LETTING LUCE WITH CLARE BOOTHE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403830004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 20, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403830004-1
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WASHINGTON POST
20 MAY 1983
Letting Luc
ith Clare Soothe
Drawing a Self -Portrait With Wit :& ' Words -
By Sar ihBoothConroy
Clare Boothe-Luce 'has not.:. so,
much lived. her:life -as written it..as
an epigram. -She --was'born -with The
gift of intelligence and - the curse of
`seeing the world-.as ludicrous.
"Without a c view of .life,.you,;
can't find it. as . funny as I do," she
.said last night.:'"The: difference be=
-tween a pessimist and an"optimist is
-that the- pessimist is better in-
.formed."
Last night, five weeks after her.
80th 'birthday, the wit and the beau-
ty -were holding -up -well at a verbal
"Self-Portrait -at the- National Por
tr ait -Gallery." Those of the about
300 guests -who came expecting a
drawing room dialogue from the fa--
mous playwright of "The Women"
were not disappointed.
Neither were those who came to
hear the Republican politician and
diplomat who was a member of Con-.
gress from Connecticut-and an am-bassador to Rome. Today she is a
consultant to the National Security
- Council, a member of the Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board, and an
amazing combination of a grande
dame and an enfant terrible.
Paying tribute to her past and her
present was an .. appreciative group
that included three CIA directors, two
past-and one present-William Colby,
..Richard Helms and William Casey
the Librarian -of Congress Daniel Boor-
stin, the ? Architect of the. Capitol
George White, former Nixon secretary
Rosemary Woods and Luce biographer
Sylvia Morris. .
In fine form, shimmering with se
__guins, wearing enough pearls to dec-"
imate a bed of oysters, Luce ranged
with Marc Pachter,. the National Por-
trait Galley's historian, over.vher var-
ions starring roles-words about
-the costars and ,the bit players in the-
oad- company ' of .her life. -She spoke
much about the cheers and a-bitabout,
the boos
She neatly dug a gravefor the long
standing rumor that. George Kaufman
had written parts of "The Women,"'
her biggest hit. "He used to say, `Do
you :think that if I'd written a play
that -made $3 million, I would've put
her name on it?"'.
. - - ~_
.. When she was in Congress, she said,
"someone was always saying that-;m;
husband [Henry Luce, owner of Time-
Life] had his staffers write my
speeches for me. But it .all balanced
out, sometimes-people said I -wrote his.
editorials forbiin:"
Listening to her last night, it is
doubtful that anyone would dare write
anything for her.-Looking at Secretary
of Defense Caspar-Weinberger. sitting
on a front seat at the discussion, she
gave a mild example of the sort of
thing that made many enemies in her
career. She. chastised Weinberger for
popularizing the phrase "build-down."
."The secretary is a great patriot,"
she said, "but -he would certainly do
the country a favor-if he would get rid
of `build-down.' "
She said she learned at a party re-
cently that. former senator J. William
Fulbright had never forgiven her for
the time she corrected his use of imply
and infer. And she told about the con-
gressman who told one of her verbal
victims not to mind her because "her
real vocation is writing. She attaches
meaning to the use of words."
Luce told of a time she met her
match. "When `The Women' was a
success in London, I was brave enough
to ask Sylvia Astor to introduce me to
George Bernard Shaw. I wrote out in
may mind what I was going to say "
But when 1iie- was shown into
Shaw's study, he ignored her for so
long she forgot her speech. "I just
blurted out;'Mr. Shaw, if it weren't for
you, I wouldn't-be here ..: He looked
at me and - said, `And what is your
mother's name?""
Pachter asked Luce -which of her
many roles she preferred. She said the
most wonderful was to be mother to
her daughter, who was killed in a car
accident at 19. Luce.said she mourned
the grandchildren she might have had..
And in a characteristic shift, from
.dark to light,-she went on to say she
was proudest of- learning scuba diving
after she was 50.
"I took a certain pride in that Pres-
ident Eisenhower gave me 14 missions
to accomplish as ambassador to Italy.
And I accomplished 15-I persuaded
Italy and Yugoslavia to settle their
territorial dispute. I believe it is the
only border disagreement since World
War II solved short of war."
Luce admitted that her first ambi-
tion was to be a playwright despite ber
subsequent diplomatic career. In con-
versation after the formal dialogue, she
said she has a_play "gestating. But you
know the kind -of life we lead often
acts as an abortion to the creative im-
pulse."
It is said no woman can be too thin
or too rich. Last night, it seemed that
Luce, who is neither fat nor poor,
could have ruled the world-if she had
not also been -too beautiful and 'too
witty. -`. -
'COIVTEVUF ?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403830004-1