The Merits of Emotional Distance

Jimmy Carter may have lost his chance for reelection in 1980 because he made the fate of the American hostages in Tehran the preoccupying burden of his presidency. Ronald Reagan blundered or was led into covertly selling arms to Iran because he hoped to win freedom for the American hostages in Lebanon. Both Presidents, by their displays of public compassion for the hostages and their families, demonstrated what in other circumstances would be regarded as admirable humane instincts.

But the political lesson of those experiences is that a President, however great his sympathetic identification with the victims of terrorism, best serves the country by keeping a certain emotional distance from their plight. George Bush seems to have absorbed that lesson.

As Bush made clear again this week, he has not put the hostages out of his mind or slackened his efforts through diplomatic channels to gain their freedom. But he has also been careful not to put what might be perceived as an exceptionally high value on their well-being and their return. He has made it a point to avoid emotional involvement by not communicating personally with the families of the hostages, delegating that to others. And he has not wasted his time by directing public pleas to the terrorists who hold the hostages or to their sponsors in Iran; as everyone in government knows by now, such people aren’t moved by appeals to decency. Their surest response in fact would be to regard a plea not as evidence of concern but as sign of weakness.

Wisely, Bush has similarly avoided issuing bold-sounding, if not necessarily practical, threats against hostage-taking, as Ronald Reagan did on his Inauguration Day in 1981. Bush did make clear, through diplomatic and press channels, that any further harm to the hostages would invite a military response. But by not putting that warning in the form of an explicit public challenge, he gave those to whom it was directed a chance to exercise restraint without appearing to bow to pressure. Meanwhile, first through diplomatic channels and then publicly, Bush has signaled that he is ready to have full discussions with Iran, presumably meaning talks not just about the hostages but about a range of bilateral issues.

On the most basic, human level, it obviously hasn’t been easy to refrain from threatening words and even forceful action after the murder of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins was so brutally disclosed and so obscenely flaunted. But it has been what conditions require, as offstage diplomacy explores the chances for a multiparty exchange of prisoners and hostages. Bush has so far acquitted himself in this matter firmly, responsibly, dispassionately, and for that he deserves credit.