Common Experiences

Lillian Hellman's rebuke to George Kennan after he bemoaned the irresponsibility and nihilism of youth had the same effect. Abandoning rhetoric and argument, Hellman recalled talking with Kennan in a European cafe decades before. "We've had so many common experiences," she said. "How come we feel so differently about youth?" The reproach was simple, emotional and electric.

Still another departure in style produced a similar result. When Henry A Kissinger addressed the group on the third night of the talks, he refused to answer questions from the audience. "I have asked our Chairman," he said, "if he would agree to reverse the procedure of you asking me questions, which I would then evade, to one in which you will let me ask you some questions." He then asked, in effect, for the Europeans in the audience to advise him on how to do his new job. For about a half hour, Kissinger, a symbol of American power, sat by the podium and diligently took notes while a German, a Frenchman and an Englishman tried to define the problems of U.S. foreign policy and offer some solution.

It is probably unfair to judge the results of a conference solely on what gets into the transcript. Much of the constructive dialogue was undoubtedly personal and informal, over drinks or coffee. But whether this "cross-fertilization of ideas," as some IACF people were fond of calling it, justified such an immense outlay of funds is uncertain at best.

As for the liberal establishment, Stanley Hoffman put it best. "If anyone ever doubted that intellectuals are ordinary people," he commented, at the closing session, "this seminar should have dispelled that doubt." There must be better ways to learn.