The Logic of Detente

The Protracted Conflict

WHEN THE COMMENTATORS got to work on the story that the President had refused to meet with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, many of them explained his “mistake,” as they assumed it to be, by his own or his aides’ haste, illiteracy, narrowness, stupidity, or philistinism. There was initial speculation that Henry Kissinger “could not” have been consulted; and, when it was reported that indeed he had been, that he “could not” have agreed with the decision.

JB

About the Author

James Burnham

The Protracted Conflict

WHEN THE COMMENTATORS got to work on the story that the President had refused to meet with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, many of them explained his “mistake,” as they assumed it to be, by his own or his aides’ haste, illiteracy, narrowness, stupidity, or philistinism. There was initial speculation that Henry Kissinger “could not” have been consulted; and, when it was reported that indeed he had been, that he “could not” have agreed with the decision.