“Enfant Terrible!” – Wickedly Good Diplomatic Talk From Kissinger and Bouteflika

The diplomatic meeting is of no consequence.  It’s just a minor blip on the radar of classified documents published by Wikileaks.

On December 17, 1975, in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met Abdelaziz Bouteflika Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria.  As published in a secret memorandum, the first part of the exchange sounds like something straight out of an Ian Fleming novel.

Kissinger:  Enfant terrible!

Kissinger:  What are the most pressing problems we have to discuss?

Bouteflika:  Whatever you would like.

Kissinger [to Sabbagh]:  When I met him, he was a revolutionary.  Now he is a revolutionary diplomat.

Bouteflika:  It is necessary, during certain parts of one’s life, if one if off on a tangent for a bit.

God, how I would love to meet up with a friend and begin with “Enfant terrible!”  And you can practically see Bouteflika smoking his cigarette underhanded.

Bouteflika has been President of Algeria since 1999.