"My view is that you don't just talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies, as well. And the diplomacy involves talking to your enemies. You don't reward your enemies necessarily, by talking to them if you're tough and you know what you're doing. You don't appease them. Talking to an enemy is not, in my view, appeasement. I made 15 trips to Syria in 1990-1991 at a time when Syria was on the list of countries who are state sponsors of terrorism. And the 16th trip, guess what? Lo and behold, Syria changed 25 years of policy and agreed for the first time in history to come sit at the table with Israel, which is what Israel wanted at the time. And, thereby, implicitly recognized Israel's right to exist. Now, all I'm saying is that would never have happened if we hadn't been sufficiently dedicated that we were going to keep at it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Lawyers from the United StatesUnited States federal government officialsUnited States Secretaries of StateUnited States Secretaries of the TreasuryWhite House Chiefs of Staff
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
On the October 5, 2006 edition of the Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Baker
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
James Baker
James Addison Baker, III (born April 28, 1930) worked in President Ronald Reagan's administration, first as Chief of Staff from 1981 to 1985, then as Secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to 1988. After running George H.W. Bush's successful presidential campaign in 1988, Baker was appointed Secretary of State by President Bush in 1989. The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas is named after him. In 2006, he was named the Republican co-chair of the new
3 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by James Baker →
Related Quotes
"We understand the need for assurances to the countries in the East. If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a …"
""You must tell them that there must be a new union or there will be chaos," he [Shevardnadze] implored me. That eveni…"
"Individual rights have been recognized by our jurisprudence only after long and costly struggles. They should not be …"
"Common sense and justice dictate that a citizen accused of a crime should have the fullest hearing possible, plus the…"
"Experience demonstrates that in time of war individual liberties cannot always be entrusted safely to uncontrolled ad…"
"Criminal punishment for disobedience of an arbitrary and invalid order is objectionable regardless of whether the ord…"
"That an individual should languish in prison for five years without being accorded the opportunity of proving that th…"
"This exclusion of "all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien," from the Pacific Coast area on a plea…"
"The judicial test of whether the Government, on a plea of military necessity, can validly deprive an individual of an…"
"It must be conceded that the military and naval situation in the spring of 1942 was such as to generate a very real f…"