[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 144 (Tuesday, November 13, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6732-S6733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING ROGER D. FISHER

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on August 25, 2012, the United States and 
the world lost one of its most creative thinkers and problem solvers. 
Roger D. Fisher, Williston Professor of Law at Harvard University and 
coauthor of ``Getting to Yes: Negotiating Without Giving In,'' the most 
widely read book ever written on the subject, was 90 years old.
  Roger Fisher was a pioneer and a giant in the field of negotiation. 
He not only changed the way people think about dispute resolution, 
inspiring and mentoring countless students who have gone on to use his 
teachings in their own careers, he applied his theories to real-life 
conflicts from South America to the Middle East.
  I had the good fortune to meet Roger and was struck by his affable 
manner and big smile, his inquisitive mind, and, perhaps above all, his 
enthusiasm for devising creative ways to help others solve seemingly 
intractable problems and in doing so make the world a better place. No 
conflict was too big or too small. He had imaginative, thoughtful 
approaches to everything, from ending the Vietnam war to resolving an 
argument among siblings at the family dinner table.
  Roger was a gifted advocate. He had a brilliant mind and an 
extraordinary ability to persuade. But, as others have said, ``he 
taught that conflict was not simply a `zero-sum' game in which a fixed 
pie is simply divided through haggling or threats.'' Rather, it was 
about how one approaches the problem, recognizing the other side's 
needs, understanding their interests, and in doing so maximizing 
outcomes for both sides. That was the genius of the ``without giving 
in'' part of ``Getting to Yes.'' While some might assume he meant 
getting one's way at another's expense, Roger recognized that is rarely 
possible or desirable, and it is often not necessary for a good result. 
But he also saw how lacking in the basic analytical and practical tools 
of negotiation most people are.
  I often think of Roger when I see the House and Senate so polarized 
and incapable of the positive, creative thinking and compromise that 
are necessary to deal effectively with issues of importance to our 
constituents, to the country, and to the world. ``Getting to Yes'' 
should be mandatory reading for every Member of Congress. It contains 
invaluable lessons for the job the American people sent us here to do.
  I want to express my condolences to Roger's two sons, Elliot and 
Peter. Elliot Fisher lives in Vermont, is a respected physician at the 
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and a leading voice for health 
policy reform. Peter Fisher has had a distinguished career in finance, 
including at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as an Under 
Secretary of the Treasury. I have no doubt they both have put to good 
use the lessons of their father.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
an obituary in the Economist about Roger Fisher.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                            [Sept. 15, 2012]

                              Roger Fisher


Roger Fisher, lawyer, teacher and peacemaker, died on August 25th, aged 
                                   90

       He might be an academic--40 years on the faculty of Harvard 
     Law School--but Roger Fisher was really a fixer. He would 
     relax by mending the plumbing, or laying brick terraces at 
     the summer house he loved in Martha's Vineyard. But that was 
     tiddler stuff. At breakfast he would scan the New York Times, 
     looking for bigger problems he could fix: arms control, 
     hostage-taking, the Middle East. Over dinner the conversation 
     would be sorting out Vietnam, or ending the war in El 
     Salvador. At his 80th birthday party, most other guests gone, 
     he was found deep in a discussion of peace between Arabs and 
     Israelis.
       As long as there were disputes in the world and energy in 
     his body, he was going to help resolve them. If it needed a 
     letter to a head of state, he would send it. If it needed him 
     on the next flight to Moscow or Tokyo, he would catch it. 
     People didn't have to invite him in. He would go anyway, 
     tall, slim and smiling, and slip into action behind the 
     scenes. With that sunny confidence he always had, he knew he 
     could make the world better. And so did others: J.K. 
     Galbraith remarked that if he knew Mr. Fisher was on to a 
     problem, it always eased his conscience.
       Mr. Fisher had a system. He outlined it with William Ury in 
     his book ``Getting to

[[Page S6733]]

     Yes'' (1981), which sold 3 million copies; he also taught it 
     to students, especially, from 1979, through his Harvard 
     Negotiation Project. Like all good tools, it got better with 
     use. In any negotiation, he wrote--even with terrorists--it 
     was vital to separate the people from the problem; to focus 
     on the underlying interests of both sides, rather than stake 
     out unwavering positions; and to explore all possible options 
     before making a decision. The parties should try to build a 
     rapport, check each other out, even just by shaking hands or 
     eating together. Each should ``listen actively'', as he 
     always did, to what the other was saying. They should 
     recognise the emotions on either side, from a longing for 
     security to a craving for status. And they should try to get 
     inside each other's heads.
       That was the theory, and Mr. Fisher delighted to put it 
     into practice. At the Geneva summit of 1985, for example, 
     Ronald Reagan on his advice did not confront Mikhail 
     Gorbachev, but sat by a roaring fire with him while they 
     exchanged ideas. More summits followed. A border war between 
     Peru and Ecuador was nipped in the bud when Mr. Fisher 
     advised the president of Ecuador (once a pupil of his) to sit 
     on a sofa with the Peruvian president, and look at a map with 
     him. Interviewing President Nasser of Egypt in 1970, Mr. 
     Fisher asked him how Golda Meir, then Israel's prime 
     minister, would be regarded at home if she agreed to all his 
     demands. ``Boy, would she have a problem!'' Nasser laughed. 
     He then grew thoughtful, having briefly seen their dispute 
     from her point of view.
       The Middle East, which caused him personal grief, also 
     brought his most public success. His principles were used all 
     through the Camp David negotiations of 1978, from the 
     brainstorming over Jimmy Carter's draft of an agreement (23 
     rewrites) to the moment when Mr. Carter presented Menachem 
     Begin, the Israeli leader, with signed pictures dedicated, by 
     name, to each of Begin's grandchildren. Deeply affected, 
     Begin began to talk about his family. The accords were signed 
     that day.
       He had his failures. As a Pentagon adviser in the 1960s he 
     suggested several ``yesable propositions'' to put to the 
     North Vietnamese; Robert McNamara listened, but not the 
     military brass. In 1967 he had fun trying to nurse the tiny, 
     dusty island of Anguilla to independent statehood, but the 
     experiment was overturned. South Africa possibly satisfied 
     him most: the Afrikaner cabinet and ANC officials, trained 
     separately by him in negotiation workshops, agreeing to end 
     apartheid without resorting to violence.


                         Lessons from the souk

       Mr. Fisher's motivation was as clear as his writing. He 
     hated war. His own service had been as a weather 
     reconnaissance officer; in the course of it he had lost his 
     roommate and many college friends. He had also flown often 
     over Japan, harmless morning flights which the Japanese, pre-
     Hiroshima, had fatally learned to ignore. All those deaths 
     weighed on him.
       More light-heartedly, he grew up as one of six children, 
     preferring to strike bargains rather than land a punch. Later 
     on, still bargain-minded, he would stroll the souks of 
     Damascus or Jerusalem, looking to expand his collection of 
     ancient weights. Every one of those pieces represented a 
     tough negotiation successfully concluded. For those who found 
     his principles too idealistic, he could point to age-old 
     haggling tricks he also recommended: pretending not to be 
     interested, refusing to react to pressure, being prepared to 
     walk away.
       His most pleasing bargain, though, was the one he made to 
     get his lot on the Vineyard. There he built a glass and 
     shingle house right between the pounding ocean and Watcha 
     Pond, where ospreys nested. When he first found the place, 
     the owner refused to part with the few acres he needed. He 
     would sell him only the whole property, 60 acres or so, which 
     cost too much. But Mr. Fisher called in friends, they all 
     clubbed together, the deal was agreed; and he spent 50 
     glorious summers there, in just the sort of sweet, wise, 
     negotiated peace he always wished for the world.

                          ____________________