Hide and Not Seek: Bush and Iranian President at the U.N.
Sept. 19, 2006— -- No one should be surprised if there is no breakthrough at the UN General Assembly this week in the frosty relations between U-S President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The annual conclave of world leaders offers the opportunity for talks both in one-on-one meetings and at informal get-togethers such as the reception President Bush hosts for leaders Tuesday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. But the Iranian President's invitation to the latter must have been lost in the mail.
Nor did Bush accept Ahmadinejad's invitation to debate on television. The Iranian had suggested a live, uncensored debate "..about world issues and ways out of these standoffs," such as the one over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. But White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said, " There is not going to be a steel-cage, grudge match between Bush and Ahmadinejad. ....This is not going to be a UN version of Crossfire (CNN's former hotwired debate show)." Snow also ruled out any informal chats during social occasions at the UN. The White House Advance Office, which plans presidential travels, tries to make sure there are no accidental meetings .
Other presidents have also relied on their aides to try to avoid embarrassing confrontations with leaders they would rather not bump up against. But accidents do happen.
Bill Clinton did not want to talk to Cuba's Fidel Castro at the UN General Assembly iin 2000. They wound up in a crowded room at a diplomatic lunch, and Castro stuck out his hand. Clinton shook it. The first and only time any American president had physically touched Castro. (Richard Nixon had met Castro but that was long before Nixon became President.) When reporters asked if they shook hands, Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart first said, "No," then a short time later said, "Yes." Secretary of State Albright said they not only shook, but also talked for "a couple of minutes." She said: "It was a chance encounter that Mr. Castro initiated. It was just a cordial conversation, but no substance as I understand it."
George W. Bush vowed he would never shake hands with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. They, too, were in close proximity at the U-N, but there was no "grip and grin." It was widely reported that Bush had snubbed Arafat.
Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, is also not on Bush's list of his favorite leaders. At the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina the world's media speculated on a possible face-to-face between Bush and Chavez. When asked what he would do if they met, Bush said he would be "polite." Chavez addressed a crowd of anti-Bush protestors, and was as usual critical of American policies. Bush and Chavez wound up in a group picture, but avoided each other whenever possible. Bush left the summit before it ended.
Even when leaders do get together for carefully choreographed meetings, there is often a good deal of gamesmanship as one side or the other tries to gain an edge. When Richard Nixon invited Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to the White House in 1973, Nixon aides didn't want Brezhnev talking to reporters until they were certain he would make no references to the then-growing Watergate scandal. But, in the south driveway of the White House when Brezhnev spotted some of us, he walked over and started answering our questions. Nixon aides were horrified. They need not have been. Brezhnev said nothing that was ernbarrassing to Nixon, and that may have worked in his favor when the two leaders sat down for private talks.. But at the same time he showed he would not be muzzled. Two points for the Russian side.
When Ronald Reagan met one of Brezhnev's successors, Mikhail Gorbachev, for their first summit in 1985, the Gipper showed his competitive side. It was a cold, late November day in Geneva, Switzerland when Gorbachev arrived for the first session. Because of the chill he wore a topcoat. When Reagan came outside to greet him, the older man (Reagan was 20 years the elder) braved the cold without a topcoat. One point for the American side.
This reporter learned early on about gamesmanship at the U-N. In 1960 Cuba's Fidel Castro announced he would be in New York for the September opening of the General Assembly. Castro planned to stay in New York's Spanish Harlem, and it looked as though the Cuban would dominate world coverage of the Assembly. Faced with the threat of Castro's leftist, anti-American ideology President Dwight Eisenhower decided he needed, not only to go to the U-N, but to be aggressive in courting public opinion in Latin America. So, Ike scheduled a lunch in New York with a dozen or so leaders from the Americas. Castro, needless to say was not invited. ( Fast forward 46 years: Bush does not invite Iran's president to his reception.)
As a very young G-I in the White House Army Signal Agency, it was my job to record Eisenhower's remarks including the informal luncheon talk he was going to give in the Waldorf Towers apartment of the U-S Ambassador to the U-N. The night before the lunch, I went to the apartment to get a look. The Ambassador, holding a sizeable tumbler of Scotch in his hands, invited me in, and told me how important it was for everything to go right the next day: "Very, very important, young man." "Yes, sir," I mumbled nervously, as I turned down the first offer of Scotch I had ever received.
The lunch was in the Ambassador's small dining room. It was so cramped that there was no room for Secret Service agents. They stayed just out of sight behind a pantry door, and told me to yell out if there were any problems. Throughout most of the meal, I stood a few steps behind Eisenhower's chair. His press secretary, an old newspaper pro named James Hagerty, had told me that when dessert was served, I should put the microphone in front of the President so I could record his remarks for posterity.
That, I thought, was the game plan. When the sherbet arrived, I said, "Excuse me, Mr. President," and put the mike in front of him. As I stepped back, Eisenhower said, "What's this?" He turned around to me, and said in the coldest voice I had ever heard, "What do you think you are doing?" He followed this with a wave of his hand. I thought he was telling me that the microphone needed to be positioned better. So, I returned and adjusted the mike. Twice, the leader of the free world and I went through this routine, and each time I thought he was unhappy with the placement of the mike.
The third time, he made it clear he did not want the microphone, and an apparently angry Ike told me in no uncertain terms to remove "the damn thing."Red-faced, I picked it up and retreated the two steps. I would have gone farther, much farther. But I was already backed up against the wall.
As Eisenhower turned to focus on his guests, his demeanor changed abruptly. He turned on the legendary charm that helped win him the job of Supreme Allied Commander of the D-Day Invasion, not to mention two terms as president. He told his guests: "Why do I need a microphone? I am among friends. I am not here to make a speech. You need no lectures from me. I just want to talk quietly with leaders from great nations who share the same democratic ideals that my country does." Well, those may not be exact quotes. But you get the idea.
Eventually Eisenhower finished his "non-speech", and the lunch broke up. As the guests filed out, I turned to Jim Hagerty, the press secretary: "Jim, what happened? What was that all about? Why was the President so angry?" Hagerty, with a mischievous grin spread wide on his Irish face, said: "Kid, you've just been used as a prop by the President of the United States. And you were treated to some great theatre. The President knew from the minute he walked in that you were there to record him. And he knew you would put that microphone in front of him. And he knew how he could use that."
Hagerty told me not to feel bad about it. After all, he said, "You've got a story you can tell the rest of your life." Not only that, but I also got a good lesson in Presidential gamesmanship.