MR. HUNT With us here to discuss this is Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s former national security advisor and a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Dr. Brzezinski, thanks for joining us. The president –
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Good to be with you.
MR. HUNT: Let’s go to the current race for president. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, as you know, have had several recent dustups over issues like whether the U.S. should act unilaterally if there were proven intelligence of al Qaeda in Pakistan, whether nuclear weapons should be taken off the table, and that thing. What’s your take on these arguments over foreign policy between these two leading candidates?
MR. BRZEZINSKI:
I think Obama is clearly more effective and has the upper hand. He has a sense of what is historically relevant and what is needed from the United States in relationship to the world. He recognizes that the challenges, a new face, a new sense of direction, a new definition of America’s role in the world.
The senator from New York talks in very conventional terms and I don’t think the country needs to go back to what we had eight years ago. I think there is a need for a fundamental rethinking of how we conduct world affairs and Obama seems to me to have both the guts and the intelligence to address that issue and to change the nature of America’s relationship with the world. MR. HUNT: And how about the other argument that whether you – the issue of talking to bad guys, the Iranians, North Koreans, and Hugo Chavez, do you believe that direct talks with unsavory characters rewards bad behavior or is just simply realpolitik?
MR. BRZEZINKSI: I can’t understand people who claim that that is the case because what it in effect means that you only talk to people who agree with you.
We negotiated with the Soviets throughout the years of the Cold War when there was always the possibility of a nuclear war with them. We negotiated with the Chinese. More recently, we have negotiated with the North Koreans. So what’s the hang-up about negotiating with the Syrians or with the Iranians and so forth? What Condi Rice says on this subject, mainly that we can’t negotiate with them because they don’t agree with us, is sheer nonsense. It’s really the reputation, the abandonment of intelligent diplomacy.
MR. HUNT: Dr. Brzezinksi, let me ask you a final question. You’ve made quite clear that you prefer Barack Obama in 2008. Are you talking to him about foreign policy right now, does he consult with you?
MR. BRZEZINSKI: Oh, I don’t think I would call myself a person that he consults with. I have known him, I’ve talked to him, but he talks to a lot of people and I’m sure that a lot of people are closer to him than I am. But I do feel fundamentally very deeply that we have gotten ourselves into a jam and that if America is to prosper and if our leadership is to be respected and trusted again, we really need a dramatic new departure. And I sort of sense that Senator Obama has that grasp, that fundamental understanding.
MR. HUNT: And therefore is ready, despite a lack of experience, to be president of the United States?
MR. BRZEZINSKI: Well, what kind of experience that was really relevant did Governor Clinton had before he became president?
Being a former First Lady doesn’t prepare you to be president. President Truman didn’t have much experience before he came to office. Neither did John Kennedy. It’s basically a fundamental grasp of what is the nature of our era that is essential here, that is at stake. MR. HUNT: Zbigniew Brzezinski, thank you very much for an interesting conversation. When we return, the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer have been no vacation for Ben Bernanke. Reports from Washington and London after the break.
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