By Terence Smith
Max Frankel, former editor-and-more of The New York Times, died last week at 94. He was my friend, mentor and Washington Bureau chief back in the day. As the Times obit suggested, he was Old School, but Smart Old School. And there lies a tale…
Back in the Dark Old Days of the Nixon Administration, in the early 1970’s, Henry Kissinger was the National Security Advisor and I was covering foreign policy for The New York Times in the Washington Bureau, headed by Max Frankel. I’ve long forgotten the particular issue, but Henry (everybody called him Henry,) was incensed, really incensed, about something I had written. He complained to me, but more significantly, he called Max and demanded that he come to his office in the West Wing to hear him out.
Max, to his everlasting credit, said he would only come with the reporter who wrote the story, saying, in effect, I’m not going to go behind Terry’s back. If you have something to say, Henry, you’ll have to say it to both of us. Still pissed, Henry agreed.
When we got to Henry’s sun-filled office in the northwest corner of the West Wing, I was asked to wait outside. Max and I refused and finally were admitted together. Henry let go with both barrels about what I had written, I defended it, he complained, basically, that it made him look bad, contained inaccuracies, etc. The argument went back in forth, with Max puffing on his pipe and smiling.
Finally, Henry paused and, raising his voice, turned and addressed Max directly, but in german, their common native language (both had fled Nazi Germany before WWII.) I knew about four words of german, so that effectively shut me out of the conversation.
Max took his pipe out of his mouth and laughed openly at the absurdity of the situation and said: “Henry, this meeting is over!” Henry, to his credit, laughed as well and we moved on. But Max had made his point: The New York Times was standing behind the story, and its reporter. Case closed.