Non-Writer Obituaries

[Leseratte]

Henry Kissinger Is Dead at 100; Shaped Nation’s Cold War History

The most powerful secretary of state of the postwar era, he was both celebrated and reviled. His complicated legacy still resonates in relations with China, Russia and the Middle East.

www.nytimes.com

Diplomacy's controversial figure, brilliant scholar and former American secretary of state who won the Nobel Prize for Peace, Henry Kissinger passed away today.

Henry Kissinger obituary

US secretary of state with peerless diplomatic skills, tireless energy and a ruthless desire to protect his country’s interests

www.theguardian.com

His most important works are Diplomacy and A World Restored.

In my humble opinion, he was one of the most brilliant minds of 20th century despite I recognize that he was a war criminal person who contributes to inumerous coup d'état in South America countries and the destruction in Vietnam.

RIP!

 

[Stevie B]

For better or worse, I imagine the vast majority of Americans in the 1970s could name Kissinger as being Secretary of State. Certainly not due to charisma. I can't recall ever hearing a more monotone speaker. Since then, I'd guess that less than 1/4 of Americans would have been capable of naming the Secretary of State for any of the presidents who followed. Not sure the reason for the difference. Perhaps, it's vanity - with presidents not wanting to be outshone by a cabinet member.

 

[Benny Profane]

I didn't know Kissinger is so hated in USA...

Many people is celebrating his death includes Mia Khalifa. Why?

 

[Cleanthess]

 

[nagisa]

I wouldn't want to involve myself in controversial discussions, but yeah, he was a brilliant mind, for better or for worse.

But why would you say he had a brilliant mind? This seems more like a received wisdom than something supported by facts.

 

[Benny Profane]

But why would you say he had a brilliant mind? This seems more like a received wisdom than something supported by facts.

Have you read his works? In my perception, he was the one of the most important diplomats around the world because he allied theory and practice on Diplomacy and Geopolitics. George Kennan (Mr. X), San Tiago Dantas and Oswaldo Aranha were too.
Kissinger was an excelent and and astute negotiator even being an evil demon.

Off-topic: Kissinger was professor of my professor in Harvard during the 1950's and my professor was praised by Kissinger during his MA studies.
10 years after, my professor was a strong supporter of resistance during the Military Regime in Brazil and, because of that, he was arrested and tortured and Kissinger was the key figure behind the coup d'état in Brazil!

 

[tiganeasca]

I didn't know Kissinger is so hated in USA...

Many people is celebrating his death includes Mia Khalifa. Why?

I think it's fairest to say that he is a VERY divisive figure. Those who agree with his policy goals are big fans of his--even today. Those who are critics--myself included--believe that he placed the ends above the means and that he would stop at little (or nothing) to achieve his policy goals, even if it meant the death of thousands (or more, such as in the bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War). He has his fans and his detractors, though there are many, many people (in the US and elsewhere who are critics).

 

[Cleanthess]

I think it's fairest to say that he is a VERY divisive figure. Those who agree with his policy goals are big fans of his--even today. Those who are critics--myself included--believe that he placed the ends above the means and that he would stop at little (or nothing) to achieve his policy goals, even if it meant the death of thousands (or more...

Excellent summation. Let me just add that the same could be said about a certain Austrian painter. And yes, both K and H belong to the same evil demon clade, the difference between them only a matter of scale in their body counts, hundreds of thousands vs. millions.

 

[Stevie B]

Many people is celebrating his death includes Mia Khalifa. Why?

Perhaps he was a bad lay? ?‍

 

[nagisa]

Have you read his works? In my perception, he was the one of the most important diplomats around the world because he allied theory and practice on Diplomacy and Geopolitics. George Kennan (Mr. X), San Tiago Dantas and Oswaldo Aranha were too.
Kissinger was an excelent and and astute negotiator even being an evil demon.

Off-topic: Kissinger was professor of my professor in Harvard during the 1950's and my professor was praised by Kissinger during his MA studies.
10 years after, my professor was a strong supporter of resistance during the Military Regime in Brazil and, because of that, he was arrested and tortured and Kissinger was the key figure behind the coup d'état in Brazil!

Admittedly I've not read him, but around him — I'm rather into so-called "realism" in IR actually, but more as a problematic object containing an irritating, inescapable truth: humankind's potential inhumanity towards itself... And the literature I'm more familiar with is rather critical on big K. One can quip that it's academics sniping at practitioners, but it's not, there are quite critical practitioners as well... The problem I see in the discourse here sprecifically stems more from A) the very effective life-long self-promotion that gave him a mystique and B) a confusion of several levels of metrics to evaluate whether he was successful at what he says he was doing (individual negotitiation-level; US State level; and system-level; Waltz, I know my realist classics!). Individual-level, I'm sure he was a ruthless and effective negotiator. State-level and system-level (since they are intertwined for the US), very much unsure. There is a list of foreign policy atrocities as long as my arm he ignored or facilitated, and a lot of blowback has ensued. Does this enhance US security? World security? You can read the article @tiganeasca links, or I can dig in my literature pile; Jacobin has a 200-page book out; but I just wanted to push back a bit on an assertion that I see too often (brilliance at statecraft), an assertion that I want to make clear I don't want to contest on moral grounds but indeed on "realism"'s own terrain.

 

[nagisa]

Anyway, as my trending hashtag on twitter was: REST IN PISS BOZO

And thus the IR shitpost meme is complete:

 

[Benny Profane]

^^Excelent point of view.
As I said above, Kissinger was an abominable person when he was Secretary of State of USA.

As I person from Latin America, I have a lot of motives for cursing him (I was polite, of course), but I recognize his vein as scholar.
Kissinger's Diplomacy is a pillow handbook for everyone who intents to be a diplomat. His book about Meternich (who was an inspiration for him) is briliant and a seminal book for understanding about Diplomatic History during 19th century and also his books about China and NWO (New World Order) are both references for studies about multipolar system.

We can't agree with him, but Samuel P. Huntington (another controversial figure), George Keenan, Francis Fukuyama (who is suffering bullying by Academia since after the Fall of the Berlim Wall) and he are the most significative scholars for Realism School in IR.

 

[nagisa]

We can't agree with him, but Samuel P. Huntington (another controversial figure), George Keenan, Francis Fukuyama (who is suffering bullying by Academia since after the Fall of the Berlim Wall) and he are the most significative scholars for Realism School in IR.

No — these are practitioner-scholars. A different beast.

 

[redhead]

Anyway, as my trending hashtag on twitter was: REST IN PISS BOZO

And thus the IR shitpost meme is complete:

View attachment 2349

 

[The Common Reader]

The late Anthony Bourdain nailed it.
From A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines:

Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia ― the fruits of his genius for statesmanship ― and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/here...es-of-writing_n_5b1a9124e4b0bbb7a0dc054b?y5l=

 

[Liam]

Am I evil or just plain dumb: but I kinda thought he was dead already? ?

Think of him what you will, but this guy lived to a fucking 100!, which is way more than all the people whose death sentences he basically signed off on (figuratively speaking). I wouldn't (and won't) celebrate anyone's death as such, but I echo Dave's sentiments above, ?

So yeah, condolences to the family, blah blah blah, he was somebody's husband/brother/father, but cry me a river, Henry.

 

[Leseratte]

Have you read his works? In my perception, he was the one of the most important diplomats around the world because he allied theory and practice on Diplomacy and Geopolitics. George Kennan (Mr. X), San Tiago Dantas and Oswaldo Aranha were too.
Kissinger was an excelent and and astute negotiator even being an evil demon.

Off-topic: Kissinger was professor of my professor in Harvard during the 1950's and my professor was praised by Kissinger during his MA studies.
10 years after, my professor was a strong supporter of resistance during the Military Regime in Brazil and, because of that, he was arrested and tortured and Kissinger was the key figure behind the coup d'état in Brazil!

Who was your Professor, Benny?

 

[redhead]

Think of him what you will, but this guy lived to a fucking 100!

You know what they say, only the good die young

 

[hayden]

?

 

[Ben Jackson]

I will offer a somewhat different take from Benny: good riddance. A perfect illustration of Lord Acton's dictum that power corrupts.

P.S. For those who may be interested, there is a detailed "Guest Essay" in today's New York Times by Ben Rhodes (a former deputy national security adviser himself) entitled "Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite." It provides some of the many, many reasons why I wrote what I did above. For anyone who is interested but unable to access the essay, send me a private message. I will be happy to send along the text.

P.P.S. It is, perhaps, indicative of "received opinion" that even the NYT's official obituary is slanted this way, remarking that Kissinger "used cunning, ambition and intellect to remake American power relationships with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, sometimes trampling on democratic values to do so...."

Thanks for providing the article.

The way I see Kissinger (don't know much about his life other than he was Nobel Peace laureate and Secretary of State in Nixon administration), he seems more of like a Communist draped in Democratic attire. I mean he's more respected in Communist areas like China than in most Democratic environs. Even his Nobel selection was like a slap in the face. He was so powerful that it's very difficult to name another Secretary of the State before and after.