This is not one of those heartbreak hurrahs in memory of a dear friend in the media who one day disappeared from the op-ed page and wound up among the obituaries. We lost columnist Sidney Zion a few years ago, and I simply don't think his contribution to modern journalism and recent history has been sufficiently appreciated. If you stick with me to the end of this screed, you won't think so either!
Sidney worked for every major New York newspaper, some more than once. Boxing's "Toy Bulldog," Mickey Walker, was married seven times to four women. "Others fought return fights," Mickey remarked. "I fought return marriages!" Sidney was similar. He was hired seven times by four newspapers. Whenever a boss told Sidney what he couldn't write or what he had to write, Sidney would just empty his desk and move on to another newspaper.
When James "Scotty" Reston ran the New York Times he had a praiseworthy habit of inviting his most promising young columnists to come over for dinner and sit around and talk shop deep into the wee hours. Have you ever wondered just how America got embroiled in Vietnam? Sidney's work might help.
During one of Scotty Reston's salons, he told his guests, including Sidney, that he had been relaxing in his Vienna hotel room after covering the June 1961 summit meeting between President Jack Kennedy and Soviet ruler Nikita Khrushchev. Reston had failed to lock his door, and he was alarmed to hear it opening as he sat there sipping scotch and reading. But who should the intruder be but John F. Kennedy, president of the United States! JFK went straight for the bottle of scotch as he said, "Forgive me, Scotty. This was a terrible day for me and for freedom. May I pour myself a drink?"
Indeed, historians have called that day in early June of 1961 the worst day of Kennedy's life. "I wasn't ready for Khrushchev, Scotty," the president confessed. "He made me look weak and foolish. This was not good for the Free World." Reston was too diplomatic to agree but too honest to pretend otherwise. The two men sat in silence for a while.
"I've got to do something, Scotty," said the president. "I've got to get his attention and respect." After another siege of silence, JFK said, "I think maybe I'll send 15 thousand American advisers to bolster the government of South Vietnam!"
On another occasion, Sid Zion again turned on the lights. This time it dealt with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and his widely applauded "First Step for Peace" with Israel. In November 1977, Sadat announced his intention of visiting Israel, with whom Egypt had fought four wars since 1948. Nobody knew why Sadat made that breathtaking move. Sidney found out.
Shortly before Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel, Begin had been interviewing his prospective cabinet ministers one by one. The leader of Israel's impressive intelligence agency told Begin that Israel had learned of an upcoming assassination attempt on Sadat by Islamic extremists. Israeli intelligence had the date, the address of the apartment where the assassins were preparing their weapons, the works. "What do we do with such information?" Begin asked his intelligence chief. "Well," said he, "We don't have relations with the Egyptians, so we'll give it to the CIA and they'll pass it along to the Egyptians."
"What?" exclaimed a disbelieving Begin. "That way the CIA gets all the credit. Who needs relations? Pick up the phone and call Cairo and tell them what we know!" When the intel chief called the Egyptians they were beyond skeptical. They behaved as though they were the victims of a Halloween prank. However, they passed the info onward and upward, including the best time to make the raid so all the weapons would be out and greased and ready.
When the Egyptian police made the raid they found things exactly as their Israeli "enemies" had elaborated. Out of gratitude for saving his life, President Sadat agreed to go to Jerusalem, thereby taking the "Second Step for Peace."
I'm not out of praise for Sid Zion, merely out of space. There's just room enough to tell you about the big-deal Arab sheikh on the West Bank who met with a group of foreign reporters after the Israelis had run roughshod over the Arab armies that sought to destroy them. The angry sheikh told the reporters what his terms were, what the Israelis would have to give and do and quit doing if they wanted peace with the Arabs.
"Those are our terms," declared the sheikh. "Any questions?"
"Yes," said Sidney. "What would your terms have been if you'd won?"
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