Mr. Buckley introduces his old friend as someone who "has always known how to

speak with men and women of different views. He has conducted civil conversations with Mao Tse-tung and Congressman Michael Barnes. Is there any sacrifice he is unwilling to make for the national welfare?" This absorbing conversation with the Metternich de nos jours ranges from the Vietnam War to the present-day Philippines to the bipartisan lack of congressional interest in the findings of his bipartisan commission. One sample: "Now Central America has the additional disadvantage that it looks a little bit like Vietnam. It's in the tropics, and it looks like the tropics, and it's a guerrilla war ... What people are reluctant to face is that it is very close to our borders."