@article{4c058ec39f5f4168925c07984d967a51,
title = "De Man and the Neo Cons: Where Ghosts Live",
abstract = "Drawing together an assemblage of historical and textual reference, this article examines the curious connections between Paul de Man and Leo Strauss. It does not suggest an intellectual affinity between the two men (on the contrary). However, it notes the proximity of both around the question of dialogism in relation to de Man's reading of Rousseau.",
keywords = "Paul de Man, deconstruction, Leo Strauss, neo-conservative",
author = "Martin McQuillan",
note = "Funding Information: The same probably could not have been said for de Man{\textquoteright}s old Harvard acquaintance Henry Kissinger. While scraping a living through language teaching at the Berlitz School in Boston, and before entering Harvard himself as a Junior Fellow in September 1954, de Man undertook translation work for Kissinger{\textquoteright}s journal Confluence: an international forum. He remained a contributing translator until 1955. De Man had first come into contact with Kissinger when he was allotted to de Man as a tutee by the Berlitz School. Kissinger had started Confluence when still a graduate student in 1953, published through the Harvard Summer School and the International Seminar (run by Kissinger and allegedly funded by the CIA). The journal only ran for six years and was an attempt to encourage international discussion of geopolitical themes from a range of contributors across the political spectrum, including essays by the likes of (on the one hand) Hannah Arendt, J. K. Galbraith, Ralph Ellison, I. A. Richards, Eric Weil, Arthur Schlesinger and future British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Labour MP Dennis Healey, and (on the other hand) British Conservative MP Enoch Powell. The editorial board included John Crowe Ransom and the then Dean of Arts and Sciences at Harvard McGeorge Bundy, later Kennedy{\textquoteright}s National Security Advisor during the Vietnam war who was to eventually find himself on the master list of Nixon{\textquoteright}s infamous {\textquoteleft}enemies list{\textquoteright}. It was perhaps through Bundy{\textquoteright}s involvement rather than Kissinger{\textquoteright}s that the CIA took an interest in the journal.9 De Man is credited with translations in French, German, Italian and Spanish over the period 1953–5.10 Although in 1953 Kissinger{\textquoteright}s political aspirations would have been known to his Harvard contemporaries, it was not then clear on which side of the House they lay. From 1954–68 Kissinger was contracted as an advisor to both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, while simultaneously pursuing his interests in Nelson Rockefeller and his serial bids for the Republican presidential nomination. Before taking up his position at the Society of Junior Fellows, in the same year as Noam Chomsky and Stanley Cavell, de Man was also employed by Kissinger, outside of the Berlitz School, to tutor him in French: according to anecdote Kissinger was slow in honouring invoices. Beyond geographical proximity and economic necessity none of this biographical archaeology demonstrates any sort of intellectual affinity between de Man and Kissinger or even Strauss. Kissinger, like de Man, was a Harvardian not a Straussian from Chicago. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Edinburgh University Press",
year = "2012",
month = nov,
day = "30",
doi = "10.3366/drt.2012.0039",
language = "English",
volume = "5",
pages = "180--198",
journal = "Derrida Today",
issn = "1754-8500",
publisher = "Edinburgh University Press",
number = "2",
}