I can't say I have anything fresh to say about Henry Kissinger. Hosannas and obloquies will fill newspaper columns for 24-48 hours, and then he'll be forgotten by Americans just as most of our history is. So my having little to say is hardly a loss to future humanity.
I lean to the obloquy camp. Fresh or not, I will say that Kissinger tried to divorce human ethics from all human activity in the foreign affairs realm. He succeeded brilliantly. From orchestrating the cruel regime of Chili's Pinochet to assisting Nixon in his vastly dishonorable, mass-murdering ways in Vietnam and Cambodia, few have triumphed so amorally as Mr. Kissinger did.
Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser, has written much the same now that Kissinger is no more. "[He] exemplified the gap between the story that America, the superpower, tells and the way that we can act in the world. At turns opportunistic and reactive, his was a foreign policy enamored with the exercise of power and drained of concern for the human beings left in its wake.... [Kissinger mistook] cynicism — or realism — with wisdom."
But, as with everything in life, it's complicated, which is why I qualify my sentiment as one of leaning to the critical camp. From Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy to cracking open China's closed doors there's no question that he accomplished some good, some of it worthy of emulation. SoS Antony Blinken said from Tel Aviv that Kissinger "really set the standard for everyone who followed in this job."
That could be read cynically, I suppose.
Ok, I'll admit it. When I learned of his death, my first reaction was "Good!"
Posted by: Anne J | November 30, 2023 at 09:34 AM