HENRY A. KISSINGER
350 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10022
(212) 759-7919

DONALD H. RUMSFELD
400 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611
(312) 645-0251

November 3, 1999

Dear Avis:

Our friend, François de Rose, will celebrate his 90th birthday next year. The Rumsfeld and Kissinger families believe this is an appropriate occasion to thank him for his many contributions to democratic values and the Western Alliance throughout his long life.

We have invited François and his family for dinner in New York on the evening of Monday, May 22nd, at the Kissinger residence, 435 E. 52nd Street, and wanted you to know that he has specifically asked that you and David be a part of this special evening. Complete details will follow but, in the meantime, we hope that you will save the date on your calendar and plan to be with us.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Kissinger

Donald H. Rumsfeld

P.S. Please call Jody Williams in Henry's office to let us know if this date is convenient for you.

The Honorable
Avis Bohlen
Bureau of Arms Control
Room 5930
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

BRONCOS
DENVER

JUL 29 1999

July 27, 1999

Dr. Henry Kissinger
350 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10022

Dear Henry:

It was a great pleasure for me to meet and speak with you last weekend at the Bohemian Grove. The whole weekend was an outstanding experience with a lot of take-home value. It is hard to explain what the Bohemian club is all about until you have actually experienced two or three days in that environment.

It would be an honor for the Broncos and for me if you were to attend one of our football games this season. I am enclosing a schedule for the 1999 regular season, and, if any of these games can be worked into your plans, please let me know. I think you would enjoy seeing a football game up close. I look forward to hearing from you.

Enclosure

Pat Bowlen

President and

Chief Executive

Officer

Denver

Broncos

Football

Club

13655

Broncos

Parkway

Englewood,

Colorado

80112

303.649.9000

# Joan Braden, Confidante of Leaders, Dies

By BART BARNES

Washington Post Staff Writer

WASH. POST
8/31/99

Joan R. Braden, 77, a leading Washington personality and a friend and confidante of political leaders and high federal officials for more than three decades, died yesterday. She collapsed at Sutton Place Gourmet in Alexandria after a heart attack and was pronounced dead at Inova Alexandria Hospital.

Like others before her in this city, she had served in political campaigns and worked in government and journalism. She went on to become a close aide and confidante to some of

Joan Ridley
Braden was 77.

Washington's most powerful men and to spend decades as a hostess to Washington's best and brightest. She did this while raising eight children, a saga captured by her husband, columnist Tom Braden, in the book "Eight Is Enough," and in an ABC television series of the same name.

Mrs. Braden was a former State Department officer, public relations executive, magazine writer, television interviewer, political campaign worker for John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, and an economic aide and personal secretary to Nelson Rockefeller.

She was a frequent companion and a partner on trips with former defense secretary and World Bank president Robert S. McNamara, with whom she had what Washington Post staff writer Paul Hendrickson described as a "romantic relationship conducted more or less openly."

In 1960, she was one of the California managers of the Kennedy for President campaign, and she arranged to fill the Los Angeles Coliseum one night for a Kennedy political rally. She accompanied first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to India in 1962 and then wrote about the trip for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1968, she was with Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when the New York senator was assassinated after winning California's Democratic presidential primary.

For years, her home in Chevy Chase was the setting for low-key, off-the-record dinner parties where officials could speak their minds without having to worry that they would read about it in the morning newspapers. In a 1976 profile, Washington Post staff writer Sally

Quinn wrote: "At the Bradens', there are the kids or the occasional Cambodian waiting casually on the table. The wine is warm and cheap. It is agreed that she may set the worst table in Washington, but no one seems to mind. It's not the food after all, it's the people. She's brought a new dimension to entertaining in Washington."

Henry Kissinger used to spend Christmas Eve at the Bradens' home, which he told friends was one of the few places in town where he could relax with people who made no demands on him. AFL-CIO chief Lane Kirkland came by on Thanksgiving. "It's very important that someone can come to dinner without having it known. When I have friends for dinner, it's because I like them. You can't keep friendships otherwise," Mrs. Braden once said.

Joan Ridley Braden was born in Indianapolis, and she grew up in Anderson, Ind., and later in Washington, where she graduated from Wilson High School. She attended Hollins College and the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated from Northwestern University.

She was a civilian intelligence

officer at the Pentagon during World War II. She later moved to New York, where she was a personal secretary and economic assistant to Rockefeller. Tom Braden also was working for Rockefeller in those years, and in 1948 they were married.

In 1951, he took a job with the Central Intelligence Agency and they relocated to Washington, where she became a special assistant to Oveta Culp Hobby at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Later they moved to Oceanside, Calif., where he had purchased the Blade-Tribune newspaper with a $185,000 loan from Rockefeller. Mrs. Braden wrote articles for the paper and later worked in the political campaigns of John and Robert Kennedy.

After 14 years in California, the Bradens came back to Washington, where she did television interviewing for WTOP-TV and fund-raising for the American Film Institute and traveled around the world overseeing development projects for the Community Development program.

She also built an extensive network of social and political contacts, primarily on the basis of

what was said to be an extraordinary charm, warmth, charisma and an ability to make people feel good about themselves. And she raised eight children, which became the basis of a book by her husband, "Eight Is Enough," which in turn became the basis of a television series that ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981. In that book, Braden wrote of his wife: "She's blithe. That's what it is about her, and that is why she is so everlastingly cheerful. What she needs is somebody to shake her by the shoulders and tell her that life is real and life is earnest, and to quit smiling about it so much."

In 1976, she was appointed consumer affairs coordinator for the State Department, stirring speculation in the media that she got her job because of her friendship with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, which both Mrs. Braden and the secretary denied.

In addition to her husband, survivors include seven children, David Braden of Taiwan, Mary Poole of Alexandria, Joan Ridder of Denver, Susan Zarker of Takoma Park, Nancy Braden of Denver, Elizabeth Braden of Denver and Nicholas Braden of Alexandria; and 12 grandchildren. A son, Tom Braden, died in 1994.

June 28, 1999

Dr. Henry Kissinger
1800 K Street, NW
Suite 520
Washington, DC 20006

JUN 2 9 1999

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

I am writing to you to follow-up on your recent conversation with Frank M. Brandstetter regarding the foreword to his upcoming biography. As the co-author of *Brandy: Our Man in Acapulco, The Life and Times of Frank M. Brandstetter*, I am excited that Brandy's wonderful and adventurous life is going to be published. As I know you are extremely busy, I have taken the liberty of writing a draft of the foreword for your review. The University of North Texas, which specializes in military history, expects to publish the book by 1 September 1999.

If this foreword is acceptable, I am enclosing an envelope for you to easily return it to me. Speaking on behalf of Brandy and my co-author, Dr. Rodney Carlisle, thank you for your contribution.

Resource Alternatives, Inc. • 2419 I Street, N.W. • Washington, D.C. 20037 • (202) 466-3900

Draft Foreword

Those of us privileged to know Frank M. Brandstetter
have often urged him to put his many adventures together in
writing. Now, this biography captures the essence of
Brandy - creative businessman, dedicated military officer,
tireless adventurer, world traveler, loyal American.

In World War II, Brandy served as the leader of
paratroop field intelligence units. He worked as aide to
General Matthew Ridgway during and after the war. He
helped evacuate Americans during the takeover of Havana by
Fidel Castro. Then and later, through his confidential
service to Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Brandy was
often at the heart of events that shaped our times. Brandy
was there, on the ground, usually in the middle of the
action, serving the cause of the United States.

In the 1960s and 1970s, when he built a great resort
hotel in Acapulco, astronauts, writers, actors,
politicians, and statesmen came to know and appreciate his
hospitality, his genius for organization, and his wise
observations on public events.

Brandy's steadfast commitment to his nation, whether
in the United States or overseas, may stand as an incentive
to Americans everywhere.

Congratulations, Brandy, on at last sharing your story
with the world.

Henry Kissinger

1999

November 3, 1999

Dear Jerry:

We have invited François and his family for dinner in New York on the evening of Monday, May 22nd, at the Kissinger residence, 435 E. 52nd Street, and wanted you to know that he has specifically asked that you and Francie be a part of this special evening. Complete details will follow but, in the meantime, we hope that you will save the date on your calendar and plan to be with us.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Kissinger

Donald H. Rumsfeld

The Honorable
L. Paul Bremer III
Kissinger Associates, Inc.
350 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10022

eurasia | group

SEP 27 1999

September 23, 1999

Henry Kissinger
President
Kissinger Associates
350 Park Avenue, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10022

Dear Dr. Kissinger,

In the spirit of continuing to foster a strong and durable relationship between Russia and the United States, we hope you will be able to attend a special evening with the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bolshoi Ballet.

John Kean, Chairman of the Board of NUI Corporation, will be hosting a pre-
performance reception and dinner which will include Russian Ambassador to the
United States Yuri Ushakov, as well as numerous political leaders from Russia and
the United States.

Details of the event--and directions to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center--are
enclosed. Please join us on October 22; we look forward to seeing you there.

Best,

Ian Bremmer
President

executive offices • 1133 broadway, suite 1600 • new york, ny 10010
212.366.9560 • fax 212.366.9699

eurasia project • world policy institute • 65 fifth avenue, suite 413 • new york, ny 10003
212.229.5808 • fax 212.229.5579

International

One Elizabethtown Plaza
Union, NJ 07083
Tel: (908) 558-3680
Fax: (908) 289-6968
www.nui.com

NUI Corporation (NYSE: NUI)

SEP 27 1999

September 13, 1999

Dr. Henry Kissinger
President
Kissinger Associates
350 Park Avenue, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10022

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

I would like to invite you to share a special evening at the theater as my guest. NUI Corporation is hosting a dinner followed by a performance by the *Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus* with soloists from the *Bolshoi Opera* on Friday, October 22, 1999 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States of America will attend, along with other Russian government officials. The purpose of the event is to further Russian-American business relations and to introduce the recently appointed ambassador to New Jersey's government and corporate leaders.

The event will begin with cocktails at 5 p.m. to be followed by dinner at 6:00 p.m. The performance commences at 8 p.m. Please contact Christopher Van Houten by October 1, 1999 to indicate whether you will be able to attend. He can be reached at 908-289-5000, x6030.

I hope that you will be able to join me for what promises to be an enjoyable evening.

John Kean
Chairman of the Board

NUI Companies and Affiliates:
City Gas Company of Florida
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Utility Business Services
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Waverly Gas

Michael died over Christmas, one of the first voices on my answering machine was Eric's. His message was simple: 'Tell me where I have to be and when.'

All of the speakers, even the pols, kept to the imposed three-to-four-minute time limit. Except Marty Peretz. Distraught over the loss of his friend and unhappy about sharing the moment, the Harvard professor and owner of *The New Republic* went on for nearly half an hour. When he finished, people were literally fleeing. Pete Hamill whispered to *Post* columnist Jack Newfield, "Marty Peretz can empty a synagogue faster than a PLO bomb threat."

"The funeral," says Newfield today, "was like a strange competition among Eric's mentors."

And then there were the women. In attendance were his ex-wife, ex-lover, and girlfriend. The ex-wife was journalist Tamar Jacoby (*Someone Else's House*), who hadn't spoken to him in nearly ten years. The ex-lover was Lally Weymouth, the Washington *Post* heiress and columnist. They were together for almost a decade but split a little more than a year before his death. And the girlfriend during his last twelve months was Nancy Bacher, now 38, who was his assistant at the *Post*.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching," says a friend of Weymouth's. "The ex-wife is trying to quietly just blend in, the girlfriend is down in the front in tears, and in the meantime, Lally's playing what they call in Mexico *la viuda oficiale*, the official widow."

And so, by the time the two-and-a-half-hour service was over and everyone was filing out onto 87th Street—as the police academy's bagpipe corps stood in the rain playing “America the Beautiful”—everyone knew this event would be talked about for years. “It was,” says Pete Hamill, “one of the most astonishing New York funerals I’ve ever been to.”

BREINDEL'S CANONIZATION DID NOT stop with the funeral. Both the New York City Council and the State Legislature passed formal resolutions honoring him. Murdoch's News Corp. has established the Eric Breindel Memorial Foundation, with an initial grant of $250,000. The foundation will give out an annual $10,000 journalism prize, called—what else?—the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism. And HarperCollins (Murdoch's publishing house) has just released *A Passion for Truth*, a collection of Breindel's columns with a foreword by Senator Moynihan.

"Conservatism in America over the past twenty years has been a holy war," says Peter Kaplan, editor of the New York *Observer* and a close Breindel friend since college. "And just like it was with the old

left, these people are very passionate; they're all true believers, in each other and in their ideas. I'm sure [New York Times editorial-page editor] Howell Raines will have a perfectly nice funeral, but it won't be like that. Eric stood for something."

But ideological camaraderie explains only part of Breindel's unique status. The Eric Breindel who was eulogized as a statesman last March was a New York phenomenon, a product of the alchemy between the city's political and social

worlds. He was, in his way, a prince of the city, an extraordinarily gifted New York operator; a kind of Roy Cohn figure without the meanness.

It's true that Breindel was among the brightest in a class of extremely bright stars at Harvard; that many of his classmates believed he would one day be secretary of State; and that, because of his obsession with communism and the Holocaust, he was a source of great satisfaction to his political and intellectual elders. But it was his skill at maneuvering among New York's powerful that elevated him beyond the level of columnist and editorial writer. It was the *Post's* role in city politics, along with his uninhibited willingness to become friends with the people he wrote about, that enabled Breindel to become an impact player.

New York was the perfect place for Breindel to indulge his two passions: influencing public policy and getting close to powerful people. "Look," says Norman Podhoretz, whose new book, ironically, is titled *Ex-Friends*, "he liked having influence, and he liked knowing people. He had a taste for that and a talent for satis-

fying it in a way I never did. There were many places I was not welcome because my views were unpopular. But the sort of people who held it violently against me did not hold it against him."

As a writer, Breindel was unexceptional, producing mostly the joyless prose of an ideologue. And as an ideologue, he was more effective working the back channels than he was at publicly taking issues and ideas into new territory. But Breindel understood power in a way few

people do. He recognized early in his life that personality is more important than ideology. It's all about proximity and access. If you have someone's ear, you can make things happen.

Breindel began his lifelong courtship of

**CAREERING:** Clockwise from above, Breindel hosting *Fox Newswatch*; protesting Iraqi genocide; in his younger days; at Coney Island with then-wife Tamar Jacoby.

Photographs: previous pages, left, Frances M. Roberts; right, David Rentas/New York Post; this page, top, Robert Kalfus/New York Post.

78 NEW YORK MARCH 22, 1999

the powerful at Harvard. Developing relationships with professors like Moynihan and Peretz or intellectuals like Podhoretz was no accident. Nor were his friendships with kids of famous people like the Kennedys. He was drawn to people who could teach him, help get him published, or advance his career.

The turning point in his effort to gain entrance to the city's rarefied social world was his relationship with Lally Weymouth. She provided the boost that got him up and over the wall. Once they became a couple, he would have intimate

cliché "It's not what you know, it's who you know." In fact, in Breindel's case it was both: It was what he knew and who he could tell it to. He was not only able to charm important people with his intellectual gifts but absolutely determined to do it.

In the process, Breindel gave up most of the trappings of an ordinary life. In the late eighties, NewsAmerica decided to spotlight several of its rising young stars by featuring them in the company's annual report. Breindel was one of those chosen to be profiled. The photographer sent to take his picture needed two photos—one at work and one at play. But Breindel didn't play. He had no hobbies. Desperate, he finally remembered that he had once spent a summer in Europe reviewing roller coasters for a travel guide. He took the photographer to Coney Island and had him take his picture riding the Cyclone.

While Breindel's power base was the right-wing, pro-Israel, anti-communist, Rupert Murdoch nexus, neither his influence nor his orbit was limited to it. "Obviously, we didn't agree on a lot of issues, and he worked for a newspaper that con-

Breindel, however, believed that endorsing Marlin was a huge mistake. In an election where the ideological lines were so clearly drawn and the results could even have an impact on urban policy nationally, Breindel couldn't let the paper blow it. The *Post's* obvious choice was Giuliani. But Breindel needed to convince the boss, a daunting task under any circumstances—and at the time, Breindel was battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Frail and weakened by the ravages of chemotherapy, Breindel flew to New York from the Boston hospital where he was being treated to try to broker a meeting. He was convinced that if he could get the two men together, Giuliani would turn Murdoch around. Breindel made an impassioned plea. Finally, a meeting took place at the *Post*. Much as Breindel hoped it would, the sit-down changed Murdoch's mind. The *Post* would endorse Giuliani. Quickly, the paper went to work as only it can, relentlessly promoting its candidate and dumping on his opponent with huge, often hyperventilating headlines and specious stories in its news pages as well as on its editorial page.

Just like their first battle, the election

"CONSERVATISM IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS HAS been a holy war. I'm sure Howell Raines will have a perfectly nice funeral. But it won't be like that. Eric stood for something."

 sistently beat me to death," says Mario Cuomo. "But we had a terrific personal relationship. If you're an insider, there's nothing more valuable than knowledge. I loved talking to Eric because I always felt I was learning something or at the very least testing something I already knew."

BREINDEL WAS AT HIS MOST PERSEUASIVE behind closed doors, and never more so than during the 1993 mayor's race. He played a pivotal role in the election of Rudolph Giuliani that has never been reported.

Though David Dinkins had not had a successful term, Giuliani, who'd never held elective office, remained a tough sell. In a close race, which this was, the *Post* could be crucial. But Rupert Murdoch wanted the paper to endorse George Marlin, the poorly known Conservative Party candidate, who had no chance of winning. "Murdoch hated Giuliani," says a former high-level member of the Dinkins administration. "He hated him because of the role he played as a U.S. Attorney in prosecuting his Wall Street friends like Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky."

turned on only a handful of votes. But this time, Giuliani was the winner. It was a triumphant moment for the *Post*. Breindel's effort was, of course, something the new mayor would never forget; Giuliani was in the hospital, at Breindel's bedside, the morning he died.

D ESPITE HIS SOARING NEW YORK success, however, the last thing Breindel would have expected—given his unmistakable early promise—was that he'd have to settle for a career as an editorial writer for a tabloid newspaper. The defining moment of his life, the episode that gives his story its tragic-heroic arc, occurred when he was 27. In the early months of 1983, after receiving a high-level security clearance from the FBI, Breindel went to work as Senator Moynihan's aide on the Senate Intelligence Committee. For someone interested in a career in government, it was a dream job. But on May 16, only eight weeks after he started, Breindel was arrested in the parking lot of a Washington, D.C., motel for buying five bags of heroin from an undercover cop. Two and a half grams for $150. The arrest report said he had tracks on his arms. He was a junkie.

It was, of course, a big story at the

contact not only with local pols but with national and international leaders as well. The lines between his work and his social life didn't blur; they disappeared. A small dinner party at their East Side apartment might include Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, Yitzhak Rabin, or Benjamin Netanyahu.

"And of course, we were all friendly with the Kissingers," says Podhoretz, "and no statesman would come through New York without seeing the Kissingers. And Eric was always invited."

It was a sophisticated twist on the old

Photographs: this page, bottom, Louis Psihoyos/Matrix.

MARCH 22, 1999 NEW YORK 79

10

mann, a writer at *The Atlantic Monthly* who was one year ahead of Breindel at Harvard. "You have to understand that the average student will go through four years of Harvard and not have even one tenured faculty member who could pick him out in a police lineup. The fact that Eric was spending time with people like Moynihan was really unusual."

In his torn black jeans and frayed white Brooks Brothers button-down Oxford shirts, Breindel was an alluring figure on campus. He escorted Caroline

**HIGHLY PLACED SOURCES:** Clockwise from above, Breindel at the *Post* offices with Senator Moynihan; with Cindy Adams and Steve Cuozzo; with Henry Kissinger at a party for Jackie Mason; and with Mario Cuomo at a Southampton fund-raiser.

Kennedy (his father didn't approve, because she wasn't Jewish). He roomed with David Kennedy and palled around with Bobby Jr. On a trip to Israel, he secured an interview with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and wrote a piece for *Rolling Stone*. "He was mysterious," says classmate Philip Weiss, who writes for the New York *Observer*. "He was sophisticated, he had a private life, he had girlfriends. And he had people who loved him. There were many people who

were fiercely attached to him."

But there was also a dark side to his personality that came into full public view during his junior year. The episode happened during what's known as the Turkey Shoot, the annual vote to choose the president of the Harvard *Crimson*. The top spot at the legendary student newspaper, long a fecund breeding ground for some of journalism's best-known names, is one of the school's most coveted undergraduate prizes.

In 1975, the battle was between Breindel and James J. Cramer, the hedge-fund manager, ubiquitous financial journalist, and co-founder of TheStreet.com. There were clear differences of style and personality: Cramer was the fiery, abrasive, indefatigable worker (some things never change), while Breindel was the cool, sophisticated, worldly thinker. Though almost all of the players involved were Jewish, Breindel was somehow cast as the Waspy, polished, urbane private-school kid and Cramer as the raw public-school product who was a little gruff but had all the solid, honest virtues Hollywood always ascribes to simple, hard-working people.

Breindel lost the election by one vote.

Half an hour after outgoing *Crimson* president Nicholas Lemann called everyone to tell them the results, Breindel and his supporters arrived at the offices of the paper. "They were really upset and angry," says Lemann. "They were borderline violent. One of Eric's guys literally put his hands around my throat and started to squeeze, as if to strangle me. It was simply an awful night."

It was a night many of the participants would go back to when Breindel was bust-ed for drugs. "Some people

theorized that the drug problem explained his behavior over the *Crimson* vote," says Lemann. "I'm not sure about that, but it was clear from his behavior that he was a troubled, unhappy man. I saw a side of him that was in pain of some kind."

Weiss, who voted for Cramer, says he learned some early political lessons from the way Breindel reacted: "He was so sophisticated in this dark way. He said to me, 'I understand what you did. You voted for your friend, and you have to be loyal to your friend.' This principle was not unfamiliar to me, but I'd never before heard it stated so baldly. Cramer and I were such innocents by comparison. He was vicious and calculating, and that was new to me."

THE THEORIES ABOUT HOW AND WHY Breindel began using drugs fall somewhat loosely into three categories. Close friends and acolytes see his addiction as an obvious response to the physical pain he endured—primarily from a wrist injury he suffered while on the wrestling team at Exeter that was never completely repaired despite several surgeries. From his time at Harvard till his death, he didn't have a day without pain, they say, and his search for relief led him eventually to heroin. While it is true that he was struck by a series of physical problems—chief among them cancer in the early nineties and a recurring kidney ailment that required hospitalization for the first time only a few weeks before the Turkey Shoot—both his father and his sister are doctors. It would seem that he would have had easy access to legal medications.

Theory No. 2 blames Breindel's fall on—who else?—the Kennedys. Listen: "He was mixed up with the Kennedy kids [Bobby and David], and they were junkies," says Norman Podhoretz. Or this: "Eric got in trouble by hanging out with the Kennedys. I think he was quite impressed by them," says photographer Freddy Eberstadt, a close friend.

The third theory is that as smart and ambitious as Breindel was, he was still capable of a monumentally stupid, immature act. Perhaps he was looking for a rush, or for a way to express his manhood. Or maybe he was even looking for an escape from the pressures of the life he'd created for himself. Whatever the trigger, it's important to remember it was the seventies, and drug use among the elite was rampant.

After the arrest, his friends closed in around him. Norman Podhoretz, who saw drugs as one of the most destructive results of the counterculture—they went against everything he believed in and had been devoting his intellectual life to—still stuck by him. So did Marty Peretz, the Harvard lecturer and owner of *The New Republic*. Peretz met Breindel when he saw a piece he'd written in the *Crimson* about Israel. Impressed, he dropped the undergrad a note, they had coffee, and a bond quickly developed. Now Peretz was there for him, letting Breindel stay in his Georgetown house and hang around *The New Republic* for months.

Both Podhoretz and Peretz claim, however, that they had only the briefest of conversations with Breindel about what happened. Podhoretz "read him the riot act," and that was pretty much it: "He made no excuses and promised me he'd straighten out." Peretz says they talked only about the future: "I don't know what he felt at two in the morning, but with me he had essentially only one concern. He wanted

Photographs: clockwise from top right, Don Pollard; courtesy of the New York Post; Robin Graubard; Marina Garnier.

MARCH 22, 1999 NEW YORK 81

to know what kind of professional life he
could have after an experience like this.”

Breindel's tragic early death made it dif-
ficult—particularly for those who knew
his history—not to think about what
could have been. But it was also hard not
to think about how far he'd come back.
Though it's unlikely the name Winston
Prude crossed the mind of anyone at
Breindel's funeral last March, perhaps it
should have. Prude, once a young Justice
Department lawyer, was arrested at the
Holiday Inn with Breindel; they had gone
to buy the drugs together. Two years later,
however, while Breindel was really just
beginning to rebuild his life in New York,
Prude was found lying facedown on the
kitchen floor of his Washington home.
The cause of death was a heroin overdose.

BREINDEL'S RETURN FROM POST-
arrest exile happened, all things
considered, very quickly. He
wrote a little for *The New Repub-
lic*, and barely half a year after the
bust he took a low-level research slot on a
PBS show called *American Interests*. Soon
after, he left to teach a course at George-
town. He continued to write the occasion-
al piece, and he asked his friend Christo-
pher Buckley to make contact for him at
the *New York Times*. He'd written a piece
about Whittaker Chambers that he want-
ed to get placed on the op-ed page.

Buckley hooked Breindel up with Tamar Jacoby, who was then the deputy editor of the *Times's* op-ed page. "As soon as we met, we knew there was something there," says Jacoby, whose most recent book is *Someone Else's House*, a look at race and the struggle to achieve integration in America. "He was smart, he was funny, and he cared about the same things I cared about. I knew he'd been through a lot, but that often makes someone stronger and more interesting. I fell in love with him, and his problems certainly didn't get in the way."

Within a matter of months, Breindel was
living with Jacoby in her apartment on the
Upper West Side, and things were chang-
ing rapidly. With her help, and recommen-
dations from Podhoretz, Peretz, and Moy-
nihan, Breindel landed a job writing for the
editorial page of the New York *Daily
News*. James Hoge, now the editor of *For-
eign Affairs*, gave him the job, but Breindel
left the *News* after less than a year.

"He came to me and said the New York Post had offered to make him head of their page and to give him a column," says Hoge. "He agonized about it, but I told him I thought he'd earned it. He shouldn't feel indentured to me because I'd helped him out when he needed a job."

The *Post* offer had Podhoretz's finger-
prints all over it. He'd been writing a col-
umn for the paper for two years. News

Corp., Murdoch's company, also owned
the syndicate that peddled his column
around the country. And Podhoretz had a
personal, social friendship with Mur-
doch. "Of course I talked to Murdoch
about Eric," Podhoretz says.

Shortly after joining the *Post*, Breindel
was having lunch on Saturdays at Gracie
Mansion with then-mayor Ed Koch and
the members of his inner circle. Breindel
and Koch also went to the movies toget-
er. "I liked him enormously," says Koch.
"I enjoyed talking to him about issues,
and he was someone I could depend on."

Breindel and Jacoby decided to marry at
the beginning of 1988, four years into
their relationship. The wedding was at the
Harvard Club, and the guest list was, of
course, eye-opening. "We both knew a lot
of people, and we took some mischievous
pleasure in Elliot Abrams having to shake
hands with Anthony Lewis and Norman
Podhoretz having to shake hands with
Bob Silvers," Jacoby says,
laughing at the memory.
"Eric and I joked about hav-
ing to have different rooms
to accommodate the various
ideologies."

THE RELATIONSHIP, WHICH HAD
always been combative, dete-
riorated not long after the
wedding, and their split
yielded one of the most often
told and heavily embellished
breakup stories in the history
of New York's chattering
class. The tale begins when
Breindel and Jacoby embark
on a two-week trip to Eu-
rope with Breindel's parents
to visit the concentration
camps. When they reach

Auschwitz, about midway through their
journey, Breindel announces that some-
thing has come up at the paper, and he
must return to New York immediately.

Off he goes, leaving the wife, with
whom he hasn't been getting along, at
Auschwitz with his Holocaust-survivor
parents. As she soldiers on and dutifully
continues the trip through Eastern Eu-
rope, Breindel is back in the city, moving
out of their apartment and in with Lally
Weymouth. While Jacoby is still travel-
ing with his parents, Breindel calls and
tells her its over. When she returns home
a week or so later, it's to an empty apart-
ment.

Though Jacoby understandably has no
interest in continuing to give life to this
story, she would like to set the record
straight. They were, in fact, in Europe
with his parents when they decided to
split up. They were in Hungary, not
Poland, and she had always planned to
stay on in Europe—without Breindel—to

visit her sister in London. When she got
home, the apartment was not empty, and
Breindel was staying with his parents. It's
painful and embarrassing for her to even
discuss the story, which she believes was
spread by Breindel's ideological enemies.

Jacoby was, according to people who
know her, extremely bitter and angry after
their split. Still, the funeral was difficult
for her. "When I married Eric, I had all
kinds of expectations and hopes about
life. I'm a different person now, but at the
funeral I spent a lot of time thinking
about those two people."

Even without the apocryphal rendering
of the breakup, the cynical view is that
Breindel chose women the same way he
chose his friends—based on who could
help him the most. Tamar Jacoby was the
right woman for him at the right time,
and when times changed, he found Lally
Weymouth, Katharine Graham's daugh-
ter, far more useful.

**LAST RESPECTS:** At Eric Breindel's funeral, clockwise from above, Robert Kennedy Jr. and wife; Lally Weymouth and daughters Pamela and Katharine; Rupert Murdoch.

"At first, I absolutely thought his rela-
tionship with Lally was a merger," says
former *Post* editor Jerry Nachman. "It
looked like an arranged marriage. But
then I went to one of those soigné parties
they threw in Southampton under a tent
for Kay [Graham]. I stood around for a
while looking at all the important bold-
face names and all the nine-figure guys.
And then Eric got up and spoke about
Kay and Lally and Lally's daughters, and
everybody knew this was for real. It was
very moving and very touching and very
personal," says Nachman, the prototypi-
cal tough-guy tabloid editor who is hard-
ly prone to weepy, sentimental musings.

Living with Weymouth, however, did
help broaden and intensify Breindel's re-
lationships with powerful people, includ-

82 NEW YORK MARCH 22, 1999

restaurants

[n]

Horowitz *continued from page 83*

sive hemorrhage while being treated for a
liver ailment. Spokesmen at New York
Hospital, however, declined to give any
further information. They were, I was
told, under pressure to keep quiet. Given
Breindel's history of intravenous drug
use, the obvious speculation centers on
hepatitis C. It's widespread among IV-
drug users and particularly insidious; it
can hide in the liver undetected for years,
all the while destroying the organ.

Less mysterious is the question of his
legacy, which really should be broken into
two categories: as a columnist-ideologue
and as a kind of cultural-social figure. As a
columnist, his two truly memorable mo-
ments were the pieces he excoriat-
ing Mayor Dinkins over the Korean-deli
boycott—when no one else seemed to
care—and his pieces about the riots in
Crown Heights. Even John Podhoretz, a
lifelong friend who replaced him at the
*Post*, realizes a little legend-building has
been going on. "Since his death, there's
been some rewriting of history concerning
how famous, how influential, and how
powerful he was."

Breindel's legacy as a cultural figure may ultimately be more interesting. "I think his life is rich with meaning for our generation," says *Newsweek* columnist Jonathan Alter, who was two years behind Breindel at Harvard. "We missed the war to save the world, and we even missed the civil-rights movement. We didn't get our chance to be heroic. We were left with the table scraps. But Eric, at least, was determined to make those scraps the most nourishing and the most useful meal he could."

Breindel died around lunchtime on a Saturday, and on that Sunday, the New York *Times* ran a rather bizarre obituary. It failed to mention that he had ever been married. And it also failed to note that as a young, promising aide to Senator Moynihan, he had been arrested for buying heroin. In the newspaper of record, in the city where he was an important figure, Breindel's history had effectively been rewritten, sanitized.

The people at the *Times* who were in-
volved in putting the obit together claim
their memories are a little hazy and imply
that some things just slipped through the
cracks. However, it is clear that Breindel's
death was important enough for columnist
and former executive editor Abe Rosenthal
to call the reporter working on the obit and
give him Lally Weymouth's phone number.
But perhaps a detailed account of who
leaned on whom, or who pulled what
strings, is beside the point, anyway. What
really matters is that even after he was
dead, Breindel was still able to exert his in-
fluence. In the end, he was in death as he
was in life: supremely connected.

**Smart City** *continued from page 87*

must be seen to be believed). For mere
tens of thousands you might score a piece
of jewelry with a stone from a mine that
no longer exists, since Leighton has a
thing for Kashmir sapphires, Burmese ru-
bies, and other rare gems.

The Finer Things

James Robinson, Inc. (480 Park Avenue;
752-6166); Shrubsole (104 East 57th Street;
753-8920)

Far less ostentatious and infinitely more
wearable is the delicate jewelry with a con-
temporary feel that you find at these two
neighboring stores, where the prices start
around $750. Each carries a gorgeous se-
lection of nineteenth- and twentieth-centu-
ry rings (many for under $10,000) appro-
priate for popping the question or blowing
your bonus money. Says Shrubsole's James
McConnaughy, "Unlike a lot of older
pieces, our pieces are not overdone."

Robinson, which has been a New York
institution since 1912, carries a huge se-
lection of jewelry dating from about
1830 to 1960. "We carry only the best
quality available, things that have not
been repaired or have been repaired so as
not to alter the piece," says fourth-gener-
ation president Joan Boening. Of particu-
lar interest are its collections of Scottish
jewelry and micro-mosaic pieces.

Something Old, Something New

Claire Bersani (by appointment only; 334-0746); Carnelian Knoll

www.carnelianknoll.com, or call 662-2759
between 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.)

There are options for those of us who
aspire to the antiques aesthetic but can't
afford the actual pieces. In fact, both Fred
Leighton and jeweler Helen Woodhull
(who operates out of Robinson) offer lines
of antiques-inspired contemporary pieces.
Designer Claire Bersani, a self-designated
"stone junkie" who spent the mid-eighties
designing jewelry for Kuwait's royal fami-
ly, says she's back to designing "for mere
mortals"; prices for her handmade 22-
karat-gold jewelry start at $500.

If even that is a bit much, and you can
do without the rocks, Carnelian Knoll's
Julie Siegmund is your woman. She fash-\ions new jewelry, including chokers and
long necklaces (a steal at $60-$210),
from beads she buys at roadside antique
stores (often including Czech beads
from the twenties, Japanese and German
beads from the fifties, and delicate nine-
teenth-century steel-cut beads). Says
Siegmund, "A lot of my designs are one-
of-a-kind, and each piece is a contempo-
rary spin on the classics." She'll do a pri-
vate show for you if you can round up
five or more prospective buyers.

Takeout

Shop and Stop

Caffè Buonitalia, the unassuming coffee-and-sandwich bar situated just inside the entrance to Chelsea Market's Italian-food-importing company, is a great place to refuel with an lily espresso or an authentic Neapolitan snack. The crusty margherita and marinara pizzas, frittata di pasta, brioche rustica stuffed with mortadella and pecorino, and ricotta cheesecake are prepared by chef Tonia Magliulo, the sister-in-law of San Domenico owner—and Caffè regular—Tony May. (75 Ninth Avenue, at 16th Street; 633-9090.)

0711). (M) AE, MC, V.

Lundy Bros.—This restored landmark restaurant serves a wide-ranging menu of fish, pasta, chicken, and steak but specializes in lobster and other varieties of seafood. Don't miss the oyster bar or the reconstructed shore dinner. Sunday brunch buffet available. 1901 Emmons Ave. (718-743-0022). (M) AE, DC, MC, TM, V

Peter Luger's—Steak for one, steak for two, steak for four, and creamed spinach. Apply for your own house credit card, or bring cash. 178 Broadway, at Bedford Ave. (718-387-7400). (E) ($).

Two Tom's—Firehouse-kitchen ambience and a waiter who tells you what you want to eat. The double-rib pork chops are peerless, and the escarole is great, too, but refuse the mercilessly overcooked pasta when it's offered. Eat early during the week and call ahead on weekends. Regular private parties make getting a table frustrating, but it's always worth the trouble. 255 Third Ave., nr. Union St. (718-875-8689). (I) ($).

Queens

Elias Corner—Mix with the locals in Astoria as they queue up for a table at this Greek fish tavern. Don't wait for a menu; it won't come. Instead, eyeball the counter as you enter. If the offerings look like today's catch, they are. The owner fetches the fish each morning. Opt for the deep-fried, pinky-size bait fish over the squid. 24-01 31st St., at Astoria Blvd. (718-932-1510). (M) ($).

Staten Island

Aesopec's Tables—Arrive by ferry or bridge to this charming bistro and garden that serves inventive, bold Mediterranean fare with an emphasis on handpicked fresh seafood. 1233 Bay St., Rosebank (718-720-2005). (M) AE, DC, DS, MC, V.

140 NEW YORK MARCH 22, 1999

Photograph by Magdalena Caris.

FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION REPORT

DATE: March 25, 1999

TO: HAK vis Theresa

FROM: Rose

RE: Attached letter from Dr. Brzezinski's daughter

The attached was sent to me today regarding a
hoped-for interview with you tomorrow.

I told her I would send it along but that I did
not know what your schedule was.

Perhaps the NY office could give her a reply
by phone.

1 PAGE(S) FOLLOW THIS COVER SHEET

202-872-0300 TO CONFIRM RECEIPT OR REPORT PROBLEMS
212-753-7248 TO TRANSMIT DOCUMENTS

Mar 25 99 12:59p

Mika Brzezinski

203 831 8272

p.1

MEMORANDUM FOR DR. HENRY A. KISSINGER

cc: Rosemary Neihuss
Peter Rodman

FROM: Mika Brzezinski, daughter of Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski

REGARDING: Request for an interview tomorrow morning on CBS "THIS MORNING" at 8am.

I understand you have an interview scheduled at another network at 7 am. We are hoping you would be able to join us for a segment in our 8 to 9am hour. It would take place at our New York Studio at 524 West 57th street.

My father told me that the two of you spoke at a party last week about my interviewing you soon.

This week, during this Kosovo crisis, I happen to be filling in on the major morning news show, so the timing would be just perfect. I also would like to discuss your new book.

Obviously, a car and producer could easily bring you from one studio to the next, and then back to your office.

I really hope we can connect this time. Thank you for your consideration.

Mika Brzezinski

(914) 337 0511

November 3, 1999

Dear Zbig:

We have invited François and his family for dinner in New York on the evening of Monday, May 22nd, at the Kissinger residence, 435 E. 52nd Street, and wanted you to know that he has specifically asked that you and Muska be a part of this special evening. Complete details will follow but, in the meantime, we hope that you will save the date on your calendar and plan to be with us.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Kissinger

Donald H. Rumsfeld

The Honorable
Zbigniew Brzezinski
CSIS
Suite 400
1800 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006