Remembering Harold H. (Hal) Saunders

I was happy to see that the New York Times obituary on Hal quoted Henry Kissinger saying Hal was “an indispensable member of the Middle East team” who was “especially important in emphasizing the psychological and moral dimensions of problems.” I worked for Hal as regional policy adviser in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, and one of my jobs was congressional relations. When President Carter nominated Hal for the post of assistant secretary of state in that bureau, I accompanied him for his hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and did a briefing memo for him recommending that at an appropriate point in the questioning, he express a strong personal moral commitment to Israel’s security and survival.
 
In Secretary of State’s Henry Kissinger’s “reassessment” policy designed to exert pressure on Israel over the settlements issue, before 1976, Hal had been used to launch a trial policy balloon that was shot down immediately by Israel and its strong supporters in Congress. I knew that he would face a tough grilling by the committee which met in the quaint, small hearing room off the Capitol. It was remarkable that when Hal pledged his personal commitment to Israel’s security how the tense postures of senators went into immediate relax mode when he made his commitment. The hearing glided to a happy ending after that. I worked closely for Hal as chief of the Near East division of the bureau of intelligence and research throughout his period as assistant secretary, and when he retired in 1981,  I confess to having induced him into my work in Track Two Diplomacy while I was in active duty in the Department of State.

I invited Hal and Carol to Esalen Institute for a seminar with Erik Erikson on the psychology of the U.S.-Soviet relationship. And I invited him to come to an Egyptian-Israel-Palestinian workshop in Austria organized by the American Psychiatric Association on ways to further the Camp David peace process. He even joined the International Society of Political Psychology of which I was a founder and won its prestigious Nevitt Sanford Award for “distinguished professional contribution to political psychology.”
      
Throughout his post-government career, Hal Saunders pursued his mission of saving lives in political conflicts by using sustained dialogue to induce fellow human beings to pool their moral instincts to solve problems. He was my model in public service and my hero. I will be indebted to him until I see him again.