Remembering Henry Kissinger

I suppose every living writer who ever met Henry Kissinger will today be sharing memories of the encounter. I’ll share mine. Readers might find them amusing.

In 2008, I think, Power Line named Norman Podhoretz’s book World War IV, The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, our “book of the year.” We then sponsored a dinner in Norman’s honor. Henry Kissinger agreed to attend.

Kissinger gave a brief speech praising Norman. All I remember about the speech was this impish line: “I’ve been attacked by Norman from the left; I’ve been attacked by Norman from the right.”

The line reflects America’s relationship with Kissinger. The left hated him. Many on the right didn’t like him, and certainly didn’t trust the man.

The dinner included a panel in which I participated that discussed whether the U.S. should bomb Iran to thwart its nuclear ambitions. I felt odd opining about such important matters with Kissinger in the audience.

Kissinger looked mildly amused by the idea of bombing Iran and by the panel.

Afterwards, he told me he would be reading Power Line tomorrow. The next morning I wrote a soccer post. If I remember correctly, it was about the plane clash of 1958 in Munich that killed some of Manchester United’s biggest stars.

I knew Kissinger was a big soccer fan and would remember that tragic crash. And I figured that if Kissinger actually did read Power Line (I doubted he would), he’d enjoy this post more than any other entry I could write.

After the dinner, I had drinks with my two fellow Power Liners and a few friends of the blog. One of the friends launched a rather harsh attack on Kissinger. . .from the right.

I remember thinking that if we had just spent an evening with Prince Metternich, this guy would now be picking apart the Congress of Vienna. For my part, I was happy just to have encountered and talked briefly with such a consequential man.

Granted, there was plenty to pick at when it came to Kissinger. There almost always is with great figures in history.

In my view, though, Kissinger got most of the big stuff right. I agree with Erick Erickson, who writes:

Kissinger advised every American president going back to John F. Kennedy — a quarter of the presidents.  Barack Obama, a progressive mentored by a communist, disdained Kissinger in large part because Kissinger helped build a post-world war order that put the United States on top.  To progressives like Obama and those now championing Palestinian terrorists as victims of colonization, a world dominated by the United States is an oppressed world where some are oppressors and some are oppressed. [NOTE: As if on cue, Ben Rhodes, Obama’s disaster of a foreign policy adviser, ripped Kissinger in this horrible and self-serving piece in today’s New York Times. A good title for the piece would be “Pygmy attacks giant.”]

Kissinger, in the chaotic world ushered in after World War II, sought to assert American interests on the world stage.  He made deals with dictators and helped overthrow regimes that backed the Soviets.  Kissinger helped reinvigorate the Monroe Doctrine during an era of Soviet expansion and negotiated an American relationship with China to counter the Soviets.

Kissinger is vilified by the left not because he committed war crimes, as they claim, but because he successfully advanced American interests against communists and structured a world wherein the United States could put the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history.

Rest in peace.