By Scott Graber
It’s Wednesday, Jan. 22, and I’m sitting at our wood-planked dining table in our linoleum-tiled dining room.
It is early, and 26 degrees, and from where I’m sitting, I can see a white, three-inch deep, billiard table-smooth blanket of snow covering our yard.
All of which takes me back to 1970 when I brought my Connecticut-raised wife to Beaufort.
I had gone to law school in Washington, D.C., and can attest that Susan was surprised, and not entirely happy when I decided to sign-on at the Dowling Law firm, then located on Bay Street.
In those long-gone days we lived on the 1st floor of the Lucius Cuthbert House at the corner of Charles and Port Republic Streets. The Cuthbert House was (and is) two-storied, verandahed, and had served as a bakery during the occupation of Beaufort.
Right after we arrived, I told Susan that this town was different from Connecticut in almost every way. And I added, “I can’t predict what kind of future we will have here,” one evening as we sipped our Old Grand Dad-made Old Fashioneds, “But it won’t involve snow, thermal underwear or Eddie Bauer-brand overcoats.”
But in the winter of 1973 it did snow in Beaufort. I think it was three or four inches — I do have photographs — and so I laced-up my ice skates and skated the length of Charles Street.
Some of our friends who owned snow skis found Beaufort’s only available hill — The Woods Memorial Bridge — and tried out that trail without having to buy lift tickets or stand in line.
While we were skating and skiing the world was changing — Henry Kissinger had persuaded Richard Nixon to meet with China’s Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai; as well as Mao Zedong; and that ended 25 years of China’s self-imposed isolation.
Henry Kissinger also brought his “triangulation theory” to the State Department.
Triangulation recognized there were three powerful actors in the world — China, the Soviet Union and the United States. Kissinger’s theory was to exploit the natural rivalry between the Soviet Union and the Chinese in order to strengthen the position of the United States. In the process Kissinger seemed to side-step questions around morality which had been the focal point of the Vietnam experience, replacing it with “reality.”
Kissinger’s theory sent Nixon to China — we called it rapprochement in 1972 — notwithstanding the fact that China was a communist dictatorship in every sense of that word, and was perceived to be a threat to Japan, the Philippines and South Korea, not to mention the fact that China supplied the North Vietnamese in that late, great conflict.
Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. While the Soviets flopped, twitched and foundered we rejoiced believing that the Russia people would now, at long last, throw-off their persisting paranoia. We also thought that China would somehow be content to manufacture computers, assemble cell phones and produce the best table tennis players on earth.
But these days, China wants Taiwan and, now, the South China Sea; and Vladimir still covets his lost empire. If anything, Russia’s aggression (in Ukraine) has brought China back into Russia’s outstretched arms and we are effectively returned to 1970 when Susan and I arrived in Beaufort and Kissinger was tinkering with triangulation.
But, of course, we have a new President who believes that foreign policy is transactional — that is to say there is no problem that can’t be solved with a deal, a trade, a negotiation that begins and ends with tariffs.
On Monday, a few of us periodically checked the movement of snow on AccuWeather; or settled-in for the Ohio State vs. Notre Dame shootout; but many listened to the President’s inaugural speech; then watched the Executive Order signings; hoping to understand where our new President might take us.
Kissinger believed that sovereignty — the notion that all nations are created equal — should give way to reality. Kissinger (who died in 2023 at 100) had serious reservations about the United States going to war over the invasion of Ukraine. It is clear that President Trump has those same reservations.
But it is not clear when the deal-making will actually begin — and whether it will involve Ukraine, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, the South China Sea and Israel at the same time.
But perhaps we should stop, lace on our skates, and skate down 9th Street.
We should enjoy the snow.
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.
