Thread by @MollyMcKew

My George Shultz story: he once have me an A+ on a project for making him laugh.

He team-taught an amazing class at Stanford — negotiations? Arms control? Not actually sure what class actually was — with three other big-name “formers” (which is why you took the class) /1

https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/1358477335184486400

The first assignment was a team project — you were assigned a country and had to present your case on some arms control issue.

Of course my team got Russia.

So we worked out the whole presentation on nuclear whatever and I’m sure it was fine. /2

But when we presented it in class, we staged it so one very serious member of our team read the presentation in English (as the interpreter), while I was the “Russian” diplomat actually presenting. /3

The “interpreter” read the real presentation — but what I was reading was Красная Шапочка (Krasnaya Shapochka)—which is Little Red Riding Hood in Russian.

Shultz & the other formers all spoke at least some Russian, & they howled with laughter, tears running down their faces /4

This lasted for the duration of the presentation. I chose the best parts of the story.

“It is vital to consider the status of Russia as the holder of a great nuclear arsenal and the guarantor of ...”
[But grandmother, what big ears you have!] /5

At the end, Shultz wiped his eyes and said: “I believe you have captured the essence of negotiating with the Russians perfectly.”

We got an A+

Very poignant memory of people taking their work and knowledge seriously, but not taking themselves too seriously. /6