Kissinger on Trump
This clip from a recent interview with Henry Kissinger is interesting on several levels.
One of them is that Kissinger is still alive. But actually, he’s “only” 93. I would have thought him to be 193, since he seemed old to me when he served in the Nixon administration so many moons ago.
Then again, if you glance at that Wiki entry I just linked to, you’ll see that his father lived to be 95 and his mother to 97. So he’s got the good genes.
The second is that he’s exceedingly coherent.
The third is what he has to say, and the very dry way he says it. He starts with an understatement that I think could be true of 99.9999% of the people of America, both pundits and otherwise:
I had not thought of President Trump as a presidential candidate until he became a presidential candidate.
But then he goes on to say he gives him huge credit:
By the way, I learned a bunch of things from reading Kissinger’s Wiki entry that I’d never known before about his history. His family left Germany in 1938 when he was about 15, just in time to avoid the worst. He served with the US Army during the war:
The army sent him to study engineering at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, but the program was cancelled, and Kissinger was reassigned to the 84th Infantry Division. There, he made the acquaintance of Fritz Kraemer, a fellow immigrant from Germany who noted Kissinger’s fluency in German and his intellect, and arranged for him to be assigned to the military intelligence section of the division. Kissinger saw combat with the division, and volunteered for hazardous intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge.
During the American advance into Germany, Kissinger, only a private, was put in charge of the administration of the city of Krefeld, owing to a lack of German speakers on the division’s intelligence staff. Within eight days he had established a civilian administration. Kissinger was then reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps, with the rank of sergeant. He was given charge of a team in Hanover assigned to tracking down Gestapo officers and other saboteurs, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. In June 1945, Kissinger was made commandant of the Bensheim metro CIC detachment, Bergstrasse district of Hesse, with responsibility for de-Nazification of the district. Although he possessed absolute authority and powers of arrest, Kissinger took care to avoid abuses against the local population by his command.
And then there’s this (I wonder whether all the soccer moms know?):
As a youth, Heinz enjoyed playing soccer, and even played for the youth wing of his favorite club, SpVgg Fé¼rth, which was one of the nation’s best clubs at the time…
Kissinger was described as one of the most influential people in the growth of soccer in the United States. Kissinger was named chairman of the North American Soccer League board of directors in 1978.
Since his childhood, Kissinger has been a fan of his hometown’s soccer club, SpVgg Greuther Fé¼rth. Even during his time in office he was informed about the team’s results by the German Embassy every Monday morning. He is an honorary member with lifetime season tickets. In September 2012, Kissinger attended a home game in which SpVgg Greuther Fé¼rth lost, 0”“2, against Schalke after promising years ago he would attend a Greuther Fé¼rth home game if they were promoted to the Bundesliga, the top football league in Germany, from the 2. Bundesliga. Kissinger is an honorary member of the German soccer club FC Bayern Mé¼nchen.
Somehow, I cannot imagine Kissinger as either young or athletic; he seems to have been born old. But here’s the proof of the youth and the military service:
If you were to change the hairdo on that second photo and to tell me it was an old photo of my maternal grandmother, I would have no trouble whatsoever believing you, although she did not resemble the elderly Kissinger at all. It’s a rather uncanny thing (because she didn’t look masculine), but she was actually a ringer not for Kissinger, but for FDR in his later years, including the jauntiness.
Kissinger was hated by the left because he knew the perils of the Communist states. Not so much that he wanted a hot war with the USSR or China, but that he knew they could easily blow the world up. I would guess that having seen the devastation of WWII and having a first class intellect he could see how easily disaster could strike. His wannabe successor Brzezinski lacked Kissinger’s longer term insights. Perhaps he sees that by gentle flattery to Trump, Donald might be inspired to actually want to be seen as a wise leader and work at the job.
Fascinating Neo. So often we never see past the public person. Kissinger certainly had a richer past than I realized.
When I thought of Kissinger, the Statesman, Von Bismarck always came to mind. To me he embodied the quintessential pragmatist; a practitioner of Realpolitik.
After reading of how lightly he wielded uncommon power as a young man, I wonder if I underestimated his moral sense. Then again, maybe that was merely an early manifestation of his pragmatism. Whether inherent or because the way he evolved, I viewed the mature Statesman as rather amoral in his dealings; and that could be an unavoidable trait in the world of power diplomacy.
I met Kissinger’s younger brother, Walter, a few months ago. Nice man and he too has aged very gracefully. Definitely some good Methuselah genes there.
Had Kissinger disapproved of “opening up China” and prevailed upon Nixon to abandon the idea, would we today be better off with a China still enmeshed in third world status?
Pragmatism, grounded in short term considerations can lead to long term consequences that might have been avoided.
[q]Geoffrey Britain Says:
December 20th, 2016 at 5:41 pm
Had Kissinger disapproved of “opening up China” and prevailed upon Nixon to abandon the idea, would we today be better off with a China still enmeshed in third world status? [/q]
Seems to me, several other countries have created more problems for the USA than China. At least lately. They do steal our tech though.
They haven’t created any maniacs to come blow us up.
GB, our Red China policy went south with H.W. Bush 41 and a certain square in Beijing.
It’s never recovered.
Niall Ferguson has worked for 10 years on a new Kissinger biography, a task offered to him by Kissinger himself, with open access to new material. Volume one of the two-volume biography, “The Idealist”, came out last year, covering the years from 1923-1968.
Volume two may be the more interesting one. Adam Curtis gives us some clues, why:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-fny99f8amM#t=643
With Kissinger, and many others, there is the good and the less than good. I do not presume to judge HK.
Oh phooey! I am ceaselessly amazed at how many people on the internet consider themselves qualified to criticize almost every action of the people who actually make decisions and carry out policy.
Let me go on record. I consider George H. W. Bush to be one of the finest men this country has produced–in every respect. Few have served the country more selflessly, and in so many positions of great responsibility–not to mention personal peril when he was hardly more than a boy. I consider Nixon, for all of his obvious faults, to be one of the premiere strategic thinkers of our time. I consider Kissinger to be a genius. I also believe that all of these men acted in what they considered the best interests of the country, based on the information they had, and the circumstances they faced.
Another fascinating biopic, Neo! Thank you.
Krefeld… let me see. Have to get out my map for this one, because I don’t remember exactly where it’s situated. Oh! Up by Duisburg. I’ve probably been there, but I can’t remember what for. Maybe I just passed through on the train once.
Interesting about his connection to Fé¼rth, since I passed through there numerous times on my way between Nuremberg and Erlangen.
By the way, I learned a bunch of things from reading Kissinger’s Wiki entry that I’d never known before about his history. His family left Germany in 1938 when he was about 15, just in time to avoid the worst.
Kissinger graduated from George Washington High in upper Manhattan from the same class as the mother of a childhood friend. She didn’t know Kissinger in high school, though she could show us his picture in her high school yearbook.
Kissinger last served in office FORTY YEARS AGO, but he is still listened to.
His time in the Army shows that at for all the jokes about the Army, it is also capable of making use of the best abilities of at least some recruits. He had a very impressive record in the Army as a mere private.
groundhog,
Other than the obvious, what motive might China have for its military buildup and explorations into militarizing space?
Oldflyer,
Are you really suggesting that we should refrain from examining and discussing the consequences of the decisions of our betters?
As a general rule, never forget that they put their pants on, one leg at a time, just like you and I. Intelligence and wisdom are entirely separate qualities and all three of the men you cite made profound mistakes. That we could do no better and almost certainly would do worse absolves them not in the least from having their actions reflected upon.
Geoffrey Britain – the obvious of course — but it’s also not possible to argue that large nations, even peaceful ones engage in plenty of offensive capabilities.
Failure to be in the game on land, air, sea, and space is to be more vulnerable than someone who is. Offensive capabilities like our nuclear weapons, are actually considered defensive by us. But that doesn’t mean everyone sees it that way.
Even during his time in office he was informed about the team’s results by the German Embassy every Monday morning.
Only a trivial observation, but this was life before the internet. Very simple information required good contacts and diplomatic cables. How much we take for granted, and how quickly.
Great post on a significant Secretary of State. I immediately recalled that he was an intellectual rival of Sam Huntington :
“Roughly contemporary, as a Harvard graduate student in security studies, with Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Huntington failed to achieve their spectacular level of success in Washington, although he did rise to a second-tier position in the National Security Council under President Jimmy Carter. His intellectual achievements, by way of compensation, have far out-stripped those of his peers. His immensely influential Political Order in Changing Societies (1968), in particular, established his reputation as a leading authority on state-building.”
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Actually, this whole '97 page seems more relevant than Kissinger's fine interview idea that Trump has "an extraordinary opportunity".
Sam H thought:
‘The West’s victory in the Cold War has produced not triumph but exhaustion.’ We have lost not only our ‘self-confidence’ but also our ‘will to dominate’. American society is marked by self-indulgence, a wasting work ethic, raging criminality, antisocial behaviour, disrespect for authority, drug use, family breakdown, poor educational performance and a general erosion of personal trust.
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Kind of funny to see PC dictators as having a lot of "will to dominate", while supporting most of the ills being warned against.
And maybe Trump can help stop the rot (tho I remain with low expectations.)
I hope for that change.
GB, examine and criticize all you want. On the other hand I will comment on the criticism as I feel it warranted.
I think my point stemmed from unsubstantiated speculation that if the opening to China had not occurred, then such and such would have happened, or not happened. Pure second guessing about the unknowable. Same with the peace agreement with N. Vietnam. Pure speculation as to motive and outcome. What if Congress had not pulled the rug from under the South? Don’t think that was even mentioned.
These developments were used to inclulde rather gratuitous swipes at Nixon and G.W.H. Bush in a posting that was essentially about the life of Kissinger. Kind of a stretch. Finally, although I never watched them put their pants on, I accept your speculative assertion about how they went about it; even if it is a non sequitor.
But, everyone has their own opinion and should be allowed to express it–if Neo so pleases.