As they say one thing led to another and ultimately the British and Irish governments asked me to serve as chairman of the peace negotiations which ironically began six years ago this week.

The experts who managed the original Marshall Plan say Afghanistan needs a commitment of at least $5 to $10 billion over 5 to 10 years coupled with occupation forces of 250 000 Allied soldiers to keep the peace throughout the country.

Through the years I have received my share of recognition for efforts in the fields of sports the arts the struggle for full citizenship for the Negro people labor's rights and the fight for peace.

All through the years since World War II the Japanese people have I am convinced made strenuous efforts to preserve and promote world peace contributing to the progress and prosperity of mankind.

I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.

There has not been a war in South America for fifty years and I have every confidence that the countries of Central and South America are deeply in earnest in the maintenance of peace.

I know that. I'm having a ball. I'm not slap happy. I'm just filled up with joy and with peace and with all kinds of things that have eluded me for quite a few years. And they're back and they're thriving.

I am 73 years old. I've seen everything. I've met the kings the queens the presidents I've been around the world. I have one thing that I would like to do: to try to reach peace.

If our nation goes over a financial Niagara we won't have much strength and eventually we won't have peace. We are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign investors. Within a few years we will be spending more on interest payments than on national security. That is not as our military friends say a 'robust strategy.'

But if our nation goes over a financial Niagara we won't have much strength and eventually we won't have peace. We are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign investors. Within a few years we will be spending more on interest payments than on national security. That is not as our military friends say a 'robust strategy.'

The years of the economic depression have been years of political reaction and that is why the economic crisis has generated a world peace crisis.

Success is not assured but America is resolute: this is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come - and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance.

When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call but I wrote letters I wrote short stories I wrote books.

It has been after all 11 years more than a decade now of defiance of U.N. resolutions by Saddam Hussein. Every obligation that he signed onto after the Gulf War so that he would not be a threat to peace and security he has ignored and flaunted.

In Switzerland they had brotherly love five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!

Four years of Jimmy Carter gave us two titanic Reagan landslides peace and prosperity for eight blessed years - and even a third term for his feckless vice president George H.W. Bush.

After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquility of a political convention.

I could start a war in 30 seconds. But some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good manners peace has to be learned.

Egypt has been a partner of the United States over the last 30 years has been instrumental in keeping the peace in the Middle East between Egypt and Israel which is a critical accomplishment that has meant so much to so many people.

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress with its trials and its errors its successes and its setbacks can never be relaxed and never abandoned.

Difficult years lie ahead patience is required.

As a young boy I read 'Cheaper by the Dozen' and immediately became neurotic about my use of time. It taxed me severely but only for the next 50 years. But I think it also allowed me to discipline myself to sit in the chair and be a writer where one of the most needed qualities is patience.

Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years.

My advice to someone to follow in my footsteps is to have patience. I've been doing this for twelve years.