atmosphere of growing trust. We discussed specifically such urgent international issues as the
situation in the Middle East, Afghanistan, southern Africa, Cambodia, central America. That is justsome of what we discussed. I would not want to go into detail right now. I think you will probably
seek to get clarification on this, but anyway I think the Camp David dialogue was very important."
[fn 14]
Gorbachov also had lengthy answers about the discontent in the Arab world over the Soviet policyof mass emigrations of Russian Jews who were obliged to settle in Israel. For the Middle East was
indeed approaching crisis. In the words of one observer, "Bush and Gorbachov stirred the boiling
pot of Middle East tensions with their press conference remarks, forgetting the damage that
seemingly remote forces can do to the grandest of East-West designs." [fn 15] Did Bush and
Gorbachov use their Camp David afternoon to coordinate their respective roles in the Gulf crisis,which the Anglo-Americans were now about to provoke? It is very likely that they did.
Bush's political stock was declining during the summer of 1990. One indication was provided by
the astoundingly frank remarks of Justice Thurgood Marshall of the US Supreme Court in an
interview with Sam Donaldson on the ABC News television prograMarshall, the sole black justice on the Supreme Court, was asked for his reaction to Bush'sm "Prime Time Live." Justice
nomination of the "stealth candidate" David Souter to fill the place of the retiring Justice William
Brennan, a friend of Marshall's. Souter was a man without qualities who appeared to have no
documentable opinions on any subject, although he had a sinister look. "I just don't understand what
he's doing. I just don't understand it. I mean this last appointment is... the epitome of what he's beendoing." said Marshall of Bush. Marshall didn't have "the slightest idea" of Bush's motives in the
Souter nomination. Would Marshall comment on Bush's civil rights record, asked correspondent
Sam Donaldson. "Let me put it this way. It's said that if you can't say something good about a dead
person, don't say it. Well, I consider him dead." Who was dead, asked Donaldson. "Bush!" was
Marshall's reply. "He's dead from the neck up."
Marshall added that he regarded Bush's chief of staff, John Sununu of New Hampshire, the state
Souter was from, as the one "calling the shots." "If he came up for election," said Marshall of Bush,
"I'd vote against him. No question about it. I don't think he's ever stopped" running for re-election
since he took office. Marshall and Donaldson had the following exchange about Souter:
Donaldson: Do you know Judge David Souter?
Marshall: No, never heard of him.
Donaldson: He may be the man to replace Brennan.
Marshall: I still never heard of him. When his name came down I listened to television. And the
first thing, I called my wife. Have I ever heard of this man? She said, "No, I haven't either. So I
promptly called Brennan, because it's his circuit [the First Circuit in Boston]. And his wifeanswered the phone, and I told her. She said: "He's never heard of him either."
Marshall and Brennan had often been at odds with the Bush's administration's promotion of the
death penalty. In this connection, Marshall commented: "My argument is that if you make a mistake
in a trial and it's corrected later on --you fiman, what do you say? "Oops?" "I'm sorry?" "Wait a minute?" That's the trouble with death. Deathnd out it was an error-- you correct it. But if you kill a (^)
is so lasting."
On this occasion, Marshall renewed his pledge that he would never resign, but would die in office:
"I said before, and I repeat that, I'm serving out my life term. I have a deal with my wife that when I