Talcott W. Seelye

Retired diplomats, like old soldiers, do not necessarily have to fade away. Why should they? The best of them have accumulated a large store of knowledge and insight which can still be of use to their countrymen. But although many write books, act as consultants for companies, or run organizations involved in international activities, only a relative few get called upon regularly to step into the limelight of TV and the Op-Ed pages to provide millions of Americans with the benefit of their wisdom on fast-breaking, world-shaking events. One of those who is called upon, with increasing frequency, is Ambassador Talcott Seelye, who retired from the foreign service in September, 1981, after 30 years as a specialist in Middle East affairs.

Reading al-Assad

Mr. Seelye is the first to admit—perhaps a shade too modestly—that it is because the dice have rolled as they have in the world's affairs that his expertise has come into such high demand. After all, there are hardly two countries that have been more in the news since his retirement than Syria and Lebanon. And as it happens, until just two years ago he had spent three years as the U.S. Ambassador to Syria, and developed a finely-tuned instinct for what that country's president, Hafez al-Assad, feels about things. Not long before that, he had acted for a short period as U.S. Presidential Envoy to Lebanon, and once spent four years as the State Department's "country director" for a group of Middle East nations which included Lebanon.

"It's clear that if I were an expert on San Marino or Liechtenstein, I wouldn't be getting this much attention," he says with a laugh. Nor might he if his service in the area were not so recent.

But as any TV producer or Op-Ed page editor will tell you, it's not enough just to have the knowledge—you have to be able to articulate it, too. Mr. Seelye can do this very well—both on the printed page and over the airwaves.

During the recent weeks of crisis, he has been invited to appear on a gaggle of U.S. TV news shows which span the clock: MacNeil-Lehrer Report, Nightline, Nightwatch (2 to 5 a.m.), Good Morning America and Today. In between, he has managed to sandwich in commentaries for domestic and foreign radio stations.

On the print side, the Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor, among others, have solicited manuscripts from him, and many of his pieces have been re-printed abroad. For example, an Op-Ed article for the Post which argued that no country in the Mideast is less understood in the U.S. than Syria—"for one thing, Syrians are not violently anti-American," he says—showed up later on the pages of Paris' International Herald Tribune and the Middle East Times of Nicosia, Cyprus.

When not appearing on camera or behind a radio mike, Mr. Seelye can be found more and more frequently behind a lecture podium at such forums as university seminars, conventions, World Affairs Council get-togethers, business organizations, and citizen associations.

Have all these activities as an enlightener of U.S. public opinion turned out to be a full-time vocation? Gosh no, says Ambassador Seelye. "It's very satisfying, but to be able to afford to do it—the news shows don't pay!—I have to bring in some income." He does it by carrying out consulting work for a number of U.S. corporations—helping them initiate or develop their business in Middle East countries.

Mr. Seelye still finds time to keep in touch with old friends at the State Department. "I make observations to them from time to time," he says, "and at least they do listen—but whether my observations have any impact or not, I have no idea."

Withdrawing the Marines

Asked what he would do if he were now setting U.S. policy for Lebanon, Ambassador Seelye answers that he would be looking towards the early withdrawal of the U.S. marines. "I think it was a mistake to have put them there in the first place," he says. "Once in, we couldn't withdraw them under fire, of course. But if there is a, ceasefire that looks as though it can hold, we should gradually take them out. If they stay, there is a danger that they could once again get caught up in a defense of the Lebanese army that would have them inflicting casualties on Druze, Shiites, and others. I think what we have done already has caused a severe repercussion in many parts of the Arab world, and that the danger of having the marines there over-rides any possible positive spin-off from their presence."

Mr. Seelye has developed expertise on many other Arab countries other than those that are so much in the news today. He has served in Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia—where he was Ambassador from 1972 to 1976—and for three years was officer in charge of Arabian Peninsula Affairs. He was born in Beirut, where his father was a professor at the American University of Beirut, and attended Amherst College—graduating in 1947 after a three and one-half years stint in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is married and lives in Bethesda, Maryland.