Posted on 05/26/2023 12:41:24 PM PDT by simpson96
Henry Kissinger, whose very name is synonymous with US diplomacy, turns 100 Saturday feted by the American elite as others seethe that the ruthless Cold Warrior has never faced accountability.
From opening the door to communist China to plotting an endgame to the Vietnam War to unapologetically backing dictators who were anti-Soviet, Kissinger wielded influence like few before or after him, serving as both top diplomat and security advisor to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Instantly recognizable for his bookishly thick glasses and a sharp-witted monotone that never lost a touch of his native German, Kissinger was first an academic and his intellectual gifts are acknowledged begrudgingly even by some of his harshest critics.
Since leaving office in 1977, Kissinger's brand of realpolitik -- the coldly cynical championing of power and national interests -- has largely fallen out of favor as his successors preached moralism, but Kissinger himself has if anything enjoyed greater repute.
Ahead of his centennial, Kissinger blew candles on a cake at a celebratory luncheon at the Economic Club of New York, the city where he grew up after his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany.
Showing his worldview has not changed at the century mark, Kissinger cautioned for the United States to stay within the bounds of "vital interests," telling the guests, "We need to be always strong enough to resist any pressures."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The guy that made China what it is today.
Kissinger Uber alles. Happy birthday.
Yeah too bad no one told Nixon that the USSR would collapse in 1989. Of course that was seventeen years in the future, but it's still his fault.
I’m no Kissinger fan, but this reads like old Pravda. How dare he run with “anti-Soviet” dictators?
Oh and ya better throw out the whole Apollo program, ‘cause the guy who made that was a Nazi.
The antichrist media still misses it’s old friends.
Yeah what they probably mean is “anticommunist”, which is good. And its possible that by ‘dictator’ they mean someone who resisted communism and communists in his country, cause you know, how dare they!
Overall, I think Dr. K did a very good job, screw the Bolsheviks that wrote this article; it wasn’t his fault that SVN fell - it was the Democrats in Congress pushing a two bit “scandal” that Biden’s thievery puts into minimal perspective. He was on the right side in Chile; knew that Cambodia needed bombing; let Israel go only so far; and the world would be in a lot better shape today if he instead of the fools were running US FP.
When I grow up I want to be Pinochet.🤣🤣
Kissinger was probably the best SOS we ever had and understood the world as it was then.
Did anyone think that Kissinger would live to be 100? I remember thinking he looked old even back in the 1970’s.
He was very much like the man whose career his academic chops were based on, Metternich. A foreign minister who conceptualized and put into effect an international system of relations. Nixon was his perfect partner.
Isnt kissenger the guy dr. Strangelove was modeled after?
Klaus Schwab’s’ mentor. Them there Germans sure stick together.
George Shultz, Reagan’s Secretary of State from 1982 on (after Alexander “I’m in charge” Haig), also made it past his 100th birthday.
No, Herman Kahn.
He did a great job.
Agreed. One small thing that is common to us and Hillary.
“Did anyone think that Kissinger would live to be 100?”
Maybe it’s AI and 4D printing.
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