George Bush’s offer of $10 billion in loan guarantees to help Israel resettle Soviet and Ethiopian refugees may or may not have been a brilliant move for American diplomacy and domestic politics. It rewarded Prime Minister Rabin for partially halting settlement construction in the occupied territories and for showing greater flexibility in negotiations. Will it...
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July 1, 1992April 21, 2022Cultural Revolutions
An Economic Illness
Pollsters and pundits seem to think our American malaise is an economic illness that will be cured when the recession ends. I spent my State Department career deeply involved with the Shah’s regime and revolutionary Iran and I smell deja vu. In the past four years, I’ve seen stronger expressions of political discontent here than...
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June 1, 1992July 25, 2022View
A Tale of Two Cities
Visits in the space of ten days to Toronto, Ontario, and then Tifton, Georgia, demand reflective analysis for stronger reasons than the compelling force of alliteration. The city and the town are so different that the visitor to both is driven to look for the faintest similarities. Once that effort is made, however, sweeping conclusions...