From Niall Ferguson:
“Henry Kissinger was a colossus who bestrode a century: he shaped politics like no other statesman and the world wouldn’t be in such a perilous state if more followed his wise and ruthlessly pragmatic approach.”
Amen to that. If Kissinger had a fault, it was that his towering intellect, logic and pragmatism prevented him from fully understanding the attitudes of the fanatics on the other side of the negotiating table.
Of Kissinger it can truly be said that he was always — always — the smartest man in the room. His enemies knew that, and it only added to their frustrated rage.
And you only have to see who hated him to realize that he was, mostly, correct in his approach to foreign policy — unlike the feckless and ignorant fools and children who are in charge of such things today.
Read the article.
I’m under the impression that Hank was one the the architects at the WEF, you know, the guys that want us dirt people to eat bugs and die. Based on that, I’m not going to miss him.
Gov’t parasite most of his life. fuk em ded
Kim, I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one.Kissinger was completely wrong about the major challenge the US faced in the second half of the the 20th century and Ronald Reagan proved it. A continuation of the ‘let’s all negotiate’ strategy Kissinger advocated (and executed while Secretary of State) would have led us somewhere else than into the world where the Soviet Union collapsed when Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II blew gently on its house of cards. Add to this he was willing to risk Israel being pushed into the sea in 1973 by telling them not to preempt the Arabs and then slow rolling resupply (and would have if Nixon hadn’t overruled him on resupplying Israel) and I think his standing in history needs to come down several notches. Mark me not a fan.
Could you recommend any good books on Kissenger? I was busy filling diapers when he was in the Nixon and Ford administrations.
Thank you.
JQ
Niall Ferguson’s bio.
I always thought Kissinger lost the Vietnam war for the United States. Change my mind…
It was Congress that did not resupply the South Vietnam Army when they asked for materiel when the North Vietnam Army invaded the South.
And don’t forget that the Walter Matthau character in Fail Safe was based on him. Also the Dr Strangelove character was Dr K. Of course the latter script being written by Hollyweird types.
No, Dr. Kissinger was a relatively unknown academic at Harvard when Dr. Strangelove was made. The Strangelove character was an amalgam of Dr. Edward Teller, Dr. John von Neumann, Dr. Herman Kahn, and Dr. Werner von Braun, all far more famous at the time, and whose traits were exceedingly well satirized in the movie
Regards Strangelove..a quote from Hermann Kahn himself…
Kahn himself allowed that the character was “part Henry Kissinger, part myself, with a touch of Wernher von Braun.”
He probably would say that. Way back in the day when ER with George Clooney was the hot new series, I was dating a medical student. She told me that the producers and directors of that show came to the hospital where she was a student on rotation, and followed them around for a couple of days to see how the place operated. She said that she thought one woman doctor in the series was modeled after her, because she was tall, blonde and would occasionally put her arms behind her back and press on the small of her back due to fatigue. Of course, if your muscles hurt there, that’s where you’ll press on them. No ego with Dr. Kahn.
[One afternoon, after an enjoyable morning at the range producing buckets of reloadable brass, I would hope to say these words to you — face-to-face — as we clean our firearms in the kitchen or on the patio.]
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a)
I think ‘war criminal’ is merely the beginning of his problems.
I think, as kissinger grovels and wails outside the Pearly Gates, his pleas for entry will fall on deaf ears.
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I think anybody living through the ‘Paris Peace Process’, and anybody in South-East Asia during the American invasion, and anybody with friends or family in South-East Asia 1960-2023, would categorize kissinger as:
* an enemy of freedom,
* a destroyer of liberty,
* a manipulative liar
* and generally despicable.
I think kissinger should be in the dictionary under ‘psychopath’… a user, incapable of empathy or friendship.
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b)
Just as the threat of getting called ‘racist’ lost any of the weak impact it formerly possessed, the empty threat of perpetually getting called ‘anti-Shem’ is teetering on caricature of those zionist nut-jobs.
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Stating this, I can hear the clattering of grinding teeth and smell the rending of hair.
I can hear the threats of getting called an ‘anti-anti-Shem’.
Water off the duck’s back.
Why?
I am PRO-SHEM… I lived and worked in Libya, Morocco, Lebanon, Yemen.
To a one, categorically, Shem people are warm, caring, sharing, open, friendly.
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The zionists I know are the opposite.
Accordingly, I choose to not associate with them, neither the rabid nor their laughable “moderates”.
I do not hate zionists.
I honestly truly believe they are irrelevant.
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c)
Based on the evidence, kissinger and his Paris Accords instantly invalidated the sacrifices of each military participant:
* Americans
* Australians
* Canadians
* Brits and Germans
* plus the valiant — and in my case, beloved — men and women of VietNam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the nationless peoples of the Highlands.
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‘In my case’?
Yes, my family sponsored a great many Hmong tribespeople, providing *legal* immigrants a home and income until they got established as productive members of society, and eventually, earned their American citizenship.
(I cherished General VP, a mentor and close family friend for decades.)
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d)
Mister Du Toit,
I appreciate this open forum.
I admire your education and travels.
I enjoy your attitude about firearms and vehicles.
I even think your gals are a kick.
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I admire your openness, your willingness to share your thoughts and the details of your life.
These gifts bring a lightness to my dreary existence.
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I thoughtfully receive — and treasure — your every opinion as an adjunct to my limited experience.
I believe, with zero doubt, if you persist in pushing a dead agenda, I think that has the potential to rebound against you and yours in a bad way.
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I implore you to considering dropping the subject from Splendid Isolation.
[sigh]
Marge:
After all this time we’ve spent together, how little you know me.