I'd describe myself as a pragmatist tinged with idealism.

Americans have always had an ambivalent attitude toward intelligence. When they feel threatened, they want a lot of it, and when they don't, they regard the whole thing as somewhat immoral.

For over ten years, bombs rained down on every village and hamlet in South Vietnam, and no one budged. It took the coming of a Communist 'peace' to send hundreds of thousands of people out into the South China Sea, on anything that could float, or might float, to risk dehydration, piracy, drowning . . .

It is an endless procession of surprises. The expected rarely occurs and never in the expected manner.

The United Nations has become a place where many countries seek to achieve a lynching of the United States by resolution.

I'm a participant in the doctrine of constructive ambiguity.