Word: statesmen
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...stood, I fervently hoped, at the threshold of a period of national reconciliation that would be given impetus by the unique opportunity for creativity I saw ahead. Only rarely in history do statesmen find an environment in which all factors are so malleable; before us, I thought, was the chance to shape events, to build a new world. I was grateful for the opportunity I had enjoyed to help prepare the ground. And I was at peace with myself, neither elated...
...Gandhi offered an unconditional cease-fire in the West. There is no doubt in my mind that it was a reluctant decision resulting from Soviet pressure, which in turn grew out of American insistence. The crisis was over. We had avoided the worst-which is sometimes the maximum statesmen can achieve...
...bridge across the mutual incomprehension that was rending our society. Gently, they expressed their deep and passionate opposition to the war; but they had no idea how to end it. My problem was to translate inchoate ideas-however deeply held-into policy. Ours was the perpetually inconclusive dialogue between statesmen and prophets, between those who operate in time and through attainable stages and those who are concerned with truth and the eternal. I found it easier to respect these committed and consistent pacifists, who hated all killing, than those whose morality was selective, who condemned American military actions...
...ambivalent shown him some love? Would he have withdrawn deeper into the wilderness of his resentments, or would an act of grace have liberated him? By now it no longer mattered. Enveloped in an intractable solitude, he nevertheless saw before him a vista of promise to which few statesmen have been blessed to aspire, a new international order that would reduce lingering enmities, strengthen friendships and give new hope to emerging nations. He was alone in his moment of triumph on a pinnacle that was soon to turn into a precipice...
...then Energy Secretary James Schlesinger entered the deliberations and led them to a breakdown; the Mexicans said he used "colossus of the north" bargaining tactics. While in Mexico last February, Jimmy Carter tried to revive the talks, but Mexican President José López Portillo sniffed: "Presidents are statesmen, not merchants...