Henry Kissinger dead at 100. Odd that such a small part of his life was spent conducting foreign policy, but that will be what he will be remembered for. A demon figure on both the left and the right, Kissinger will have few to mourn his passing. I rate him worthy to stand with Talleyrand and Metternich, albeit without Talleyrand’s mordant wit or Metternich’s longevity in office. He brought to foreign policy a very unsentimental realism. Born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Germany, they fled to the US in 1938. Kissinger served in the US Army during World War II, and was in combat during the Battle of the Bulge. His extended family did not survive the Holocaust and that caused Kissinger to lose his faith. His brilliance was recognized in the Army and as a Private at the age of 22 found himself the Army administrator for a German town. He went to Harvard on the GI bill and graduated with every academic honor imaginable. His undergraduate thesis was 400 pages in length, entitled Spengler, Toynbee and Kant. (After this Harvard imposed a word limit of 35,000 on undergraduate theses.)
Before I write 400 pages on Kissinger I will end this here, merely noting that his experiences during World War II had a vast impact on him, and his career is best understood by his goal of not having the world experience World War III. A complicated man for a complicated time, I find it difficult to judge him morally. God has judged him and History will judge him, or rather historians will issue endless contradictory judgments.
He has been, and probably will be, placed in the same class as Metternich and Talleyrand. Neither a compliment nor a condemnation. He had the ability but not the verve to guide a truly effective and respected statecraft.
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy”.
Henry A. Kissinger.
I think this quote of his was said when he was hiding behind women and children during the war. What a real man he must have been.
Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy”.Henry A. Kissinger.
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Really? When and where did he say that?
I think this quote of his was said when he was hiding behind women and children during the war. What a real man he must have been.
He was a combat veteran.
I do find it interesting he was in his youth regarded as brilliant. I’m a lapsed student of international relations and during my school days, his work wasn’t much assigned or cited.
Rest in Peace. 100 years old is good innings.
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy”.Henry A. Kissinger.”
Kissinger would never have been stupid enough to say such a thing. The Army gave him his start. He never lacked physical courage.
I don’t understand why so many people hated Henry Kissinger. Was it because he’s Jewish (secular, not religious)? Like all men, he wasn’t perfect. But I just don’t get this venom many people have against him.
Like all men, he wasn’t perfect. But I just don’t get this venom many people have against him.
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He was an obtrusive public figure during a Republican Administration. He took flak which in later administrations was directed at the President himself (during Bush the Younger’s time, the Vice President as well). His primary detractors were the red haze left, who had little presence among working politicians, but were prominent in the leftoid chatterati. The mentality of the palaeotrash element is remarkably similar to that of the red haze left; they just despise blacks and Jews as well.