the United States was mounting at the United Nations to take some kind of action against Israel. The president was calm and affable. But he and his aides, I could see, were also gripped with a sense of urgency, frustration, and crisis. The Fourth of July holiday coming up would be no holiday for me. The president wanted me involved right away, but I could not be in the action officially until I was confirmed by the Senate, at the soonest in two to three weeks’ time. Until then I would study the issues and assemble my State Department team.

As President Reagan and I surveyed the world from this relaxed country setting, the challenges I faced were daunting. The president and his White House team talked less aboutAl Haig.

Washington insiders were saying that the foreign affairs system in Washington wasn’t working after a year and a half of the Reagan presidency and Haig’s secretaryship. Former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski had just said in an interview that the United States had a choice in making foreign policy: the president does it all, and he and the NSC (National Security Council) adviser overshadow the secretary of state; or the secretary of state, in close communication with the president, is allowed to go to work. What has surprised me about the last 18 months is that we have had neither the first nor the second system, Brzezinski said. The president has not been actively involved, but the secretary of state has not been permitted to run foreign