. He loved everything about words: their histories, their meanings, and the fun you can have with them.

His many books ranged from an important memoir of his time with President Nixon and historical novels and thrillers, to a moving study of the Book of Job.

Bill was a devoted husband and father and a doting granddad. Our thoughts and prayers are with Helene and his family.

Ronald H. Walker
President, The Richard Nixon Foundation

Edward Cox To Be New York State GOP Chairman

September 29, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Nixon family, Republican Party, Richard Nixon | 2 Comments 

The New York Times’ Danny Hakim has written an interesting and timely profile of Ed Cox.  Accompanying the article is a slide show of several photographs, beginning with Mr. Cox’s wedding to Tricia Nixon in the White House Rose Garden in June 1971, through his current role as the putative New York State Republican Chairman (he is uncontested in the election for the position to be held today in Albany).

He appeared on American television screens nearly four decades ago, a blond-haired Princeton man in cutaway and striped trousers who married Tricia Nixon in a Rose Garden ceremony.

Edward F. Cox became an adored son-in-law to President  Richard M. Nixon, appearing at the president’s side during some of the nation’s most pivotal moments, including Nixon’s teary farewell address in 1974.

Now, Mr. Cox, 62, is re-entering public life, taking on a task that many see as impossible: reviving the demoralized and shrunken Republican Party in New York…

Mr. Cox grew close to his father-in-law, and recalled traveling the world on good-will missions with his wife and going to China with Nixon after he left office. He has ferried messages between Chinese and South Korean trade missions and met  Fidel Castro at the Palace of Justice in Havana. He recalled a trip to the Soviet Union during the Nixon presidency in which he had to mediate between a KGB general and the Secret Service.

There were happy moments — his wife can even be heard on the Nixon White House tapes gushing to her father, “Eddie passed the bar.” Then there were more difficult moments, like standing behind his father-in-law during his final address as president. “During his farewell, he asked me to bring him a book,” he recalled. “I was working with him the night before and got it from the library — it was where Teddy Roosevelt wrote about the death of his wife, his first wife, ‘The light went out of my life,’ ” Mr. Cox said, referring to passages Nixon read during his speech.

“Obviously, it was a very emotional time, it was extraordinary,” he added. “He was a man who really had control of himself, but also saw the bigger picture and what he was doing in the bigger picture.”

Speaking of the lessons he had learned from his front-row seat, he said of politics, “You’ll get bloodied, and sometimes it’s tough, but there are moments when you’re on the mountain peak.” “That’s what public life is about,” he said. “You have to be willing to take those ups and downs if you’re going to accomplish something.”

Edward Cox at a the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York.  (Photo for The New York Times by Chang W. Lee.)

The article analyzes the problems —and the opportunities— Mr. Cox will inherit with the State Chairmanship.

The cerebral, centrist Mr. Cox represents a break from the parochial Republican county leaders who have led the state party in recent years, presiding over disastrous electoral results. In the 2006 election, Republicans were shut out of all statewide offices, and in 2008, they lost control of the State Senate, their last power base. The absence of Republican star power means that Mr. Cox will play an outsize role as a voice of the party, whose leaders will gather Tuesday in Albany to elect a new chairman; Mr. Cox is the only remaining candidate for the post. Despite the odds against the party, he said he believed a wave of Democratic scandals could be a boon for Republicans in New York.

Featured Articles — September 29, 2009

September 29, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | 1 Comment 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

The Campaign is Over, Mr. President By Richard Cohen, The Washington Post
Sooner or later it is going to occur to Barack Obama that he is the president of the United States. As of yet, though, he does not act that way, appearing promiscuously on television and granting interviews like the presidential candidate he no longer is. The election has been held, but the campaign goes on and on. The candidate has yet to become commander in chief.

The Next Culture War By David Brooks, The New York Times
Centuries ago, historians came up with a classic theory to explain the rise and decline of nations. The theory was that great nations start out tough-minded and energetic. Toughness and energy lead to wealth and power. Wealth and power lead to affluence and luxury. Affluence and luxury lead to decadence, corruption and decline.

Angela Merkel, the new Maggie Thatcher By Alan Posener, The Guardian
Free from the shackles of her centre-left coalition, Germany’s leader can launch a bold new era.

Obama v. Bush, the Sequel By William McGurn, The Wall Street Journal
Two gubernatorial races have taken on national significance.

Nixon, The War On Drugs, Russia, And Afpak

September 28, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Afghanistan, Afpak, Nixon Center, Richard Nixon, Russia | 1 Comment 

Russia’s Drug Czar, Victor Ivanov, was at the Nixon Center last week to discuss the harrowing nature of the drug-trade in Afghanistan. A reality — he contends –that could lead to the rise of a narco-state and further threaten global stability:

According to Ivanov, Russia is the “main victim” of Afghanistan’s drug trafficking, with ninety percent of its addicts using Afghan opiates. There is a growing number of young users in the country, and Afghanistan’s stockpile of heroin – enough to produce over one trillion doses – threatens generations to come. But though Russia may feel the brunt of the effects of the drug trade, it “carries a fundamental threat to the whole world,” including the United States. Heroin profits – about 100 billion dollars each year – support corruption and organized crime, create political destabilization, destroy young democracies (such as Afghanistan itself), and fund terrorism.

For Ivanov, the venue of the Nixon Center was of no coincidence as RN knew the devastating impacts of the drug trade, and was the first to wage war on it forty-years ago this year:

Two weeks ago at the meeting of the Russian Federation’s Security Council, its Chairman, President Dmitry Medvedev, charted out the main vector of the national antidrug policy. While increasing the severity of punishment for drug lords for wholesale trafficking, it is necessary to launch an unconditioned humanization and democratization of the state’s policies towards drug addicts, who are, after all, no more than ill people.

Along with that, being here, at the Nixon Center, is good reason to recall that the “War on Drugs” was declared exactly 40 years ago by President Richard Nixon. And that decision was certainly no coincidence.

In 1969 American society faced a massive growth of not only cocaine and marijuana consumption, which entered the United States across the border with Mexico, but also of heroin consumption, which gushed into the country from Indo-China as a consequence of the Vietnam War.

As a result, in five years since 1969, the number of heroin addicts in America increased tenfold. As American newspapers wrote then, “the disgusting war came back to our homes as a boomerang”.

Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be

September 28, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Congress, News media | Leave a Comment 

Rule of Thumb #1 for President Obama:  When Howard Fineman starts looking fondly back to the Reagan administration, you know you’re in trouble.

Members of Obama’s own party know who Obama is not; they still sometimes wonder who he really is. In Washington, the appearance of uncertainty is taken as weakness—especially on Capitol Hill, where a president is only as revered as he is feared. Being the cool, convivial late-night-guest in chief won’t cut it with Congress, an institution impervious to charm (especially the charm of a president with wavering poll numbers). Members of both parties are taking Obama’s measure with their defiant and sometimes hostile response to his desires on health care. Never much of a legislator (and not long a senator), Obama underestimated the complexity of enacting a major “reform” bill. Letting Congress try to write it on its own was an awful idea. As a balkanized land of microfiefdoms, each loyal to its own lobbyists and consultants, Congress is incapable of being led by its “leadership.” It’s not like Chicago, where you call a guy who calls a guy who calls Daley, who makes the call. The president himself must make his wishes clear—along with the consequences for those who fail to grant them.

The model is a man whose political effectiveness Obama repeatedly says he admires: Ronald Reagan. There was never doubt about what he wanted. The Gipper made his simple, dramatic tax cuts the centerpiece not only of his campaign but also of the entire first year of his presidency.

Looking Forward

September 28, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics | 3 Comments 

In today’s New York Times, Mark Leibovich offers up an interesting —and even relatively objective—  profile of Liz Cheney based on a speech she gave in Nashville earlier this month.  Perhaps if Mr. Leibovich read TNN more attentively, he wouldn’t be coming so late to this story; the Cheney phenomenon has already been noted here and here. (Apparently this problem has now been solved.)

Liz Cheney’s appeal in conservative settings like the one in Nashville was evident within seconds of her arrival. She strolled in without entourage to a Sheraton ballroom, unrecognized at first, past a cluster of women getting their pictures taken with Joe the Plumber.

“God bless you, I pray for your abundance,” a woman from Scottsdale, Ariz., Lori Frantzve, said upon realizing who Ms. Cheney was.

“Oh, I have five kids; I have plenty of abundance,” Ms. Cheney replied.

“Hey sister!” the conservative columnist Michelle Malkin greeted Ms. Cheney. They posed for pictures and air-kissed. Ms. Malkin proclaimed herself a “fan girl” and told Ms. Cheney she was “doing a great job out there.”

Working with only a Yahoo account, Ms. Cheney has been fielding dozens of speaking and interview requests a month, accepting many. (She declined to be interviewed for this article, saying she was uncomfortable with a story focused on her rather than her policy beliefs.) She is scheduled to appear at fund-raisers for Republican candidates through the rest of the year, and is a co-founder of a Web site, KeepAmericaSafe.com, that is scheduled to go online next month as a forum, resource and publication devoted to hawkish conservative views.

Liz Cheney in Nashville (photo for The New York Times by Josh Anderson.)

Sing For Your Supper

September 28, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Art, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Election 2012, Ethics, Obama administration | 1 Comment 

The Washington Times ran a strong editorial yesterday —”Unanswered questions for the NEA“— on a story  that is sufficiently confusing to have resulted in its being relegated to B-sections and the blogosphere.

The Times‘ editors manage to make both its outline and its significance clear:

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and the White House finally responded to a controversial effort by political appointees of both the White House and the NEA to “leverage” government funding of the arts into cultural support for the administration’s legislative agenda.

This is the short version of the Obama administration’s position: Nothing bad happened. The rogue employee who didn’t do anything bad has been relieved of his duties (and has now resigned). In an effort to make sure that the same “nothing bad” never happens again, the administration has distributed a memo and provided some new training on how not to do “nothing bad.”

The facts are simple and public. During the transition, President Obama’s top arts adviser made it clear that his ambition was for the arts to become an integral part of the West Wing. After the inauguration, meetings of artists and political activists at the White House explicitly discussed how to keep the arts community in campaign mode to back Mr. Obama’s legislative agenda. An NEA grants official, Mario Garcia Durham, was at one such meeting for which the attendee list is public.

As those meetings occurred, Yosi Sergant, a key cog in the Obama campaign’s outreach to artists, was transferred from a position at the White House to a position as the communications director of the NEA. When the grant spigots opened at the NEA, more than $2 million went directly into the coffers of arts organizations (and their members) attending these meetings and publicly backing elements of the administration agenda.

Does that prove laws have been broken? Of course not. The worst appearances can be completely innocent. However, the administration’s assertions that Mr. Sergant acted alone (“unilaterally and without … approval or authorization” in Mr. Landesman’s words) and that the administration’s efforts were “completely unrelated” to grant-making are at odds with the facts. The public deserves more than bland reassurances.

A full investigation by both Congress and the NEA inspector general is the only way to bring this story to a close. Answers to these questions would be only a start:

c What was an NEA grants official doing at a White House political meeting? What other grants officials have been meeting with White House political officials?

c So far we know about a handful of conference calls last month and White House meetings last spring. Is this the full extent of the coordination between the White House political staff and the NEA?

c Has the grant-making process been compromised by politics? How were the brand-new stimulus grants insulated from politics? Were any of the safeguards circumvented?

c On the same day that Americans for the Arts, a lobbying organization that also runs a partisan Democratic political action committee, endorsed the key elements of the Obama health care plan, the president of the group met with Mr. Landesman, the new NEA chief. What happened at that meeting?

c Why was activist Yosi Sergant transferred from the White House to the NEA? Who made the decision?

From Day One of this story, Mr. Sergant’s statements, the NEA’s official statements and Mr. Landesman’s statements have been riddled with falsehoods and bluster. There’s no reason to take anything the NEA has said so far at face value.

Some Kind Of Busy

September 28, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, Obama administration, Supreme Couty | Leave a Comment 

C-Span is offering, as a teaser of its upcoming week of programs about the Supreme Court, an excerpt from an interview with newly minted Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

When asked to describe, for the record, how she received the news of her appointment, Justice Sotomayor tells —very charmingly and well— a richly detailed story what what, taken on at least one level, is a comedy of errors.

She was told that POTUS would be making up his mind over the weekend, and that she could expect a call on Monday. Not surprisingly, she was in her office by the phone at 8 AM.  After waiting all day, the Judge finally called the White House to find out what was up.

She then delivers, in complete deadpan, this remarkable sentence:

“What I was told was that the President had got distracted with some other important business that was going on at the time…”

This could mean that (a) right up to the last minute the President was undecided regarding the nomination, (b) there was some incredibly sloppy staff work being done in the West Wing, or (c) POTUS is some kind of scary busy when the subject that had been obsessing the administration and the nation for the preceding few weeks suddenly gets upstaged to the point that he doesn’t even have the time to make the call to close the deal.

And if it’s (c) — then at least some inquiring minds would like to know just what that “other important business” was.

You can see the whole seven-minute excerpt here.

Supreme Court Week at C-Span begins next Sunday, 4 October.

Ben Stein: Safire Stood Up For Nixon

September 28, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under In Memoriam, Nixon Administration figures, Richard Nixon | 1 Comment 

Ben Stein — a fellow Nixon speechwriter — writes at the American Spectator:

This has not been a good time for losing friends. Genius pal John Hughes. Patriot, superstar political and moral philosopher, Irving Kristol. One of the kindest, gentlest, finest men on the planet, a twinkle of intelligence and love always in his eyes, beautiful soul Irving Kristol.

Now, just yesterday, irreplaceable Bill Safire, who was more family than friend.

When I think of Safire and losing him to cruel, vicious cancer, I think of losing the walking talking embodiment of that highest of virtues, loyalty. (Kristol, too.) Yes, a brilliant writer and phrase-maker — the words, “an effete corps of impudent snobs,” will live forever. His advice to those of us who came to his Yom Kippur “breaking of the fasts” was perfect Safire, “I am not telling you to fast — but food tastes better when you’re hungry.”

Yes, fearless fighter for what he thought was right, against Carter and in telling the truth about Hillary Clinton, but more than that, in sticking up for Richard Nixon through thick and thin. He thought, he knew, Nixon was being wrongly persecuted and even after Nixon’s wayward goons wiretapped him, he stood up for Nixon.

Resolute lover of America. Resolute defender of Israel against the new anti-Semites who call themselves anti-Israel, Bill Safire was genuinely without fear or favor.

He was a pallbearer at both of my parents’ burials, and did it magnificently. More important, in life, he was a friend, confidant, and supporter of the Steins from his lofty perch.

The New York Times was lucky to have him for thirty years. The Nixon family was lucky to have him. The Steins were blessed beyond measure to have him and his beautiful Helene and sweet Mark and Annabel, for whose comforting I pray. But most of all, the cause of decency in this great country and in Israel, that most righteous of causes was given him as a gift by the Lord God Almighty, Lord of Hosts of battle, and Bill was a host unto himself.

We say in the Jewish faith that those who pass into eternity on or just before the High Holy Days are specially selected of the Lord. Irving Kristol passed the day before Rosh Hashanah. Bill Safire died yesterday, Erev, Evening of Yom Kippur. He is blessed and so are we to have known him. God bless you, Helene and Mark and Annabel, we mourn with you.

Safire’s Perfect World

September 28, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under In Memoriam, Nixon Administration, Nixon Administration figures, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Over at the Daily Beast, Morton Janklow — a publicist to the late Nixon speechwriter William Safire — writes how he discussed with his dear friend about what he would like to do when he left government service. Safire answered:  to become a columnist and write a book about RN:

In 1972, shortly after Nixon’s landslide victory over McGovern, Bill called and asked me to come to Washington to spend some quiet time discussing what he might do if he chose to leave government service. We had lunch at the White House and talked about his life. He had no desire to return to the world of public relations, where he had risen to head his own eponymous firm and to represent many of America’s great corporations. When he left to go to work for President Nixon, he had left me a power of attorney and the unenviable job of selling Safire Public Relations, without Safire. Miraculously, we found a buyer, which helped fund his government service.

I asked him what, if the world was perfect, he would like to do. He replied that he would love to have a newspaper column that would allow him to range over everything that interested him. The second thing he felt would make him professionally content would be to do a book about Nixon, whom he had known well since the Kennedy campaign and through the disastrous race for governor of California, which he had lost to Pat Brown. This would be an important book, Bill felt, because it would involve a senior aide writing about a sitting president.

I thought I could help with the column idea, but I told Bill that since I was a corporate lawyer I knew nothing of publishing and would find him an experienced agent. Bill’s reply, typical of him, was that I was the only lawyer he ever had and since he hadn’t written the book yet, I had time to learn about the business and the agency aspect of it. He rebuffed all of my protests, saying he wanted a friend to represent him.

I studied, he wrote, and the rest is history. The book, ultimately titled Before the Fall, became the subject of an arbitration proceeding when the publisher, William Morrow and Company, attempted to reject it because Watergate and the firing of Haldeman and Ehrlichman had intervened. The alleged reason they gave was the manuscript was “unacceptable.” We won the arbitration, recovering the rights to the book and the advance already paid. Bill ran around Washington telling all of his friends and colleagues about his friend who was his agent. His opinion carried such weight even then that the telephone in my office began to ring with Safire recommends and within two years I abandoned a successful law practice and became an agent full time, a decision I’ve never regretted.

In Nixon’s Spirit, “We Go To China”

September 28, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under China, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

As Tennessee State Senator Mark Norris embarks on a state trade mission to China, he remembers the “metaphor for the incredible:”

News today of the death of William Safire, speechwriter to President Richard Nixon during his 1972 visit to China, evokes memories of my early impressions of the world I am about to see.

As an undergraduate in the early 1970’s, I was a student of political science and foreign policy. It was the era of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, the end of the Vietnam War and the “normalization of relations” with China.

“Nixon to China” became a metaphor for the incredible. That the ardent anti-Communist would be the first U.S. President to visit China in 1972 revolutionized foreign affairs.

Of China, Napolean said, “There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes he will move the world.” Nixon recognized the giant had awakened and moved toward a rapprochement that, until the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, was likely the most dramatic event of the postwar era.

He wrote about it in his treatise on the end of the Twentieth Century, “1999, Victory without War,” (Simon and Schuster, 1988) and acknowledged the metamorphosis:

“The modern world cannot afford the risk of misunderstandings and misjudgments that can occur when powerful nations fail to communicate in spite of their differences. Our estrangement from China, justified though it may have been on purely ideological grounds, was an ideological luxury neither we nor they could afford any longer.”

“In the long run the Sino-U.S. relationship will endure not because of fear but because of hope….We have nothing to lose from friendship with each other; we have everything to gain.”

It is in that spirit we now go to China.

Featured Articles — September 28, 2009

September 28, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

With Obama, Too Much Nuance, Not Enough Power By Michael Barone, DC Examiner
“It is my deeply held belief,” Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly, that “in the year 2009 — more than at any point in human history — the interests of nations and peoples are shared.

Obama the Gambler By Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post
Betting That Machismo Is Not Foreign Policy.

There Are Only Two Choices Left on Iran By Eliot Cohen, The Wall Street Journal
An Israeli or U.S. military strike now, or a nuclear Tehran soon.

Reid the Quarterback May Call on Obama to Referee By David Hersenzohrn and Robert Pear, The New York Times
As the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, takes on the delicate task of melding two competing versions of major health care legislation, aides say he will lean heavily on President Obama to arbitrate a number of contentious issues that still threaten to divide liberal and centrist Democrats and derail a final bill.

Welcome to the New Germany By Claus Christian Malzahn, Der Spiegel
Angela Merkel has won a second term as chancellor of Germany — but at what price?

How Not to Defeat al Qaeda By Frederick W. Kagan & Kimberly Kagan, The Weekly Standard
To win in Afghanistan requires troops on the ground.

Obama can’t downsize to success in Afghanistan By Max Boot, The Los Angeles Times
The president appears to be dragging his feet on more troops for the struggle, but that’s what an effective counterinsurgency strategy requires.

The U.S.-Iranian Triangle By Roger Cohen, The New York Times
France and Germany fought three wars in 70 years before the bright idea dawned of enfolding their problem into something larger: the European Union.

Karzai Family Secrets By Richard Posner, The Daily Beast
One is branded a druglord; the other a corrupt tycoon—critics say President Karzai’s brothers undermine Afghanistan. Both respond exclusively for the first time. By Gerald Posner.

William Safire RIP

September 27, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under In Memoriam | 5 Comments 

The New York Times website is reporting that William Safire, longtime columnist for the newspaper, one of Richard Nixon’s two leading speechwriters (with Ray Price) during the President’s first term, and, in 1959, an eyewitness to the Kitchen Debate in Moscow, has died at the age of 79.

Update 9.28.2009, 10:22 am (pst)

Courtesy of Frank Gannon, NPR’s David Folkenfilk has a comprehensive obituary on the late columnist and Nixon speechwriter:

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Update: 9.27.2009, 11:34 pm (pst)

Editor’s Note: More coverage on the passing of William Safire:

Bill Safire, The most appreciative appreciation., By Leslie Gelb, Forbes
Bill Safire, the longtime and prize-winning op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was the best in the opinion business for almost 30 years. He was also the best friend and the worst enemy to friends and foes. And I can’t think of a better accolade. There was little he would deny to a friend, and there was little respite he would give to a foe.

William Safire: Careful with words, generous with colleagues, By Carl Lavin, Forbes
The same hour William Safire died of cancer in a Maryland hospice, Jews in Israel–a nation always close to his heart and writings–were bowing their heads for Yom Kippur services.

William Safire, A competitor who had our back when we needed him, Wall Street Journal
In economic and foreign policy, as in fashion and music, the 1970s were largely a miserable decade. But out of that woeful time arose a generation of conservative giants in journalism and public life, among them the New York Times columnist William Safire, who died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at age 79.

William Safire, 1929-2009 By John Podhoretz, Commentary
William Safire, who died today, was a breakthrough figure—the first professional Republican ideologue of his time to become a mainstream fixture in journalism. Indeed, when he was hired by the New York Times to write a column after his tenure as a speechwriter and intimate of the president in the Nixon White House, the shock and horror with which his new position was viewed in the Times newsroom and in the journalistic corridors of Washington were unprecedented in their ferocity. Safire himself said that people would barely look him in the eye in his place of employ for years.

Remembering Bill Safire By Morton Janklow, The Daily Beast
Morton Janklow, literary agent and lifelong friend of the contrarian columnist, on how Safire launched his career and influenced political thought over two generations.

Read Safire’s last column at the New York Times: ‘Never Retire.’

As recently as July 2009 –the 50th anniversary of the famous Nixon-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate” — Safire discussed his role in the history making event:

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