Free Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, Catherine Whitney

you a question?”
    He nodded.
    “Why did Che go to Bolivia? To export revolution, right?”
    Another nod.
    “And as soon as he got there he was assassinated. Did you have anything to do with that?”
    I suppose Castro was surprised at my boldness. Hell, I was surprised at my boldness. “Lee,” he said, “we’ve been talking openly, but if you’re interested in that kind of thing, why don’t you check with your own CIA?”
    We talked until two-thirty in the morning, and I enjoyed it. I thought we’d made a real connection.
    As we left Cuba, with a supply of Cohiba cigars (a gift ) packed in my bag, I hoped it wouldn’t be my last visit. When I got back to the United States, I called McClarty. “Mac,” I said, “Castro is ready to talk.”
    “Maybe he brainwashed you,” Mac said.
    “No,” I said, “he leveled with me. Look, our policy is hurting young kids and old people. It’s doing a lot of damage—over what? Ideology?”
    I was so frustrated that for a while after my visit I thought I might volunteer for the job of unofficial diplomat to Cuba. But no one was interested. And thirteen years after my visit, we’re still not talking. What a missed opportunity! What is it going to take to convince our leaders that the road forward starts with a conversation?
     
    A TIP FROM DALE CARNEGIE
     
    Ever since I took the Dale Carnegie course when I was twenty-five, I’ve kept his book How to Win Friends and Influence People on the shelf. I still have my original copy, and it’s pretty tattered. I must have referred to it hundreds of times in my life. Do you know what Dale Carnegie’s first rule was? “If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.” That’s pure common sense—something we are often lacking these days.
    Dale Carnegie also had some good advice about being a leader, and he made a point of saying that it applied to presidents and kings as well as to ordinary businesspeople. Although he wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People seventy years ago, Carnegie’s principles are just as relevant today.
    Sometimes we forget that government officials and heads of nations are human beings. The greatest impediment to getting along is having preconceived notions that someone is all-holy, all-evil, or made of stone or steel. In my life I’ve been amazed by how often my negative ideas about people are proven wrong when I actually meet them. For instance, in 2005, when I was invited to a dinner party hosted by Prince Charles and his bride-to-be Camilla at Highgrove, the prince’s personal residence, I was sure I knew what they’d be like—very stiff and proper. I got ready for a dull evening of protocol and pomp. Was I ever wrong! Camilla greeted us at the door with a warm smile, and insisted, “Please call me Camilla.” Charles was relaxed and talkative. They both had great senses of humor. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’d had in a long time.
    The point is, people are people. Even the mighty have feelings and pride. Just like everyone else, they appreciate a pat on the back or a way to save face when they’ve dug a hole for themselves. When it comes right down to it, being a leader in the world is just a matter of winning friends and influencing people with a spirit of hope.

VII
     

Meet the coalition of the UNwilling
     
    I may be getting old, but there’s nothing wrong with my memory or my attention span—at least not yet. The folks from the Bush administration would like us to forget that we went to war in Iraq because they falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They’d like us to forget their phony campaign to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11, so they could do what they’d wanted to do all along. If I live to be a hundred (which I hope to do), I’ll never understand how we got so duped.
    We went to war on a lie. Congress didn’t debate it. The press didn’t challenge it. It got trumped up in secret meetings. The generals weren’t