The following I write as a fan of Dr. Kissinger, also adding that the suggestion that he is hated because he is "the most European of Americans" is a misplaced analysis. In fact, Dr. Kissinger is more respected than the media accounts may suggest and, in any case, to the extent that he is disliked it is because he was central to some of the deepest controversies of the tumultuous 1960s and 70s, and, ironically, the USA is experiencing a cultural interregnum similar to those decades right now.
Further, Dr. Kissinger was, at some level, at variance with the American ethos. The USA is a creedal nation. That is, as the Founders put it, "a nation dedicated to a proposition." That proposition being embodied in the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address and other similar historical statements.
Kissinger, as a man who had escaped Nazi Germany, understood these principles and it may be assumed that practiced his statecraft in support of them. However, his was the statecraft of Machiavelli, Disraeli, Bismarck, Cavour and the like. It was balance of power, spheres of influence, etc. In a phrase, "power-politics," and to a nation that is marinated in the Jeffersonian ethos of the Declaration of Independence and the like, Dr. Kissinger's statecraft often seemed cold blooded and deeply amoral.
Indeed, I would have to add that - and again, I say this as a fan of Dr. Kissinger - he was right, but at the wrong time. The Cold War - like World War II before it - was an ideological contest. It was international conflict that pitted not just "pieces on the chessboard" against each other, but deeply moral actors advocating a vision of how the world ought be ordered.
Thus, while Kissinger - under Presidents Nixon and Ford - had what might be called enormous tactical successes, he was a strategic failure. By the end of his tenure as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State the USA was on the defense in the Cold War. This why it took President Reagan - a man who saw international conflict in its' moral dimension as a fight between freedom and tyranny - to win the Cold War. (Though I would also add that Mr. Reagan was able to do so by building on some of Dr. Kissinger's victories.)
The irony is that what the USA needs now is a Dr. Kissinger. The great ideological contests that were World War II and the Cold War are over. Communism has been discredited - as have been National Socialism and Fascism before it - and right now international relations are back to what might be called a pre-World War I non-ideological power-politics mode.
Yet because the USA is a creedal nation that won two great ideological conflicts, it tends to view the world through that prism. As the old saw has it, "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Thus the USA is applying ideological yardsticks where they are not applicable and thus finds itself drawing historical rival states - see Russia and China as Exhibit A - into combination against itself.
Throw in that the generation that protested - often violently - against Dr. Kissinger on the college campuses in the tumultuous 1960s and 70s is now grown up and in positions of official, economic and cultural authority. This is a large reason why Dr. Kissinger is disliked in many parts of the USA.
The generational chickens have come home to roost as it were. That all said, any serious student of history, politics and international relations will have a greater appreciation of Dr. Kissinger - faults and all. The problem being that moral and intellectual seriousness was not characteristic of the generation in which Dr. Kissinger served - and who are now, for chronological reasons - at the top of the socio-cultural pecking order and writing histories in the new media.
That's fine. I just found it an unusual juxtaposition. Nothing to apologize for. In fact, if he was the most "European of Americans" he had some basis for so being given that he did not come to the USA until he was a teenager. Suffice to say, he was not born and raised in the USA and was therefore not educated in its' culture, per se.
That said, I would be interested in seeing a definition of the "most European of Americans." Not quite sure what that means - though I would agree his diplomacy was, as I noted, in the tradition of Palmerston, Bismarck, Cavour, DeGualle and the like.
That all said, I am curious as to why that one point caught your eye but you had nothing else to say about my larger commentary. My point about "the most European of Americans" being secondary to the larger issues I addressed.
What I mean is, as you say, the U. S. is a nation of beliefs, etc., whereas Kissinger was a cold realist who is closer, as is generally considered, even if there are nuances, to Europe.
But you know, I wrote that as a newspaper headline to try to get the viewers' attention.
As for the rest, as usual, you've written a high-quality commentary and I have nothing to add, except to say that I agree with you.
Usually, if I comment on something broader, it's because I have a slight disagreement 😅.
Hope you're well, take care of yourself and your family. 🙂
Essentially the cold war ended in 1989 and most here weren't even born in the cold war period. So there will be little understanding from those <35. Older really as there was a detente period before the fall but I'm not going to pick a year.
I didn't appreciate his real politik view that ukraine should take a hit for Team West as I am too ideological for that and even on real politik basis I thought Putin's bite and hold strategy needed to be opposed.
Not sure how much of China policy was directly his but I think as a whole it has to be rated as a fail.
There is no reason to have hatred for him; he was a cold war warrior because he was in the WW2/CW era.
He advanced detente’. He tried to ease tensions with communists through negotiation.
Communism is good intentions paving the pathway to hell. It doesn’t work. It takes rights away. Worst of all, it disempowers women of all walks of life.
Regan blew the lid off the American economy and essentially eclipsed the Soviet Union's.
My Uncle spent some time in the Eastern bloc while he was in the military. He said it makes you appreciate the Western world and what we have in free society.
@nightdrot beat me to it, but I actually respect Dr. K for introducing many Americans (like myself) to Old European style "Realpolitik". American foreign policy before him would oscillate between idealistic do-gooder crusades abroad, followed by disillusionment and isolationism, ignoring an increasingly dangerous world. Kissinger understood a pragmatic middle ground between the two polar opposites.
He did a lot of questionable things in regards to us foreign policy but you've got to put it into retrospect of the Cold War where half of Europe, most of Asia were suffering under the ravages of socialism and the same brand of socialism was being exported globally to the Americas, Africa, South East Asia and western Europe
I am from West Bengal, India. There are very valid reasons to hate this moron, don't worry most indians haven't heard about him. Look at the history of the Bangladesh Liberation War. He and Nixon took the side of the Pakistani government which was actively killing and raping children and women and men in current Bangladesh as to them they were less Islamic cunts (as by middle eastern standards). They decided to wage war against India for helping Bangladesh but the American people voted against them. This cunt is the reason the US now has problems with Iran, China, and his policies made 9/11 possible.
Did you ever get involved with someone based upon a common enemy and later wish you hadn't, because that person turned out to be an utter mess? So it was with the USA and Pakistan. (And that common enemy for the USA was NOT India, it was the Soviet Empire). Pakistan DID allow us bases for U-2 and later SR-71 spy plane flights into Soviet airspace, and they were the conduit for aid to Afghan rebels, who did bleed the Soviet Empire dry. But now? Pakistan is nothing but trouble, it is mired in backwards barbarism unlike you fine people in India, and well, had our American leaders known how the 20th Century would have turned out, the USA would have cozied up to Pakistan a lot less. But Hindsight is always perfect 20/20 vision, right?
Because he worked for Nixon during Watergate and he orchestrated a couple in Chile to overthrow a democratically elected president and have him replaced with a bloody oppressive dictator, just before the elected guy was a Communist
I didn't hate Kissinger but I know my late father did. Possibly because of his involvement in Vietnam. A lot of people thought he was responsible for bombing millions of civilians, so obviously in line for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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