Edward L. Rowny
shortly before the referendum, Clinton announced that the United States backed
Yeltsin. The President also offered billion in U.S. aid and promised to work
for a -billion commitment to Russia from the world's industrial nations.
Yeltsin did better than predicted in the April 25th referendum, receiving more than
a 60-percent vote of confidence He also won surprisingly large numbers of votes
on the other questions. The votes were not large enough, however, to amount to
a majority of all eligible voters, and no new elections were called for. Yeltsin now
moved quickly and announced that he would soon submit a new constitution for
approval. The constitution, modeled on the French, would give the president of
Russia greater powers.
During the last three months of 1992 and the first several months of 1993, I
appeared on a number of radio and TV talk shows to promote my book Larry King
was the master of ceremonies at my book party in early October 1992, and shortly
thereafter had me on his radio show. William Safire wrote a generous endorsement
of my book in one of his "On Language" columns in the Sunday N e w York Times.
The Washingtonian magazine also wrote about my book, highlighting the story
about Amy Carter. I was pleased to
that the book is being used as a textbook
in several colleges and universities. Although not a best seller, it has done
moderately well. When I asked the publisher if it was selling "like hot c&es," he
said, "No, like warm cakes."
My book has been reviewed or mentioned in about 40 publications. Of these, 39
were moderately to highly favorable, only one was lukewarm. The critical review
was written by a long time friend of Leslie Gelb, who did not fare well in the
book. On the whole, the reception of my book has been gratifying.
Teaching at George Washington University
One of the things I decided to do after retiring from the government was to teach.
One of my reasons for doing so was that I felt it important that the tactics and
techniques of international negotiating were important and should be taught at the
graduate level in our colleges and universities. Another reason was that I felt the
contact with younger persons would be stimulating and force me to stay current on
foreign affairs.
After meeting with Maurice "Mickey" Fast, dean of the Elliott Graduate School
at George Washington University, I agreed to conduct a seminar on international
negotiating in the f a l l of 1990. I wanted to restrict the attendance to about 15, but
over 20 students applied for the course. I held the attendance to 16, a number I
felt would be most conducive to student participation. Most of the course covered
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