Back channels themselves are as old as American diplomacy. Thomas Jefferson was an early enthusiast - he often routed around his secretary of state, once sending a secret letter to the American envoy in France, Robert Livingston, that contained a coded message.

After more than two decades of traveling with American presidents and chief diplomats - on visits to places that have included some of the world's most repressive nations - I am used to watching leaders disappear behind closed doors.

Mr. Obama is the first president to have grown up in the region - he lived in Indonesia as an elementary school student - and he has never doubted that America is underinvested in Asia and overinvested in the Middle East.

David E. Sanger Quotes