Difference between revisions of "Elie Kedourie"

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(Adviser to Margaret Thatcher)
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===Adviser to Margaret Thatcher===
 
===Adviser to Margaret Thatcher===
In early 1980 [[Michale Howard]] was invited by Margaret Thatcher to lunch at [[Chequers]]. Thatcher had been advised by the Foreign Office that the Soviet Union did not pose a serious military threat, so she invited Howard and other right-wing experts to take part in a committee offering 'independent' advice:
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In early 1980 Kedourie was invited by Margaret Thatcher to lunch at [[Chequers]]. Thatcher had been advised by the Foreign Office that the Soviet Union did not pose a serious military threat, so she invited Kedourie and other right-wing experts to take part in a committee offering 'independent' advice. [[Michael Howard (UK Academic)|Michael Howard]], who was also invited, recalls the following in his memoires:
  
<blockquote style="background-color:ivory;border:1pt solid Darkgoldenrod;padding:1%;font-size:10pt">In the USA a group of hawks formed a well funded [[Committee on the Present Danger]], consisting largely of pupils and associates of [[Albert Wohlstetter]], who urged the breaking off of arms-control negotiations and massive rearmament.  Mrs Thatcher was temperamentally inclined to agree with them.  The Foreign Office was not.  Not surpringly, the Prime Minister sought further options...She asked [[Hugh Thomas|Hugh]] [Thomas] to set up a small committee to draft independent recommendations for the conduct of British foreign policy consisting of myself, [[Leonard Schapiro]] and [[Elie Kedourie]]...We put together a totally incoherent docuement which deserved to go straight into the waste paper basket and probably did. I continued to be invited to Chequers seminars and always found the Prime Minister friendly and courteous.  But she was not easy company, lacking as she was in any sense of humour, and increasingly impervious to new ideas. <ref>Michael Howard, ''Captain Professor The Memoirs of Sir Michael Howard'' (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) pp.192-3</ref></blockquote>
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<blockquote style="background-color:ivory;border:1pt solid Darkgoldenrod;padding:1%;font-size:10pt">In the USA a group of hawks formed a well funded [[Committee on the Present Danger]], consisting largely of pupils and associates of [[Albert Wohlstetter]], who urged the breaking off of arms-control negotiations and massive rearmament.  Mrs Thatcher was temperamentally inclined to agree with them.  The Foreign Office was not.  Not surpringly, the Prime Minister sought further options...She asked [[Hugh Thomas|Hugh]] [Thomas] to set up a small committee to draft independent recommendations for the conduct of British foreign policy consisting of myself, [[Leonard Schapiro]] and Elie Kedourie...We put together a totally incoherent docuement which deserved to go straight into the waste paper basket and probably did. I continued to be invited to Chequers seminars and always found the Prime Minister friendly and courteous.  But she was not easy company, lacking as she was in any sense of humour, and increasingly impervious to new ideas. <ref>Michael Howard, ''Captain Professor The Memoirs of Sir Michael Howard'' (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) pp.192-3</ref></blockquote>
  
Howard recalls that [[Leonard Schapiro]] and [[Elie Kedourie]] "believed the recently concluding Helsinki Accords had been a defeat for the West by 'legitimizing' the Soviet control of Eastern Europe." Howards says he was sceptical of the worst case scenario peddled by the [[Committee on the Present Danger]] but "believed strongly in the need to preserve credible deterrence". <ref>Michael Howard, ''Captain Professor The Memoirs of Sir Michael Howard'' (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) p.193</ref>
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[[Michael Howard (UK Academic)|Howard]] recalls that Kedourie and [[Leonard Schapiro]] "believed the recently concluding Helsinki Accords had been a defeat for the West by 'legitimizing' the Soviet control of Eastern Europe." <ref>Michael Howard, ''Captain Professor The Memoirs of Sir Michael Howard'' (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) p.193</ref>
  
 
==Views==
 
==Views==

Revision as of 09:18, 23 October 2008

Background

Biographical Information

History

Activities

Adviser to Margaret Thatcher

In early 1980 Kedourie was invited by Margaret Thatcher to lunch at Chequers. Thatcher had been advised by the Foreign Office that the Soviet Union did not pose a serious military threat, so she invited Kedourie and other right-wing experts to take part in a committee offering 'independent' advice. Michael Howard, who was also invited, recalls the following in his memoires:

In the USA a group of hawks formed a well funded Committee on the Present Danger, consisting largely of pupils and associates of Albert Wohlstetter, who urged the breaking off of arms-control negotiations and massive rearmament. Mrs Thatcher was temperamentally inclined to agree with them. The Foreign Office was not. Not surpringly, the Prime Minister sought further options...She asked Hugh [Thomas] to set up a small committee to draft independent recommendations for the conduct of British foreign policy consisting of myself, Leonard Schapiro and Elie Kedourie...We put together a totally incoherent docuement which deserved to go straight into the waste paper basket and probably did. I continued to be invited to Chequers seminars and always found the Prime Minister friendly and courteous. But she was not easy company, lacking as she was in any sense of humour, and increasingly impervious to new ideas. [1]

Howard recalls that Kedourie and Leonard Schapiro "believed the recently concluding Helsinki Accords had been a defeat for the West by 'legitimizing' the Soviet control of Eastern Europe." [2]

Views

Affiliations

Publications

Resources

  • Martin Kramer Elie Kedourie A formidable and dissident historian of the Middle East. Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, accessed 24 October 2008.
  • Wikipedia Elie Kedourie, accessed 24 October 2008.

Contact, Notes

Contact

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Email:
Website:

Notes

  1. Michael Howard, Captain Professor The Memoirs of Sir Michael Howard (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) pp.192-3
  2. Michael Howard, Captain Professor The Memoirs of Sir Michael Howard (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006) p.193