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Collection Name: Henry A. Kissinger papers, part II Series Title: Series III. Post-Government Career Box: 718 Folder: 8 Folder Title: "Philip Habib: A Remembrance," Foreign Service Journal, Jul 1992 Persistent URL: http://yul-fi-uat1.library.yale.internal/catalog/digcoll:559256 Repository: Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

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Philip C. Habib died in I met Phil Habib when I was invited with a friend, and Phil came up to me to Lodge to Vietnam to say goodbye,and he said,"Boss, you're on May 25 of a heart attack. His by Ambassador write a report on the situation as I saw getting too fat. You know, when you've extraordinary service to the it. I went into his office, and he said, "I had a heart problem, you've got to take included extensive bet you are one of these Harvard smart- care of yourself." And I said to my work as acting head of delegation alecks who think they know everything. friend,"Phil was my conscience,even if to you until you visit a he brutalized me from time to time in at the Paris Peace Talks, I won't talk number of the provinces, and then I pursuit of our foreign policy." And Phil ambassador to Korea, assistant may talk to you."Phil was irreverent, he replied,"What! am really proud ofis not was dedicated, he was the ideal Foreign the policies we did together, but that, Service officer. after you left, I saw to it that Secretary The foreign policy of the United Vance and you remained in close and States does not depend on any one frequent contact." administration. The national interest To Phil, foreign policy and the For- and the basic values ofthe United States eign Service represented the meaning are permanent, though our political of his life, never to be identified with system encapsulates them into brief any one person, but with the values of periods, and it is the Foreign Service our country and the ideals of our that has to provide continuity, analysis, society. and integrity to the permanence of our -, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE foreign policy. I know no one who embodied these values better than Phil • Habib. He believed that there was some relationship between the views he held and the decibels with which he ex- pressed them, and so, no respecter of personalities, he would present his views in a seemingly truculent manner. secretary for East Asian and But those of us who loved him knew Pacific affairs, under secretary that he was our conscience. After he had decisions for political affairs, presidential his say, he would execute the efficiently, loyally, and without any at- envoy to the , and a tempt to reverse them with the usual number of other important Washington methods. He was an ide- diplomatic missions, including to alist who knew that foreign policy must but in the end, its the , , deal with necessities, dilemmas can be resolved only by the and the Caribbean. compass course of strong moral con- Following are reminiscences victions. by friends and colleagues of Phil I saw him 24 hours before he died, at I was sitting Habib. the Bilderberg Conference. 10 • FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL • JULY 1992 .

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