Thanks, but No Thanks

In Bill Buckley’s article on his latest visit to Mainland China (NR, Feb. 4), he mentions encountering our old friend Bob Myers, formerly publisher of The New Republic, at the U.S. Embassy in Peking, and quotes Bob as remarking that he had “tried for years to persuade Bill Rusher to come to visit China.”

Bill passes the incident off with the sensible observation that it’s a little hard to say why anybody who has a personal disinclination to visit Red China (or Russia) should exert himself very strenuously to overcome it. And yet there is something piquant (I use the word properly: i.e., with reverence) about the difference between Bill’s observed behavior and my own—two Ivy Leaguers of almost the same age, who agree on so much else. Some years ago, learning of an especially toothsome bargain being offered by Aeroflot during the Christmas season, Bill called off his annual Christmas party and invited the entire top staff of national review to accompany him on a one-week package tour of Moscow, Kalinin, and Leningrad. Twenty-six people took him up on it. This little piggy stayed home. In Heaven’s name, why?

WA

About the Author

William A. Rusher

Featured Tags

In Bill Buckley’s article on his latest visit to Mainland China (NR, Feb. 4), he mentions encountering our old friend Bob Myers, formerly publisher of The New Republic, at the U.S. Embassy in Peking, and quotes Bob as remarking that he had “tried for years to persuade Bill Rusher to come to visit China.”

Bill passes the incident off with the sensible observation that it’s a little hard to say why anybody who has a personal disinclination to visit Red China (or Russia) should exert himself very strenuously to overcome it. And yet there is something piquant (I use the word properly: i.e., with reverence) about the difference between Bill’s observed behavior and my own—two Ivy Leaguers of almost the same age, who agree on so much else. Some years ago, learning of an especially toothsome bargain being offered by Aeroflot during the Christmas season, Bill called off his annual Christmas party and invited the entire top staff of national review to accompany him on a one-week package tour of Moscow, Kalinin, and Leningrad. Twenty-six people took him up on it. This little piggy stayed home. In Heaven’s name, why?