On one point I must speak out, and do so with unique authority. Senator Blanton has evidently charged that I was so greatly angered by one CIA operation during my tenure that I contemplated ordering a demonstration nuclear strike in protest. Please feel free to communicate to Congress, and to the American people, that no such wild irresponsible impulse ever so much as entered my mind. Both your country and mine have engaged in covert actions, and I do not doubt that you retroactively regret some things that were authorized, even as I do. But it is not my judgment that the defensive advantages of covert action, given the variety of threats to world peace, should be eliminated.
With all good wishes to you and Nancy, from both of us.
Mikhail Gorbachev
The news story in the Washington Times said that Senator Blanton was not commenting on the letter. “The consensus among congressional leaders,” the story ended, “is that the Blanton bill is dead.
Blackford Oakes took the entire front page of the paper, stuffed it into an envelope, and addressed it to Professor and Mrs. Nikolai Trimov, Department of English, University of Toronto, Canada.
Acknowledgments
Historical episodes involving Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev are drawn from the biography of Ronald Reagan by Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, from Mr. Reagan’s autobiography, An American Life, and from other current accounts. Chronological and other liberties have been taken. The technical detail dealing with the attempted assassination was provided by my old friend and consultant, Alfred Aya, Jr., whose ingenuity in matters scientific reminds us how fortunate we are that he is loyal to the United States.
This is the first book by me published by William Morrow [Editor’s note: 1994 hardcover edition], though I have worked before under the benevolent auspices of Howard Kaminsky and am happy to be once again in his company. Adrian Zackheim, the editorial director of Morrow, made important suggestions for which I am grateful. Dorothy McCartney did a resourceful job of research, and is considering a new career as a guide to Moscow. Tony Savage did his usual excellent job of handling the manuscript as it came in; Chaucy Bennetts once again came out of retirement to discipline my prose in her inimitable and authoritative way; Joe Isola read the galleys and advises that this is his twenty-eighth outing with my books; and Frances Bronson, as always, brought everything together and, as with so many enterprises, made it all possible.
Friends and family read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. In particular I am grateful to Sophie Wilkins, Professors Thomas Wendel and Chester Wolford, Charles Wallen, my agent, Lois Wallace, my brother Reid, my sister Priscilla, and my wife, Pat, for their careful and instructive readings.
It is discouraging to seek fresh ways to record my indebtedness to my editor, Sam Vaughan. But I suppose if Mr. Clinton can reinvent government, I can say that every time I come out of the experience with the sense of a book reinvented, so extraordinary are his contributions. This time around he even made a trip to Switzerland to check the book’s progress and to encourage its author. He is unique.
W.F.B.
Stamford, Connecticut
October 1993
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1994, 2005 by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Cover design by Barbara Brown
Cover illustration by Karl Kotas
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1858-6
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A Very Private Plot Page 22
