Kessler '81 critical of Rice
George Miller
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Campus News
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The talk - part of Kessler's tour to promote his new book, "The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy" - attracted a crowd of about 30 to the Joukowsky Forum. Kessler drew heavily on anecdotes from covering diplomatic meetings and speaking to Rice and her aides to present his book's main argument: Rice is "a smart, sophisticated diplomat," he said, "but she lacks a strategic vision."
He detailed what he called Rice's failures in Iran, North Korea and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how her actions as national security adviser during President Bush's first term added to her problems as his secretary of state in his second.
Kessler argued that Rice has missed numerous diplomatic opportunities during the past seven years, in refusing bilateral talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and in other situations.
At the same time, he said, she has more power than her predecessor as secretary of state, Colin Powell, because diplomats are aware of her close relationship with the president. She also has the highest approval rating of any administration official, he said.
Kessler recounted one story about Rice after another, including scenes illustrative of her struggles as a black woman in diplomacy. He told how Rice - in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to speak on greater freedom for women in the Middle East - received a gift from Saudi Arabia's then-crown prince: An abaya, the full-length covering that Saudi Arabian women are required to wear in public.
"His anecdotes were great," said attendee Patrick Cook-Deegan '08. "It was good to get an insider's account" of Rice's diplomatic struggles, he added.