More Rain...

けさ、"The Unfinished Presidency" を読み終えた。

Carter desperately wanted to bring peace to El Salvador [in 1986], embarrassed that as president he had sold arms to the ruling government. (p. 204)

Carter's awareness around 1983 began to mature in an almost tragic sense," [Mary] King recalls. "He began to understand more fully the ramifications from Camp David." The Palestinians were the central subject of the "framework" in the accords, yet they were neither consulted nor asked for there concurrence. By constructing Camp David without Palestinian representation, although he had not intended, Carter had given occupation more enduring features... Cater wanted to find a way to remedy the situation. (p. 238)

Talk [in Paris in 1990] then turned to Carter's concern over the PLO National Charter... Arafat grew agitated as he pulled out two newly minted gold Israeli medallions and presented them to Carter. They featured a map of Israel that covered portions of Syria, Iraq as far as Baghdad, and a chunk of Saudi Arabia. He asked Carter to pass one on to President Bush, and then had an aide present Carter with another map that purported to show Zionist design for the Middle East. "We have to speak about their charter too," was Arafat's point (p. 326)

When the Iraqi invasion occurred, Mary King was "urgently" summoned by the PLO to fly to a private meeting with Arafat to discuss the brewing crisis. "We called Mary to Vienna in order to pass along a message," [Arafat's spokesman] Bassam Abu Sharif recalled. "We got an OK from Saddam Hussein accepting [UN resolutions] 242 and 338 which means recognizing Israel..." (p. 334)

As Arafat's pro-Iraqi stance had left him politically isolated in world opinion, the somewhat chastened leader tried to justify himself to Jimmy and Rosalynn, explaining why he had to support the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: "... Either side of the Occupied Territories, [Palestinians] are with Saddam... Saddam is their only hope because he has linked oil for the first time with their cause. He has linked missiles to their cause. They feel stronger because of him. All the Arab nations feel stronger because of him including both nationalists and fundamentalists." (p. 335)

To the surprise of many, the U.S. coalition [against Saddam] included [Syrian President] Assad. [Secretary of State] Baker had flown to Syria -- branded a terrorist nation by the United States -- returned with Assad's support for Operation Desert Storm. The tradeoff Baker struck with Assad stipulated that for Syrian support of Desert Storm, the United States would allow Syria free rein in Lebanon. (p. 340)

... [B]oth Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter supported Tipper Gore's crusade to put warning labels on rock and roll albums that contained offensive lyrics. (p. 364)

On June 10 [in 1994],... Emperor Akihito of Japan... arrived in Atlanta to lunch with Carter and discussed how to deal with North Korea's defiance of nuclear inspections... The emperor, not allowed to officially speak for Japan, told Carter that his country believed that sanctions of any kind would cause Tokyo severe economic problems. Japan has a substantial Korean minority split between citizens from the North and South, and a crisis of this magnitude would trigger all kinds of economic havoc. (p. 399)

"Electric Don Quixote" を90ページまで読んだところで、次のページが59ページに戻っていることに気づいた。そこから同じページの繰り返しで、２度目の90ページの次は123ページだった……。

アイマスクと耳栓をして眠ろうとしたけど、外が明るくなっているのがわかったから、眠ったのは８時ごろだろう。起きたのは午後４時半ごろ。仕事に復帰した当日、OA機器販売会社の女性がプリンターのデモに来ていた夢だった。インク・カートリッジぐらいの大きさの透明部品をプリンターに組み込み、印刷開始とともにスターハブに電話するという仕組み。これまでの印刷より確実で早いと説明していた。

夕方、"Generassimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and the China He Lost" (Jonathan Fenby) を始めた。