With Defense Secretary Rumsfeld making "appeasement" the big buzzword of the
month, the George Washington University's National Security Archive notes
that its single most-downloaded file is now the once-classified batch of
documents, photos and video documenting Rumsfeld's handshake and meeting
with Saddam Hussein in December 1983. President Reagan had sent Rumsfeld to
Baghdad to help restore diplomatic ties with Iraq and aid Baghdad in its
fight against Iran.
The National Security Archive
Saddam Hussein greets Rumsfeld in Baghdad, 1983
"Rumsfeld meeting Saddam has now far outpaced the previous winner, which was
Elvis meeting Nixon," says Thomas Blanton, director of the archive, which
collects and posts significant declassified documents under the Freedom of
Information Act.
Rumsfeld last week warned of a rise of Islamic fascism and said that people
should not fall into the trap of appeasement as did those who tried to
accommodate the Nazis in the 1930s. The remarks led many pundits to compare
Rumsfeld's 1983 meeting with Hussein to British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain's meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1938. One liberal hawker of
political posters is now offering one that features photos of the two
meetings with the caption "Appeased to meet you.hope you guessed my name." -
Neil King Jr.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/09/08/rumsfeld-handshake-proves-popular/
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