Ben Rhodes Quotes
Talking and diplomacy is often seen as a concession in America, in a way that it is not in other places.
Rhodes, Ben. The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. Random House, 2018.
He had little difficulty until he and the British Government announced the plan to grant independence to India. At that point the Muslim League came up with the notion of Partition of India which polarized the Indian politicians mostly along religious lines, and much of India was "up for grabs". No one wanted to concede anything to the other side as this might strengthen the other side's image of its power and just encourage them to go for more. Wavell's job became impossible.
The Russians were breaking diplomatic relations with Israel.
In 1963 the White House Chief of Staff, Walter Jenkins, was arrested for homosexual solicitation at the YMCA. Johnson fired Jenkins but was personally very supportive to an old friend and advisor. However, the story was the major media story of the time. Johnson was preparing a major speech and hoped to get the Jenkins story off the front page.
Benjamin J. Rhodes is an American writer, political commentator and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting under President Barack Obama. With Jake Sullivan, he is the co-chair of National Security Action, a political NGO. He contributes to NBC News and MSNBC regularly as a political commentator. He is also a Crooked Media contributor, and co-host of the foreign policy podcast Pod Save the World.
