by Richard Kostelanetz (June 2012)

Be respectful of the dead unless they were important enough to warrant criticism, which then implicitly becomes posthumous flattery.

I knew the late sometime assistant secretary of state and “special envoy to Afghanistan” in high school more than fifty years ago, and he was also in my class at Brown University from 1958 to 1962. I can’t say I counted him as a friend; he didn’t sign my copy of our class’s yearbook at Scarsdale (NY) High. I had only one reason to count him as an enemy. My skeptical thoughts about him are more miscellaneous than coherent.  more>>>