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, says his acclaimed biographer NIALL FERGUSON

Daily Mail ^ | 30 November 2023 | Niall Ferguson

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Henry Kissinger, who died on Wednesday night at the age of 100, was the most enduringly influential secretary of state in the history of the United States. He was also the most controversial. But the influence matters far more than the controversy.

His critics have wasted no time in ignoring the old injunction that no ill should be spoken of the recently deceased. The scurrilous magazine Rolling Stone led with the repulsive headline 'Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies'.

At a time when anti-Semitism has again reared its ugly head in the wake of the October 7 atrocities in Israel, we should pause to ask ourselves why for decades hack journalists on both the Left and the Right have used such odious and historically inaccurate language so frequently about Henry Kissinger but never about other American diplomats.

Kissinger's life was a series of extraordinary improbabilities. What were the chances of a German Jew born in Bavaria in 1923 living to be 20, much less 100? More than a dozen members of his family died in the Holocaust.

What were the chances of a teenage refugee who arrived in New York in 1938 - who started his life in America working in a shaving-brush factory - going on to hold the highest office in the executive branch of government for which a foreign-born citizen is eligible?

[SunkenCiv]

• Henry Kissinger was a colossus who bestrode a century [12/01/2023]

[rlmorel]

Funny. At the time, I thought it was because he had an accent, and I thought it was strange to have someone in that position who didn’t “sound like me”.

In retrospect, I think it wasn’t that, it was that at some level, I didn’t feel he represented our interests, even if he did.

[cld51860]

Okay, thanks.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

No surprise you’d support the godfather of globalism...

Did I say that? No, no I didn't. No surprise that you'd put words in my mouth, though. Facts don't matter in pursuit of the Communist utopia.

[Texas Fossil]

Correct.

And he did not care about our interests.

I see no point in badmouthing the dead. There was little that Kissinger thought, said or did that I agreed with.

I have books about him in my library.