Coming to Terms with Henry Kissinger’s Legacy — It’s Complicated
Yet Kissinger, though passionately criticized, continued to be widely respected by prominent members of both parties. When he turned 100, he was toasted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken who, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other past Washington diplomats, turned to Kissinger for advice.
Well after Kissinger’s power-wielding days under Nixon and Gerald Ford, he continued to advise presidents and other leaders wanting to tap his expertise.
These meetings were rarely publicized. They remind me of the old Washington etiquette, particularly in matters of foreign policy, that laid partisan concerns to the side and welcomed input from D.C. elders who could call upon stores of knowledge gained only from years of experience.
Some of Kissinger’s hottest controversies can be traced back to his careerlong embrace of “realpolitik,” the “realist” school of foreign policy associated with Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, who also figured prominently in Kissinger’s Harvard Ph.D. dissertation. Known for putting together the post-Napoleonic order in Europe, Metternich’s philosophy held that peace is best achieved by balancing the interests of great states against given circumstances rather than strictly following moral, ethical or ideological premises.
No, this position does not necessarily please those of us who continue to respect moral, ethical and even ideological considerations, depending on the ideology. However, it does appeal to those desiring a good deal, the presumed goal of any negotiation, whether you’re buying a new car or seeking to resolve a world conflict.
As much as Kissinger enjoyed the reputation of a respected elder statesman in his sunset years — giving speeches, offering advice and managing a lucrative global consulting business — he continued to find himself dogged by critics who shared Bourdain’s outrage. Irreverent British writer Christopher Hitchens, who died in 2011, famously published his case against the master diplomat in a 2001 book, “The Trial of Henry Kissinger.” But even Hitchens, in my view, seems to make more of a moral case than a legal one for holding Kissinger accountable.
In the end, coming to terms with Kissinger’s legacy means choosing: Should morality have any bearing on how a world power behaves in bare-knuckled global affairs? How you decide that question likely will determine how you view Henry Kissinger.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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