Ten years after the U.S. attack on Iraq the question remains: Were U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair cunning liars with their claims of weapons of mass destruction? Or were they just stupid?
A Moscow experience I endured many years earlier over a very different war — Vietnam — suggests that belligerence more than makes up for any lack of intelligence suffered by our leaders. I relate that experience belatedly since it is very relevant to what is happening today over North Korea. It could also throw some light on a hitherto secret corner of big power confrontation history.
In November 1964 an urgent message arrived at the Australian Moscow Embassy where I was stationed saying that Australian Foreign Minister Paul Hasluck wanted an immediate meeting with the top Soviet leadership. He had an important message to pass on over Vietnam. Normally Moscow would not want to give ear to a little-known foreign minister from a distant country. But there were also hints that the United States was behind his message. A few days later I found myself sitting beside Hasluck at the standard Kremlin green baize table facing Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.