Meeting With Our Enemies

Summary

• Strong countries and strong Presidents speak with their adversaries.
• Quotes JFK: "We should never negotiate out of fear, but we shouldn't fear to negotiate."

Summary

• Meeting our enemies without precondition enhances their prestige at our expense
• There is room for discussion with our enemies if they materially change their positions on certain important issues.

Q: In July, you were asked if you were willing to meet separately without pre-condition during your first year with Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il, Hugo Chavez. You said yes. You stand by that?
A: I do. Now, I did not say that I would be meeting with all of them. I said I'd be willing to. Obviously, there is a difference between pre-conditions and preparation. Pre-conditions, which was what the question was in that debate, means that we won't meet with people unless they've already agreed to the very things that we expect to be meeting with them about. And obviously, when we say to Iran, "We won't meet with you until you've agreed to all the terms that we've laid out," from their perspective that's not a negotiation, that's not a meeting.

Q: You're not afraid of being used in a propaganda way?

A: You know, strong countries and strong presidents speak with their adversaries. I always think back to JFK's saying that we should never negotiate out of fear, but we shouldn't fear to negotiate.

If you're going to sit down with someone like Ahmadinejad, who articulates — comes here to New York City and says they're going to "wipe Israel off of the map," then you enhance their prestige.

Now if the president of Iran wants to sit down and talk seriously and says that they're not going — that they will abandon that horrible commitment, then maybe there is some room for discussion, but all you do is enhance their prestige.

The same thing if you want to talk to Mr. Chavez. The same thing if you want to talk to Raul Castro, who was the henchman in Cuba and still is for many, many years.

Look, there's ways of communicating, and there's ways of enhancing the prestige of your adversaries. And what Senator Obama wants to do would obviously do that in my view.

November 11, 2007
Meet the Press
Interview with Tim Russert

May 9, 2008
Fox News
Interview with Bill O'Reilly