The Nations Peter Rothberg has a nice memory piece on someone who meant a great deal to me in my life: the late Jonathan Schell. Rothberg, in fact, has a wonderful passage about a time when he was the Nations publicist and Jonathan had just written a book, The Gift of Time -- I edited it -- featuring the thoughts of men who had been part of the nuclear establishment in America. Heres how he remembers his moment with Jonathan and former Vietnam-era Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Tom As part of The Nations campaign to amplify Jonathans call, I was tasked with organizing a small speaking tour with stops in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The idea was to put Jonathan together publicly with some of those unlikely allies to make the case for nuclear abolition. McNamara and the late Democratic Senator from California, Alan Cranston, both agreed to participate. Shortly thereafter, I found myself at dinner with this august trio. At first I was uncharacteristically quiet, content to listen in as these elder statesmen talked politics, baseball and, oddly I remember thinking, gardening. The next opportunity though, I got up the gumption to tell the extremely-disarming McNamara a little about myself. While concerned about what the unfailingly polite Jonathan would think of me hectoring his new ally, I told McNamara that it was a little surreal for me to be organizing a speaking tour for him 25 years after my parents used to trot me out to antiwar rallies as a little kid where we denounced him by name. Unsure how the former Secretary of Defense would react, Ill never forget his rueful smile as he quietly told me that my parents did the right thing. And Ill always remember Jonathans cheshire cat grin and vigorous nods of approval following the exchange. To me, this conversation symbolized what was so special about Jonathan: his unique ability to build bridges which brought together in common cause this lefty child of a red-diaper baby with a core member of LBJs war cabinet. Thank you, Jonathan. thenation/blog/180233/when-jonathan-schell-introduced-me-robert-mcnamara#
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 21:46:27 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015