There was ‘strategy’ in this. Buchman believed that in crisis situations, there was value in trying to identify people who could have a positive influence. His link with Robert Schuman reflected this. It was a strategic approach based on developing people. This involved a kind of ‘personalisation’: Buchman talked of taking the needs of nations and answering them with people. ‘Prepared’ personalities are everywhere, he suggested. This is Buchman meeting Egyptian Prime Minister General Neguib in 1952.
Buchman tended to see people not just as delegates or deputies, but as people in the round – he was interested in their whole families. A good listener, he got to know people and the issues they were wrestling with, political and personally. He had the capacity to give his attention fully to the person he was with, and people responded to that.
