Specifically about Yeltsin: "He has bouts of depression, and takes medication for his back problem, like Woodrow Wilson. His close buddies are not very impressive. He feels the army didn't move quickly enough in the coup attempt against him." (Long pause.) "He'll trust only a few people, and will think only those who support him 100 percent are his friends." (I said I knew somebody like that once, and Nixon gave his short bark of a laugh.)

"I gave Clinton an evaluation of Yeltsin: not hard to read, straight out, refreshing, charismatic. But lacks experience in free-market economics, let alone running a democratic republic."

On the Mideast: "I have great respect for Rabin, but I didn't want to go to the dog and pony show on the White House lawn. I told him later that it takes a strong man to make peace; he's able to do what he's doing because Arafat is weak, and far worse than Arafat is waiting in the wings. Paul Johnson had a line that statesmen must differentiate between different degrees of evil."

On Bosnia: " 'Assertive multilateralism' is nonsense. De Gaulle said to Malraux: 'Parliaments can paralyze policy; they cannot make policy.' We need to get out of the arms embargo to get to a correlation of forces that can make peace. I'm more hawkish than Bush or Clinton on this. For now, say I'm more hawkish than Bush; I don't want to lose my effectiveness in foreign affairs."

On the foreign-policy Clinton (whose eulogy was unstinting and eloquent): "Foreign affairs is not a winner for him. He should play to his strength: try to keep the Nafta coalition together, throw the McGovern ites over the side. The left won't start a third party, and there's a big center out there. For the Republicans' sake, I hope he doesn't, but that's what he should do."