A Lesson in Reaching Out to Adversaries

WASHINGTON -- Sol M. Linowitz was a successful businessman and Washington lawyer who was enthusiastic about becoming ambassador to the Organization of American States even though the man who nominated him, President Lyndon B. Johnson, ridiculed the hemispheric institution, claiming that its members "couldn't pour warm spit out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.''

But Linowitz, who died last month at 91, believed in the OAS and was convinced that the United States could make important contributions to Latin America if it understood the region's nuances and sensibilities. In 1966, Linowitz traveled the Americas to head off a boycott by regional leaders of a hemispheric summit. Many of those leaders resented the U.S. proposal to crack down on arms proliferation as an intrusion on national sovereignty -- and none more so than Peruvian President Fernando Belaunde Terry.

On the day Linowitz was to meet Belaunde in Lima, the president's uncle -- Peru's U.N. representative Victor Belaunde -- died in New York. After some prodding, Linowitz convinced Johnson to fly the body and relatives back to Peru on Air Force One. Linowitz recalled in his autobiography, "The Making of a Public Man,'' that the Peruvian leader "burst into tears'' upon hearing of Johnson's decision. Before the meeting ended, Belaunde agreed to attend the summit.

Linowitz became a valuable adviser to Democratic Presidents Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and founded what is today one of the most respected liberal think tanks in Washington, the Inter-American Dialogue. More importantly, Linowitz upheld principles that transcended his political affiliation. The Belaunde episode convinced him that in diplomacy, as in business, personal relations "can make all the difference." He proved that making a gesture of kindness toward an adversary is sometimes more constructive than to a friend.

Former diplomat and businessman Sol Linowitz, pictured here in 1998, died last month at age 91. (File Photo)

President Bush is a man who also believes in the value of the personal gesture in international relations and his administration's involvement in next week's elections for a new OAS secretary-general reflects that in spades. But like his recent nominations of John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Paul D. Wolfowitz to be World Bank president, Bush's intent is to reward his friends and not worry much about his critics .

For the OAS post, the Bush administration has thrown the weight of the United States behind El Salvador's former President Francisco Flores. Bush is grateful to Flores as one of Washington's closest supporters in the region.

And to promote its candidate, the Bush administration has backed a bill in Congress that promises $10 million in grants for the Caribbean, the region whose 14 votes at the OAS could deliver the job to Flores. He is running against Jose Miguel Insulza, the interior minister of Chile, and Luis Ernesto Derbez, the foreign minister of Mexico.

Not that there is anything inherently wrong with helping your friends. But in the current circumstances, Bush's endorsement of Flores has become more negative than beneficial.

During the run-up to the Iraq War, the Bush administration changed its attitude toward the region from one of partnership in a shared future to a with-us-or-against-us message. When some countries such as Mexico and Chile balked at supporting the war, they were diplomatically given the cold shoulder and their priorities belittled. Nowhere has the adversarial attitude been more pronounced than in dealings with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Despite what some Washington alarmists would have you believe, the evil-leftist conspiracy taking hold in the hemisphere is more real in their minds than on the ground. In fact, the expansion of the new left and the popularity of its leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is driven largely by poverty and the desire to be included in the prosperity of the north, not by some socialist ideal offered by the morally and mentally challenged Chavez. Meanwhile, Washington's adversarial approach to the new left only furthers suspicion of U.S. intentions and of those whom it chooses as friends.

On paper, Flores looks like an ideal candidate. He is young, dynamic, and his experience as a president would be a major plus at the OAS, where a strong executive is critical to its future.

But if he loses -- and many Latin American diplomats here this week are betting he won't make it past the first round of voting -- Washington should take time for retrospection and realize that the circumstances that led to Flores' defeat were created largely by Washington itself.

Until then, Washington risks behaving, as Linowitz concluded in his autobiography, "as though our overwhelming strength gives us an equally dominating wisdom.''

Marcela Sanchez's e-mail address is desdewash@washpost.com.