RIP Henry Kissinger

Copper

There was good and bad in that man.

He was very bright.

RIP Mr. Kissinger

LuFins Dad

I honestly thought he had passed quite some time ago. He has done a remarkable job staying out of the public eye over the past 30 years.

Renauda

No question that Kissinger understood the pre Gorbachev USSR. The Russia of the post Soviet era not so much. Putin not at all.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@Renauda said in RIP Henry Kissinger:

No question that Kissinger understood the pre Gorbachev USSR. The Russia of the post Soviet era not so much. Putin not at all.

Care to elaborate?

jon-nyc

For 12 years I’ve wondered if Hitch wrote an obit of the man to be embargoed until his death.

I guess I’ll find out in the next couple of days.

Renauda

@George-K

Care to elaborate?

Kissinger was a diplomat of the Cold War and the George F. Kennan school of Containment. That school is now referred to as the Realist School and along with the late Dr. Kissinger one of its most prominent champions is John Mearsheimer. Kissinger and Mearsheimer have been highly critical of NATO expansion into Eastern Europe and the Baltic and have essentially argued for appeasement over Putin’s claim to Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Not because Putin has nuclear weapons but rather because they argue NATO and the US represent a threat to Russian security thus crippling efforts for Russia to evolve its democratic institutions.

Basically, it’s our fault that Putin behaves badly. I cannot subscribe to such an assessment simply because the facts do not support that as a cause for Putin’s actions domestically or internationally.

Kissinger’s best before date in my opinion was sometime during Reagan’s first term prior to George Schultz’s appointment as Sec’ty of State

Rainman

Renauda, I think you are the real James Bond.
You have an incredible knowledge and background. Thanks as always for your summations.
I don't suppose you drive a Jag. . .

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@Rainman said in RIP Henry Kissinger:

You have an incredible knowledge and background. Thanks as always for your summations.

I was going to say something similar. Thanks for your response, @Renauda . In my dotage, I regret not having these insights.

Renauda, I think you are the real James Bond.

I think he speaks Russian better than Bond.

Rainman

Man, can you imagine the babes that must hang around Renauda, keeping him warm way up there in the North, him and his Jag and the beautiful babes with the deep Russian accents?

Oh wait, Renauda's married.
Oh, Nevermind.
Scene change:
Renauda!, take out the trash, wash the DeSoto, mow the lawn, feed the dog.