NOT ONLY does President Bush's comment on negotiating with Iran contradict his own policies (Editorial, May 17), it displays historical illiteracy. Thomas Jefferson, our first secretary of state, established a de facto policy of negotiating with governments that were in power. That policy lasted more than 120 years until William Jennings Bryan, attempting to curb Latin American revolutions, adopted a de jure policy, negotiating only with those governments we deemed had a "right" to be in power.
That Pandora's box has plagued us ever since. Many secretaries of state have tried to change it. James Burns announced a return to de facto policy. Three years later, as China was about to fall to the Communists, Dean Acheson said we would recognize the Mao government. Senator Joe McCarthy and others intervened, and we did not recognize China for 30 years. In his book "War or Peace," John Foster Dulles advocated a return to de facto policy, citing China as an example. Three years later, as secretary of state, he opposed recognition of China. At a press conference I asked him whether he had changed his mind. He said that he had not, but that the climate in Washington made it impossible to implement a de facto policy.
Recognition does not imply sanction. Talking to Iran is not an appeasement of terrorists; it is the reality of coping with the world as it is.
EDWIN A. LANE
Wellesley
The writer was editor of the magazine Church Management in the 1950s when he attended the Washington press conference.
