1.

# Eulogy for Sir James Goldsmith

November 13, 1997

When my family was about to leave the country of my
birth, I called on my grandfather, to whom I was very
attached, in the little village where he lived, to say good-bye.
He was suffering from cancer, and I knew I would never see
him again. My grandfather took the finality out of the
encounter by telling me that we were not really parting,
because he would pay me a final visit at my parents' home a
few weeks hence. Though I did not really believe it, the
prospect proved remarkably consoling.

In the forlorn final month of Jimmy's life, when I knew
but did not want to accept that the end was near, my
conversations with Jimmy had a similar character. We talked
on the telephone almost every day. From the public
description of his illness, the prognosis was all too inevitable.

2.

Yet Jimmy did not address me as if his fate were
foreordained; the decline in the force of his voice, described
by John Aspinall in his moving article, was hidden by what I
know now was a staggering effort of will. Jimmy spoke to me
with seemingly undiminished power of his plans for recovery.
He was gaining strength, he would say, he was looking
forward to the day when he could receive me
"appropriately"--as if the obstacle to our meeting were some
technical impediment. He set a tentative date of July 7, a
few weeks hence. Though we would be talking on the
phone, on July 5 he sent me a note whose formality
suggested another quite temporary obstacle until he could
give me a proper welcome; another date would be proposed
soon. Only the shaky signature showed Jimmy's travail.

Throughout, Jimmy put the prospects of recovery in a
gambler's framework. He rated his chances without any

2

3.

treatment as 1 in 150; the treatment he was undergoing
surely raised the odds. But of course for those who knew
Jimmy, odds of 1 in 150 seemed quite surmountable. On
July 13 Jimmy uttered his first and only admission of his
suffering. "It is getting tough," he told me, and I now knew
it would soon be over.

Basically Jimmy did not want to discuss his physical
condition. What he talked about even at the end were his
political preoccupations. He had come up with some ideas on
how to preserve the historical core of the European nations if
the plan for a single currency moved towards a conclusion--
as it seemed to be doing. Since he knew that I would be
meeting several European leaders, he suggested that I try
these out on them. And he grilled me afterwards about their
reactions.

3

4.

I had become close to Jimmy only in the last six years
of his life. Before then he had exploded in and out of my life
at irregular intervals, sometimes with some financial advice
which I rarely took, to my invariable disadvantage, or more
frequently with some passionate commentary on the
contemporary scene.

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some
days in Cuixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I
became friends. True friendship is a rare blessing at any
stage of one's life and a near miracle when it happens at the
age both of us had reached by then. I realize that there
were many aspects of Jimmy's life shared by others in this
room which I did not. But in whatever incarnation Jimmy
was out of scale, passionate, brilliant, brave, charming and
always lots of fun. After my then 95-year-old mother met
him, she described him as the most intelligent and charming

4

5.

person she had ever met. "*The* most intelligent?", I asked,
grasping for reassurance. "*The* most", she insisted.

The Jimmy Goldsmith I came to know as a friend was
quite different from the public persona: gentle, infinitely
thoughtful, always available, never intrusive.

Since Jimmy was of the view that high finance was not
my best subject, we talked mostly about the political world,
which I believe to have been his central concern anyway. To
him business was a game which he played marvelously well.
But his passionate commitment was evoked by his near
despair--underneath all the ebullience and combativeness--
about the drift of our civilization. Near despair for Jimmy, of
course, implied neither passive contemplation nor self-
indulgent resignation. It was a summons to battle to which
he devoted what he knew but no one else did--the last years
of his life.

5

6.

To Jimmy, Western civilization mattered; he reveled in
its celebration of the dignity of the individual; its elaboration
of a concept of justice based on values not defined by the
state; and its continuity. In Jimmy's view, all this was being
threatened by fashionable sociological doctrines undermining
societies whose delicate fabric had evolved over the
centuries; and by passionless bureaucrats applying without
love and without hatred self-righteous concepts of world
improvement. He had contempt for those who risked the
achievements of centuries on the altar of a theory of
economics--which as a businessman experience had taught
him to be fallacious in any event. Jimmy's sense of justice
involved him in struggles in distant corners of the globe. And
he cared deeply about the preservation of the environment
which is our common legacy.

6

7.

Jimmy posed the issues that must be addressed, and he
was pointing us in the direction of our historic and moral
necessities.

Jimmy was not some self-indulgent professor or self-
flagellating world improver. I shall always think of Jimmy
above all as a knight-errant from a medieval Romance,
alighting from his castle to do battle with dragons and
monsters from which the fainthearted have fled and
protecting even those who do not know they need
protection. The epic hero does not define himself by
conventional wisdom, but by the perils he braves, the
exertions he evokes and the perceptions he personifies.
Jimmy was Don Quixote with a bit of Sancho Panza: at once
inspiring and practical; visionary and analytical. None of us
who loved Jimmy can quite accept that this huge, life-
enhancing force is no longer with us. The void he has left is
our badge of honor. We would not trade places with those

7

November 13, 1997

When my family was about to leave the country of my
birth, I called on my grandfather, to whom I was very
attached, in the little village where he lived, to say good-
bye. He was suffering from cancer, and I knew I would never
see him again. My grandfather took the finality out of the
encounter by telling me that we were not really parting,
because he would pay me a final visit at my parents' home a
few weeks hence. Though I did not really believe it, the
prospect proved remarkably consoling.

Throughout, Jimmy put the prospects of recovery in a
gambler's framework. He rated his chances without any
treatment as 1 in 150; the treatment he was undergoing
surely raised the odds. But of course for those who knew
Jimmy, odds of 1 in 150 seemed quite surmountable. On July
13 Jimmy uttered his first and only admission of his
suffering. "It is getting tough," he told me, and I now
knew it would soon be over.

conclusion--as it seemed to be doing. Since he knew that I would be meeting several European leaders, he suggested that I try these out on them. And he grilled me afterwards about their reactions.

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some days in Cuixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I became friends. True friendship is a rare blessing at any stage of one's life and a near miracle when it happens at the age both of us had reached by then. I realize that there were many aspects of Jimmy's life shared by others in this room which I did not. But in whatever incarnation Jimmy was out of scale, passionate, brilliant, brave, charming and always lots of fun. After my then 95-year-old mother met him, she described him as the most intelligent and charming person she had ever met. "<u>The</u> most intelligent?", I asked, grasping for reassurance. "<u>The</u> most", she insisted.

Since Jimmy was of the view that high finance was not my best subject, we talked mostly about the political world, which I believe to have been his central concern anyway. To him business was a game which he played marvelously well. But his passionate commitment was evoked by his near despair--underneath all the ebullience and combativeness--about the drift of our civilization. Near despair for Jimmy, of course, implied neither passive contemplation nor self-indulgent resignation. It was a summons to battle to which he devoted what he knew but no one else did--the last years of his life.

Jimmy was not some self-indulgent professor or self-
flagellating world improver. I shall always think of Jimmy
above all as a knight-errant from a medieval Romance,
alighting from his castle to do battle with dragons and
monsters from which the fainthearted have fled and
protecting even those who do not know they need protection.
The epic hero does not define himself by conventional
wisdom, but by the perils he braves, the exertions he evokes
and the perceptions he personifies. Jimmy was Don Quixote
with a bit of Sancho Panza: at once inspiring and
practical; visionary and analytical. None of us who loved
Jimmy can quite accept that this huge, life-enhancing force
is no longer with us. The void he has left is our badge of
honor. We would not trade places with those who did not
have the good fortune to have their lives ennobled by
contact with our fallen friend.

NOV-10-1997 10:35

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

P.03/14

In the forlorn final month of
Jimmy's life, when I knew but did not
want to ~~believe~~ *am yet* that the end was near,
my conversations with Jimmy had a
similar character. We talked on the
telephone almost every day. From the
public description of his illness, the
prognosis was all too inevitable.

Yet Jimmy did not address me as if
his fate were foreordained; the decline
in the force of his voice, described by
John Aspinall in his moving *eulogy*, was
hidden by what I know now was a
staggering effort of will. Jimmy spoke
to me with seemingly undiminished power

2

NOV-10-1997 10:36

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

P.06/14

up with some ideas on how to preserve
the historical essence of the European
nations if the plan for a single
currency moved towards a conclusion--as
it seemed to be doing. Since he knew
that I would be meeting several European
leaders, he suggested that I try these
out on them. And he grilled me
afterwards about their reactions.

NOV-10-1997 10:36

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

P.07/14

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me
to spend some days in Cuixmala, where
almost magically Jimmy and I became
~~close~~ friends. True friendship is a
rare blessing at any stage of one's life
and a near miracle when it happens at
the age both of us had reached by then.
I realize that there were many aspects
of Jimmy's life shared by others in this
room which I did not. But in whatever
incarnation Jimmy was out of scale,
passionate, brilliant, ~~unbelievably~~

NOV-10-1997 10:37

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

P.08/14

"The most intelligent?", I asked,
grasping for reassurance. "The most",
she insisted.

The Jimmy Goldsmith I came to know
as a friend was quite different from the
public persona; gentle, infinitely
thoughtful, always available, never
intrusive.

NOV-10-1997 10:37

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

P.10/14

centuries; and by passionless bureaucrats applying without love and without hatred formalistic concepts of world improvement. He had contempt for those who risked the achievements of centuries on the altar of a theory of economics--which as a businessman experience had taught him to be fallacious in any event. Jimmy's sense of justice involved him in struggles in distant corners of the globe. And he cared deeply about the preservation of the environment which is our common legacy.

To Jimmy deaden his spirit in a class of students, but not in his class. He would have been a better man and a better citizen if he had not been a student. It was a small sum to pay for a battle to which he devoted what he knew but no one else would have won if he had not been a student.

NOV-10-1997 10:37

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

P.12/14

fainthearted have fled and protecting
even those who ~~do~~ *at first* not know they need
protection. The epic hero does not
define himself by conventional wisdom,
but by the perils he braves, the
exertions he evokes and the perceptions
he personifies. Jimmy was Don Quixote
with a bit of Sancho Panza: at once
inspiring and practical; visionary and
analytical. None of us who loved Jimmy
can quite accept that this huge, life-
enhancing force is no longer with us.

But despite the void he has left, we
~~in our hedge of lore; but~~
~~we~~ would not trade places with those ~~who~~
~~anyway~~ *et aliee*
did not have the good fortune to have

11

NOV-07-1997 11:08

212 759 0042
KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042 P.08/11

July 5 with a note asking me to wait until he could give me
a proper reception--only his shaky signature showed his
travail.

Jimmy put the prospects of recovery in a gambler's
framework. He rated his chances without any treatment as
1 in 150; the treatment he was undergoing surely raised the
odds. But of course for those who knew Jimmy, odds of 1 in
150 seemed quite surmountable. Only when Jimmy told me on
July 13 that "it is getting tough" did I accept the end was
near.

Basically Jimmy did not want to discuss his physical
condition. What he talked about most were the <u>preliminary</u>!
His life: the concern that soulless bureaucracies would
destroy the legacy of centuries, that the West would lose
moral <u>intellectual</u>ity
its essence in pursuit of <u>abstractions</u>. He had come up with
some ideas on how to preserve the historical essence of the
European nations if the plan for a single currency moved
towards a conclusion--as it seemed to be doing. Since he
knew that I would be meeting several European leaders, he
suggested that I try these out on them. And in subsequent
conversations he grilled me about their reactions.

I had become close to Jimmy only in the last six years
of his life. Before then he <u>exploded</u> in and out of my life
at irregular intervals, sometimes with some financial advice
which I rarely took, to my invariable disadvantage, or more

2

972 3 5249755 DAN TEL AVIV

04:00

10.NOV.1997

NOV-07-1997 11:07

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

212 759 0042

212 759 0042 P.04/11

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some days
in Cuixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I became close
friends. True friendship is a rare blessing at any stage of
one's life and a near miracle when it happens at the age
both of us had reached by then. I realize that there were
many aspects of Jimmy's life shared by others in this room
which I did not. But in spite of this, I was very pleased.

I knew of course that Jimmy was out of scale, passionate, brilliant, unbelievably charming and always lots of fun. After my then 95-year-old mother met him, she described him as the most intelligent and charming person she had ever met. I asked, "The most intelligent?", grasping for reassurance. "The most", she insisted.

The Jimmy Goldsmith I came to know as a friend was quite different from the public persona; he was gentle, infinitely thoughtful, always available, never intrusive.

Since Jimmy was of the view that high finance was not
my best subject, we talked mostly about the political world,
which I believe to have been his central concern anyway. To
him business was a game which he played marvelously well.
But his passionate commitment was evoked by his near despair
about the drift of our civilization. To Jimmy, Western
civilization mattered; he believed in its emphasis on the

3

NO. 924 P. 4

972 3 5249755 DAN TEL AVIV

8:40

10.NOV.1997

NOV-07-1997 11:07

212 759 0042

P.06/11

fainthearted have fled. The epic hero does not define himself by conventional wisdom, but by the perils he braves, the actions he inspires and the great perceptions he personifies. Jimmy was Don Quixote with a bit of Sancho

Panza: at once inspiring and practical; visionary and analytical. None of us who loved Jimmy can quite imagine that this huge, life-enhancing force has left us. But we would not trade places with those who did not have the good fortune to have their lives ennobled by contact with his fallen friend.

5

NO. 924 P.6

972 3 5249755 DAN TEL AVIV

10.NOV.1997 8:41

07/11/97

09:18

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S.P.A.

39 6 6786632

NO. 252

P002

213 759 0042

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

312 759 0042

P.04 06

CYJ

11-06-1997 10:36

When my family was about to leave the country of my birth, I called on my grandfather, to whom I was very attached, in the little village where he lived, to say goodbye. He was suffering from cancer, and I know I would never see him again. My grandfather took the finality out of the pain by telling me that we were not really parting, because he would pay me a final visit at my parents' home a few weeks hence. Though I did not really believe it, the thought proved remarkably consoling.

In the forlorn final month of Jimmy's life, when I knew but did not really believe that the end was near, my conversations with Jimmy had a similar impact. We talked almost every day. From the description of his illness as I understood it were all too inevitable. And I was eager, almost desperate, to see him one more time.

Yet Jimmy did not address me as if his fate were foreordained; the decline in the force of his voice, described by John Aspinall in his moving eulogy, was hidden by what I know now was a staggering effort of will. Jimmy spoke to me with seemingly undiminished power of his plans for recovery. He was gaining strength, he would say, he felt ready to try again. But I could not let him know that he could receive me "appropriately"--whatever that meant. We sat a tentative

07/11/97

09:18

I.F.I.

S.P.A.

39 6 6786632

NO. 252

P003

312 759 0042 P.05 01:

10-06-1997 10:36

MESSINGER ASSOCIATES

For a while, I was on July 5/6, which he then canceled with a note asking me to wait until he could give me a proper reception-only his shaky signature showed his travail. On the telephone, Jimmy suggested that September would be a better time for a telephone conference. On the telephone, Jimmy put the prospects of recovery in a gambler's framework. He rated the chances of recovery as 1 in 150; the treatment he was undergoing surely raised the odds. But of course for those who knew Jimmy, odds of 1 in 150 seemed quite surmountable. Only when Jimmy told me on July 13 that "it is getting tough" did I accept the end was near.

Basically Jimmy did not want to discuss his condition. What he talked about most were the passions of his life: the concern that soulless bureaucracies would destroy the legacy of centuries, that the West would lose its essence in pursuit of abstraction. He had come up with some ideas on how to preserve the historical essence of the European nations if the plan for a single currency moved towards a conclusion-as it seemed to be doing. Since he knew that I would be meeting several European leaders, he suggested that I try these out on them. And in subsequent conversations he grilled me about their reactions.

I had become close to Jimmy only in the last six years of his life. Before then he exploded in and out of my life at irregular intervals, sometimes with some financial advice which I rarely took, to my invariable disadvantage, or more

2

07/11/97

09:18

I.F.I.
S.P.A.
39 6 6786632
212 759 0042

NO. 252

P004

NOV 06 1997 10:37

MISSOURI ASSOCIATES

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some days in Chixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I became close friends. True friendship is a rare blessing at any stage of one's life and a near miracle when it happens at the age of both of us had reached by then. I realize that there were many aspects of Jimmy's life shared by others in this room which I did not.

I knew of course that Jimmy was out of scale, and always liked passionate, brilliant and unbelievably charming. After my then 9-year-old mother met him, she described him as the most intelligent and charming person she had ever met. I asked, "The most intelligent?" grasping for reassurance. "The most", she insisted.

The Jimmy Goldsmith I came to know as a friend was quite different from the public persona; he was gentle, infinitely thoughtful, always available for advice, never intrusive.

3

07/11/97

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S.P.A.

39 6 6786632

NO. 252

P005

212 759 0043

KISCHINGER ASSOCIATES

312 759 0043 F.07 08

NOV 06 1997 18:37

civilization mattered: he believed in its emphasis on the dignity of the individual; its elaboration of justice beyond the reach and defined by the state; and its continuity. In Jimmy's view it was being threatened by intellectuals who substituted abstract constructions for historic evolution; by fashionable theories undermining societies that had evolved over the centuries; and by passionless bureaucrats applying without love and without hatred formalistic concepts of world improvement. He had contempt for those who risked the achievements of centuries on the altar of a theory of economics- which as a businessman experience had taught him to be fallacious in any event, regardless of justice caused him to support causes in distant corners of the globe. And he cared deeply about the preservation of the environment which is our legacy.

I did not agree with every answer Jimmy gave, sometimes getting even with him by teasing him that politics might not be his best subject. But I agreed with his analysis and sympathized with his goals. He posed the questions that must be dealt with and he was leading us in the direction of our historic and moral necessities.

As I think of Jimmy, it is not as a business man for a political figure. It is as a knight-errant from medieval Europe, lighting from his castle to do battle with dragons and monsters that menace our existence. The epic hero from which he is derived is the

4

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KICKINGOFF ASSOCIATES

313 754 0042 FEB 08 08

does not define himself by conventional wisdom, but by the perils he braves, the actions he inspires and the great perceptions he personifies. None of us who knew Jimmy can quite imagine that this huge, life-enhancing force has finally left us. But we know, after all, we would not trade places with those who did not have the good fortune to have their lives ennobled by contact with his.

Jimmy was Don Quixote with a bit of Sancho Panza: at once inspiring and practical; visionary and analytical; poignancy of Don Quixote was that his sombre, no longer understood? his values. And so the challenge to Jimmy's legacy was to make sure this does not happen to his legacy.

Jimmy's presence would be felt and understood. When he left, his legacy would not be forgotten in his last遗言.

5

TOTAL P.C.

On the telephone, Jimmy put the prospects in a
gambler's he rated his as
characteristic gambling fashion. He thought that the
homewerk as
chances of recovery without any treatment were 1 in 150; the
treatment he was undergoing surely raised the odds. But of
course for those of us who knew Jimmy, even odds of 1 in
150 seemed quite surmountable. Only when Jimmy told me on
talk
July 13 "it is getting tough" did I know the end was near.
accept

Basically Jimmy did not want to discuss his condition.
the most talked about were
What concerned him in our conversations were the passions of
his life: the quest for justice, the concern that soulless
bureaucracies would destroy the legacy of centuries, that
the West would lose its essence in pursuit of abstraction.
He led come up with some
What he spent most of our time together on the telephone
were his ideas on how to preserve the historical essence of
the European nature if the various plans for a single
currency moved towards a conclusion--as they seemed to be slow.
Since he knew that I would be meeting several European
leaders, he suggested that I try these out on them. And
then in subsequent conversations he grilled me about their
reactions.
did

I only became close to Jimmy in the last six years of
his life. Before then he exploded in and out of my life at
irregular intervals, sometimes with some financial advice
which I rarely took, to my invariable disadvantage, or more

2

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some days
in Cuixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I became close
friends. It is a rare blessing at any stage of one's life
and a miracle. It happens at the age both of us had

reached by then. I realize that there were many aspects of
Jimmy's life covered in the obituaries. I did not share as others
in this room did. I knew of course that he was out of
scale, passionate, brilliant and unbelievably charming.

After my then 95-year-old mother met him, she described him
as the most intelligent and charming person she had ever
met. I asked, "The most intelligent?" looking for
reassurance. "The most", she insisted, marking a historic
first for a Jewish mother. And the fact is, I agree with
her.

Since Jimmy was of the view that high finance was not
my best subject, we talked mostly about the political world,
which I believe was his central concern anyway. To him

was a game which he played marvelously well. But his
passionate, dominant personality obscured a deep worry about
personal commitment.

3

the fate of our civilization. To Jimmy, Western
civilization mattered; he believed in its emphasis on the
individual; its elaboration of justice as beyond the reach
of the state; and its continuity. In Jimmy's view it was
being threatened by intellectuals who substituted abstract
constructions for historic evolution; by projects for the
undemining destruction of societies that had evolved over the centuries,
and on behalf of academic theories; above all by passionless
bureaucrats applying without love and without hatred
formalistic concepts of world improvement. And he had
contempt for those who risked the achievements of centuries
- while as a human being, Jimmy was led on the altar of a theory of economics.
He had a deep sense of justice which caused him to spread his activities into
 distant corners of the globe - as the presence here or there of
Butchezi testifies. And he cared deeply about the
preservation of the environment which is our legacy.

I did not always agree with every answer he gave,
sometimes getting even with him by reminding him that
politics might not be his best subject. But I agreed with
his analysis and sympathized with his goals. He posed the
questions that must be dealt with and he was leading us in
the direction of our historic and moral necessities.

When I think of Jimmy, it is not as a business man of a
political figure. It is as a knight-errant from medieval
epic poetry alighting from his castle to do battle with

4

When my family left the country of my birth, I called
on my grandfather, to whom I was very attached, in the
little village which he loved, to say good-bye. My
grandfather eased my pain by telling me that we were not
really parting, because he would pay me a final visit at my
parents' home a few weeks hence. Though I did not really
believe it, the thought proved strangely consoling.

In the forlorn last months of Jimmy's life, when I knew
but did not really believe that the end was near, my
conversations with Jimmy had a similar impact. We talked
almost every day. I knew from the description of his
illness in the newspapers what his prospects were. And I
was very eager, almost desperate, to see him one more time.

But Jimmy spoke to me as a convalescent; the decline in
the force of his voice John Aspinall has described in his
moving eulogy was hidden from me. Instead Jimmy spoke to me
with seemingly undiminished power of his plans for recovery.
He was gaining strength, he would say, he would delay my
visit only so that he could receive me "appropriately"--
whatever that meant. We set a tentative date of July 7,
which he then canceled with a note which asked me to defer
the visit until he could give me a proper reception--only
his shaky signature showed his travail.

On the telephone Jimmy put the prospects in a characteristic gambling fashion. He thought that the chances of recovery without any treatment were 1 in 150; the treatment he was undergoing surely raised the odds. But of course for those of us who loved Jimmy, even odds of 1 in 150 seemed quite surmountable. Only when Jimmy told me on July 13 "it is getting tough" did I know the end was near.

Basically Jimmy did not want to discuss his condition. What concerned him in our conversations were the passions of his life: the quest for justice, the concern that soulless bureaucracies would destroy the legacy of centuries, that the West would lose its essence in pursuit of abstraction. What he spent most of our time together on the telephone were various ideas of his on how to preserve the historical essence of the European states if the various plans to combine their currencies moved towards a conclusion--as they seemed to. Since he knew that I would be meeting several European leaders, he suggested that I try these out on them. And then in subsequent conversations he grilled me about their reactions.

2

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some days
in Cuixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I became close
friends. It is a rare blessing at any stage of one's life
and a miracle if it happens at the age both of us had
reached by then. I have read many of the obituaries and I
realize that there were many aspects of his life I did not
share as others in this room did. I knew of course that he
was out of scale, passionate, brilliant and unbelievably
charming. After my then 95-year-old mother met him, she
described him as the most intelligent and charming person
she had ever met. I asked, "The most intelligent?" looking
for reassurance. "The most" she said, setting a historic
record for a Jewish mother. And the fact is I agree with her.

The Jimmy Goldsmith I came to know as a friend was
quite different from the public persona; he was gentle,
infinitely thoughtful, always available for meetings and
advice, never intrusive.

Since Jimmy was of the view that high finance was not
my best subject, we talked mostly about the political world,
which I believe in any way was his central concern.
Business was a game which he played marvelously well. But
his boisterous, dominant personality obscured a deep worry
about the fate of our civilization. To Jimmy, Western

3

[Y]

civilization mattered; he believed in its emphasis on the
individual; its elaboration of justice as beyond the reach
of the state; and its continuity. Jimmy rejected the
intellectuals who substituted abstract constructions for
historic evolution; he hated the destruction of societies
that had evolved over the centuries, like the European
states on behalf of academic theories; he presented above all
passionless bureaucrats applying without love and without
hatred formalistic concepts of world improvement. And he
had contempt for those who risked the achievements of
centuries on the altar of a theory of economics. He had a
deep sense of justice which caused him to spread his
activities into distant corners of the globe--as the
presence here of Chief Buthelezi testifies. And he cared
deeply about the preservation of the environment which is
our legacy.

I did not always agree with every answer he gave,
though I agreed with his analysis of
even with him by reminding him that politics might not be
his best subject, but he posed the questions that must be
dealt with and he was leading in the direction of our own
historic and moral necessities.

When I think of Jimmy, it is not as a business man or a
political figure. It is as a knight-errant from medieval
epic poetry alighting from his castle to do battle with

4

dragons and monsters that menace our society. The epic hero
does not define himself by conventional wisdom and the
demonstration of the possibility of great conception, but by
the perils he braves, the actions he inspires. None of us
who knew him can quite imagine that this huge, life-
enforcing force has left us. But we know, too, that we
would not trade places with those who did not have the good
fortune to encounter him.

Jimmy was Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in one person,
inspiring and practical; at once visionary and analytical.
And if the battles to which he called us are not fought, we,
his friends, will have failed to fulfill his vocation. What
makes Don Quixote a tragic figure is not what he stood for,
but that the world destroyed the possibility of his values.

5

[y]

2

On the telephone Jimmy put the prospects in a
characteristic gambling fashion. He thought that the
chances of recovery without any treatment were 1 in 150; the
treatment he was undergoing surely raised the odds. But of
course for those of us who loved Jimmy, even odds of 1 in
150 seemed quite surmountable. Only when Jimmy told me on
July 31 "it is getting tough" did I know the end was near.

2

Luckily for me, Nancy persuaded me to spend some days
in Cuixmala, where almost magically Jimmy and I became close
friends. It is a rare blessing at any stage of one's life
and a miracle if it happens at the age both of us had
reached by then. I have read many of the obituaries and I
realize that there were many aspects of his life I did not
share as others in this room did. I knew of course that he
was out of scale, passionate, brilliant and unbelievably
charming. After my then 95-year-old mother met him, she
described him as the most intelligent and charming person
she had ever met. I asked, "The most intelligent?" looking
for reassurance. "The most" she said, setting a historic
record for a Jewish mother.

3

civilization mattered; he believed in its emphasis on the
individual; its elaboration of justice as beyond the reach
of the state; and its continuity. Jimmy rejected
intellectuals who substituted abstract constructions for
historic evolution; he hated the destruction of societies
that had evolved over the centuries, like the European
states on behalf of academic theories; he resented above all
passionless bureaucrats applying without love and without
hatred formalistic concepts of world improvement. And he
had contempt for those who risked the achievements of
centuries on the altar of a theory of economics. He had a
deep sense of justice which caused him to spread his
activities into distant corners of the globe--as the
presence here of Chief Buthelezi testifies. And he cared
deeply about the preservation of the environment which is
our legacy.

I did not always agree with every answer he gave,
though I sympathized with most of them--sometimes getting
even with him by reminding him that politics might not be
his best subject. But he posed the questions that must be
dealt with and he was leading in the direction [of] our own
historic and moral necessities.

5

DRAFT

When my family left the country of my birth, I called
on my grandfather, to whom I was very attached, to say good-
bye. My grandfather eased the pain of that experience by
telling me that we were not really parting, because he would
pay me a final visit at my parents' home a few weeks hence.
Though I did not really believe it, the thought proved
strangely consoling.

In the forlorn last months of Jimmy's life, when I knew
but did not really believe that the end was near, my
conversations with Jimmy had a similar impact. We talked
almost every day. I knew from the description of his
illness in the newspapers what his prospects were to be. And
I was very eager, almost desperate, to see him one more
time. But Jimmy spoke to me as a convalescent; the decline
in the force of his voice John Aspinall has described in his
moving eulogy was hidden from me. Instead Jimmy spoke to me
in a voice which seemed to have no power
of his plans for recovery. He was gaining strength, he
would say, he would delay my visit only so that he could
receive me "appropriately"--whatever that meant. We set a
tentative date of July 7, which he then canceled with a note
which asked me to defer the visit until he could give me a
proper reception--only his shaky signature showed his
travail. On the telephone Jimmy put the prospects in a

What concerned him in our conversations were the passions of
his life: the quest for justice, the concern that soulless
treat the West in pursuit of abstraction] What
bureaucracies would destroy the legacy of centuries, What
he spent most of our time together on the telephone with
were various ideas of his on how to preserve the historical
essence of the European states if the various plans to
combine their currencies moved towards a conclusion--as they
seemed to. And since he knew that I would be meeting
several European leaders, he suggested that I try these out
on them. And then in subsequent conversations he grilled me
about their reactions.

I only became close to Jimmy in the last six years of
his life. Before then he exploded in and out of my life at
irregular intervals, sometimes with some financial advice
which I rarely took, to my invariable disadvantage, or more
frequently with some passionate commentary on the
contemporary scene.

2

Since Jimmy was of the view that high finance was not
my best subject, we talked mostly about the political world,
which I believe in any way was his central concern.
Business was a game which he played marvelously well. But
his boisterous, dominant personality obscured a deep worry
about the fate of our civilization. To Jimmy, Western
civilization mattered; he believed in its emphasis on the
individual; its elaboration of justice as beyond the reach
of the state; and its continuity. Jimmy rejected
intellectuals who substituted abstract constructions for

Jimmy Goldsmith and I were misfits, I suppose, from the
moment we were conceived. We met at Oxford in a chemin de fer
game in the flat of Jocelyn Baines, another misfit, who, after writing
an excellent biography of Joseph Conrad, committed suicide over a
woman. I had already become a friend of Jimmy's elder brother,
Teddy, who was also playing in the game. The chemmy players
school, which met regularly, had run out of cash and debts were
now mostly being settled by the exchange of IOU's to which we
gave a credulous value as the biggest loser in the school, and the
most gifted misfit of us all, John Pollock, had shown us a Sotheby's
catalogue of a future clock sale where the main vendor was the
estate of his uncle, Lord Justice Pollock. He assured us that he was
a beneficiary of his uncle's will and of the sale proceeds. We were
only too happy to believe him. While the game was in full session
and the cards being dealt by Milo Cripps*, an undergraduate whose
extraordinary personality and powerful intellect was at that time
much stimulated by generous intakes of alcohol, a tall young man
with piercing eyes and a commanding presence walked into the room
and stood behind Teddy's chair. He was smoking a cigar. After a
brief introduction 'This is my brother Jimmy' the young man, whose
eyes were trained on the centre of the table, said 'Banco de Bout' (a
bet made from a player not seated at the table). As there was about
£400 in the pot, a mixture of cash, cheques and IOU's, I turned to
the young man and said, no doubt in the patronising tone of a 24
year old to a 17 year old, 'You realise that there is £400 in the pot'.
Without a word or a glance at me he threw a wad of white fivers
onto the baize and took up the cards. He lost and paid and I quietly
made room for him in the game - he appeared to be a young man of
ample resources.

To make a great friend at first meeting is a rare occurrence but
with hindsight this is what had come to pass. The love of
excitement, of risk for its own sake was deep within both of us and
we took no thought of the morrow. Race tracks, dog stadiums,
betting offices, chemmy games and poker schools - that was our
environment in those days and in it we flourished until, in due
course, we floundered. After a year of so the odds and the debts
caught up with us. When the crash came Jimmy's father paid up for
him on his promise to join the army. I had no such father - it took
me over a year to scrape together enough money to pacify my
bookmakers and money lenders.

The impact of meeting first Teddy and then Jimmy Goldsmith
is still with me. The two brothers though strikingly similar in many
ways were deeply different. Teddy and I were interested in ancient
history and would swop with each other, for hours on end,
embellished tales of our separate sets of heroes from the remote
past; his being mostly thinkers, philosophers and reformers, my own
those chieftains and kings that lost out bravely to the great empires.

Jimmy was not by nature a hero worshipper. He respected the
philosophers who put locality, family and tradition before state
interference. He would often quote John Locke, Adam Smith,
Ricardo and even Keynes in order to lend weight to his own views
which were anti-statist. Hegel, so much loved by Mao Tse Tung,
along with Rousseau were his anti heroes, as they pitched the state
against society - universalism against localism. It seemed clear to
him that no one had foreseen the arrival of the transnational
corporations which are now on the path to what they believe to be

20 JUL 91 11:48

F.4/10

a world consolidation. The globalisation of communications, investments and the merging or mixing of cultures, languages, races and even sexes were not predicted by the early sages. The conscious destruction of the natural systems, upon which all life depends, which is happening now and which started millennia ago went almost unnoticed by 19th century thinkers.

As long ago as '72 Jimmy hosted a dinner for Aurelio Pecci, chairman of the Club of Rome at the Ritz, a dinner organised with his brother Teddy and attended by me. He was then himself becoming aware of the havoc wreaked by science, 'progress', technology and precipitate social change. As long ago as '77 he financed opposition to the Windscale nuclear reactor. He arrived at his ecological convictions only a few years after Teddy and I had entered that last arena. Together the three of us floated The Ecological Foundation with its magazine The Ecologist in 1972.

He was close to Edmund Burke in his social thinking and agreed fully with him that no greater calamity can befall a nation than to break with its past. He gave me a quote once from Ennius -

> *Antiquis moribus stet res Romana virisque* 'The Roman state rests on its ancient customs and its heroes'. Jimmy looked to the past for inspiration and for wisdom. The present bewildered him and the future he feared greatly, not just for the well being of his own genes and his own particular species, but for the health of the planet as a whole - that fragile craft that carries on its tender skin its priceless load of life forms that have evolved and survived, mostly by blind luck, over the last 3 billion years.

3

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25 JUL '97 11:48

P.5/10

Jimmy's company I always found compelling. When he was young I could hold parity with him as an entertainer, as a story teller, as a gambler, but soon the seven year buffer of age difference was eroded. I made money before he did, quite suddenly in '56, but he soon overtook me. For sheer force of personality I have never met his equal. In his later years he combined imperium with auctoritas. The former came to him through his own financial gifts, derived of course from his 19th century forebears, which amassed for him a great fortune; the latter from his presence, his charm, his personal magnetism and the quality of his judgment. If Jimmy came into a room full of people you knew he was there, whether friend or foe. When moved, or wishing to move others, in his direction of course, his penetrating eyes were his advance weapons. He could encompass and dominate an audience with his unblinking gaze. Even when relaxed his eyes would reveal the fires that burned within him. Half measures, compromise, fudge, were foreign to his nature - alien to him. In a business deal he could of course mediate or settle to leave both parties satisfied, but when he held to a precept, or stood by a principle, nothing could dislodge him. Failure, unpopularity, social exile he took in his stride, 'part of life Aspers' he would say, 'part of life'. Nothing ever tamed him.

The structure of our friendship was not cast in stone, nor moulded in bronze - it was dove-tailed. By a freak of nature, the two misfits slotted into each other. I bowed to him in financial matters, accepting his advice whenever offered, usually to my own advantage and to that of my Foundation. His was a well-stocked mind but his areas of knowledge were, on the whole, somewhat different from my own. Our Instincts in political and social affairs were more or

4

less indistinguishable and had come ever closer over the passage of
years and with the slow accretion of experience. The acuity of his
intelligence was in contrast to my own which was slower and
blunter. He was the possessor of an analytical mind that could
follow complicated and intricate sequences in any form of
discussion. He had an immediacy of understanding of complexities
that left me far behind. He could read a balance sheet at a glance
and identify the salient points with an uncanny precision. His
ancestors accrued and lost great fortunes in the last century.
Benedict Hyam, Leopold and Maximilian Goldschmidt were the
hidden giants of their time and, along with another relative, Baron
Hirsch, financed half the governments of Europe; often acting with,
and marrying into their better known cousins, the Rothschilds.
Jimmy loved and admired the Rothschilds and liked the very idea of
them. He envied them their dynastic continuity.

I once asked him if there was anything he had done in his life
that would have pleased his father. He answered, 'only two things,
my election to the committee of the Travellers Club in Paris and
being asked to join the board of Banque Rothschild'. He added
nothing much else that he had done would have impressed his father
except, perhaps, the extension of his line with four sons and four
daughters. Jimmy once showed me a mural in a house he had
rented from his close friend, Jacob Rothschild, during his bid for
BAT. I was alone, and he rather shamefacedly pointed out to me his
father's face in the painting, which covered a whole wall and
included in it most of the eminent politicians, financiers and socialites
of the time - round about 1910. Right at the edge, in the least
prominent position, almost like an afterthought, was the face of his

(5)

25 JUL '97 11:49

father whom he loved so deeply. He was never in need of
motivation but from the look in his face I could see he was not
amused. Clive of India and Warren Hastings risked everything, even
their reputations to recover the ancient estates that had once
belonged to their forbears and in the end reclaimed them. Jimmy felt
it had fallen to his lot in life to repair the damage that had overtaken
the Goldsmith fortunes since the turn of the century.

Women - ah, women! Who could handle them as Jimmy did?
In many ways his harem structure was the envy of half the world.
Professor Roger Short, the most respected of reproductive biologists,
wrote that 'serial polygyny is the natural condition of man'. Serial
polygyny came as naturally to Jimmy as it tends to do to those
males who can afford it. What he saw as 'moral turpitude' (his
expression) was the social abandonment of women whom he had
bred from and were sheltering his genes. With Jimmy, the
abatement of sexual desire was replaced by an enduring attachment
to which the expression 'true love' is, in my view, curiously apt. I
knew, and know, all four of his mates better than anyone, except his
brother. The depth of his bonding with these women, the mothers
of his children, surpassed that of most monogamists to their single
spouses. After his first wife Isabel's tragic death he never went to,
or gave, a party for six years. It was in this period that he lost most
of his hair, quite literally from grief. Jimmy and Teddy then gave a
party in Paris together to signal the end of his mourning. In his
marital arrangements he was biologically, but certainly not politically,
correct. That he needed a vast fortune to implement this method of
the permanent multi-bond was his good luck ... he used it well.

Jimmy uncharacteristically 'garaged' his fortune four or five years ago and turned his energies into different directions, the first a crusade against a politically united Europe, the second, which was severed by his death, was the fight against globalisation with his campaign against GATT. I sometimes wonder whether his withdrawal from business was prompted by a feeling that something was wrong within his gut. He always believed that the troubles that almost submerged his friend, Jim Slater, and did away with another friend, Charles Bludhorn, were psycho-somatic in origin. The question as to why he suddenly abandoned business after the BAT setback will never be satisfactorily answered.

I visited him in Burgundy several times before he died taking with me shifts of his intimate friends, virtually to pay their respects to the great man as he was dying. His mind remained clear and lucid though his voice had lost much of its power. Only in the last few days did his eyes lose the fire that had captured and illumined so many of his family, friends and followers over the years.

I stayed at his home in Paris for a few nights after his last fatal operation. When I went to the loo I glanced at the 150 odd photographs that papered the walls, all, except three, were of his family and close friends. The exceptions were small ones of Presidents Nixon and Reagan, and Henry Kissinger, all taken at Cuixmala, his Mexican retreat. They were quite hard to find among the others. Henry Kissinger called him twice (while I was sitting on his bed) during the last few weeks asking to come and see him. 'Henry' he said, 'I can't receive you at the moment in the manner I would wish. When I am better I will call you back.' After this effort he sank back and said, 'Aspers, Henry is a real friend.'

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Jimmy once said to me of a close mutual friend whose company he loved, 'An extraordinary man .... he carries no baggage with him'. I did not understand quite what he meant, 'What do you mean by baggage, Jimmy?' 'I mean Aspers' he said, '......inherited a small fortune from his father and multiplied it 50 times by astute investment but is never seen with anyone who is not a name'. Jimmy was of a different mould - all his life he loved the company of the companions of his early years. Whether they had succeeded in any way or not made not the slightest difference to his regard and affection. At all his great parties and gatherings were the faces that had surrounded his youth - that is, those that still survived.

A few years ago when Peter West, a great friend of forty-five years standing, lay dying he called Jimmy and said his doctor had told him he had only another half hour to live. A lapsed Catholic, Peter still believed in an after life so Jimmy told him that wherever he went, hell, heaven or limbo, he was sure to follow him soon and to look out for the best hotels, clubs and restaurants in advance of his arrival which would not be long delayed. After twenty-five minutes of conversation the telephone went dead. Jimmy had accompanied him to the very threshold of the next world.

His own death was tribal and patriarchal and came from a time that preceded Abraham. The great chieftain summoned to his bedside all his family. One by one he said goodbye to them in order of seniority, imparting to each in turn a special gift to bring them luck, pieces of amber and polished hard stones that he had carried in his pocket to bring him comfort. To his eldest son, Manes, he gave his grandfather's cufflinks. To each separately he gave advice

which his offspring will undoubtedly follow for the rest of their lives.
To his dying breath he dominated his surroundings and all who were
with him.

What posterity will make of his life is anyone's guess. There
is nothing more biased than history, particularly in what it ignores.
A few days before he died he pointed out to me some books on his
table in his bedroom - they were the new Thai, Korean and
Vietnamese editions of his book, 'The Trap'. He seemed quite
pleased with the book's world wide success. He was far more
interested in the survival of his ideas than any posthumous fame that
might come to him. Of one thing I am certain, his family and circle
of friends will never forget him, at least not until their own eyes dim
over in their final struggle with death. As for his enemies, who were
legion, their fear is that his legend will live on and his ideas take root
after his death - so to punish them for their impudence.

John Aspinall

* (now Lord Parmoor - nephew of Sir Stafford, son of Freddie Cripps)