The Trust Builder

The secret of his success, says former U.S. Diplomat Averell Harriman, is his special gift of understanding "the other man's point of view," thereby gaining the precious element of trust. No talent is more vital in the Middle East, and Philip Charles Habib, 61, has so far used it impressively during his eleven-week mission. Says one Israeli admirer: "If he hears the word no, he pretends he hasn't heard it."

Habib, the tough, salty son of a Lebanese grocer in Brooklyn, entered the Foreign Service in 1949 and three years later earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He subsequently took on tough assignments in South Korea (1962-65) and as top deputy in the embassy in Saigon (1965-67).

Habib's combination of patience, discretion, endurance and shrewd calculation flowered in 1968, when he was appointed No. 3 man at the frustrating Paris peace talks between the U.S. and North Viet Nam, where Harriman was chief negotiator. Cyrus Vance, Habib's immediate superior and later Secretary of State, recalls Habib's meticulous allnight preparations of U.S. positions. The observant diplomat once advised his American colleagues to look under the bargaining table while dealing with the impassive North Vietnamese, since "you can tell when they're unsure of themselves by the way they cross and uncross their feet."

Habib headed the U.S. peace delegation from 1969 to 1971, then took over for three years as a highly popular Ambassador to South Korea. Later, back in Washington, Habib worked closely with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on his many Middle East shuttles.

"If you are working 9 to 5 and if your wife is contented," Habib once said, "you are not doing your job." A certified workaholic (albeit happily married for 38 years, with two daughters, 29 and 26), Habib finally suffered a series of four heart attacks, which led to his early retirement in 1979.

As it turned out, that is when his troubleshooting jobs really began. That year he served as special adviser to Cyrus Vance, vainly seeking a permanent solution to the civil war in Lebanon. And in May, hunting for the right man for what looked like a thankless job, Secretary of State Alexander Haig personally chose him to try to ease tensions in the Middle East. The results were on display last week.

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