WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.580 Imagine, if you can, a single human life that 00:00:03.580 --> 00:00:06.980 spans an entire century. And not just any century. 00:00:07.139 --> 00:00:09.300 No, we are talking about the American century. 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:12.759 A timeline that starts in post -World War I Germany, 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:15.960 moves through the rise of the Nazis, the inferno 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.399 of the Second World War, the Cold War. The fall 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:21.120 of the Berlin Wall, the unipolar moment of the 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.079 90s, all the way to, I mean, the age of AI and 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:26.879 a rising China. It's a narrative that, if you 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.289 wrote it as fiction, People would say is a little 00:00:29.289 --> 00:00:31.750 too on the nose. A bit much. Yeah. If you pitched 00:00:31.750 --> 00:00:34.750 it, a Jewish refugee flees Nazi Germany, comes 00:00:34.750 --> 00:00:37.090 back in a U .S. Army uniform to hunt Gestapo 00:00:37.090 --> 00:00:39.890 and then becomes the very face of American global 00:00:39.890 --> 00:00:42.469 power. A publisher would probably tell you to 00:00:42.469 --> 00:00:45.170 tone it down. Tone it down is right. We are, 00:00:45.229 --> 00:00:46.909 of course, talking about Henry Kissinger, born 00:00:46.909 --> 00:00:50.250 1923, died 2023. He lived to be 100 years old. 00:00:50.609 --> 00:00:53.350 And for a massive, absolutely pivotal chunk of 00:00:53.350 --> 00:00:55.520 that time, he wasn't just watching history. No, 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.740 he was in the room with his hands on the steering 00:00:57.740 --> 00:00:59.979 wheel. And that's where this story really stops 00:00:59.979 --> 00:01:02.460 being just a biography and becomes, I think, 00:01:02.460 --> 00:01:05.159 a debate about the very soul of modern foreign 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:07.859 policy. It absolutely does. Because depending 00:01:07.859 --> 00:01:10.459 on who you talk to, Henry Kissinger was either 00:01:10.459 --> 00:01:14.079 the most brilliant diplomatic strategist of the 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:17.000 20th century, you know, the architect of the 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.340 opening to China, the man who ended the Vietnam 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.799 War. Or he was a monster. Or he was a monster. 00:01:21.819 --> 00:01:24.959 The polarization is just... It's off the charts. 00:01:25.140 --> 00:01:28.640 It really is. You have a 2014 poll of international 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:32.040 relations scholars, actual experts in the field, 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:34.519 ranking him as the most effective secretary of 00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:36.879 state in 50 years. And then on the other side, 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:39.319 you have someone like Anthony Bourdain, who famously 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:41.500 said that after you've been to Cambodia, you'll 00:01:41.500 --> 00:01:43.359 want to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:45.379 bare hands. Or Christopher Hitchens, who wrote 00:01:45.379 --> 00:01:47.939 an entire book with the title The Trial of Henry 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:50.799 Kissinger, explicitly calling him a war criminal. 00:01:51.099 --> 00:01:53.760 And that extreme divide, that chasm in perception, 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:56.739 is exactly what we need to unpack today. It is 00:01:56.739 --> 00:01:59.140 so easy to fall back on the characters. Genius 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:01.420 strategists on one side. And the beltway butcher 00:02:01.420 --> 00:02:03.780 on the other. But our mission for this deep dive 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:05.799 is to try and move past that, to look at the 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:08.599 record. We've got a mountain of sources here. 00:02:09.659 --> 00:02:12.759 Biographies, declassified cables, his own memoirs, 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:15.219 those famous telephone transcripts. The telecoms, 00:02:15.219 --> 00:02:18.210 yeah. The goal is to understand the why. We need 00:02:18.210 --> 00:02:20.469 to get inside the machinery of this philosophy 00:02:20.469 --> 00:02:23.810 he lived by. Real politic. Real politic. It's 00:02:23.810 --> 00:02:25.789 a word you hear all the time, but it usually 00:02:25.789 --> 00:02:28.110 just gets used as a synonym for, I don't know, 00:02:28.169 --> 00:02:30.849 being cynical or tough. Right. But it's so much 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:32.969 more than that. It's a whole worldview. It's 00:02:32.969 --> 00:02:35.090 a belief that foreign policy shouldn't be driven 00:02:35.090 --> 00:02:38.789 by idealism or morality as we traditionally think 00:02:38.789 --> 00:02:41.189 of it. So what should it be based on? A cold, 00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:44.270 hard calculation of power, of national interest, 00:02:44.370 --> 00:02:47.500 and above all else, stability. It's the idea 00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:50.280 that order is almost always preferable to justice. 00:02:50.539 --> 00:02:54.280 Order is preferable to justice. Wow. That is 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:56.740 a heavy, heavy statement. It is. And to really 00:02:56.740 --> 00:02:59.020 understand how someone gets to a place like that, 00:02:59.099 --> 00:03:01.120 I feel like we can't start in the Nixon White 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.060 House. We have to go all the way back. You have 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:05.560 to. You have to start in Firth, Bavaria. You 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.360 cannot understand Henry Kissinger without first 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:10.419 understanding Heinz Kissinger. That was his birth 00:03:10.419 --> 00:03:14.069 name. Yes. Heinz Alfred Kissinger. Born in 1923 00:03:14.069 --> 00:03:17.069 into a pretty typical middle class German Jewish 00:03:17.069 --> 00:03:20.050 family. They were patriotic. His father was a 00:03:20.050 --> 00:03:22.169 very well -respected school teacher. For the 00:03:22.169 --> 00:03:24.490 first 10 years of his life, he was a German kid 00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:28.330 who was obsessed with soccer. And then 1933 happens. 00:03:28.689 --> 00:03:31.539 Hitler comes to power. Heinz is nine years old. 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:34.039 And his entire world is just turned upside down. 00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:36.560 The accounts from that time are, they're heartbreaking. 00:03:36.979 --> 00:03:39.000 Friends he played soccer with in the street, 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:41.039 they suddenly joined the Hitler Youth and stopped 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:44.060 talking to him. Or worse. Or worse. They beat 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:46.259 him up. He'd see boys he grew up with now in 00:03:46.259 --> 00:03:48.180 uniforms, and they would attack him just for 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:50.479 being Jewish. There's that one detail in the 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:52.400 biographies about the soccer stadium that just 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.879 gets me every time. Oh, with his team, SBV Giefer. 00:03:55.979 --> 00:03:58.569 Yeah. He was obsessed with them. But after the 00:03:58.569 --> 00:04:00.810 Nuremberg laws are passed, Jews are banned from 00:04:00.810 --> 00:04:03.389 the stadiums. And he wouldn't accept it. It's 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:05.490 this first real glimpse into his personality, 00:04:05.629 --> 00:04:08.009 I think. He would sneak in. He'd try to blend 00:04:08.009 --> 00:04:09.889 in with the crowd, but he had this, you know, 00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:13.189 distinctive look. And security or Hitler youth 00:04:13.189 --> 00:04:15.530 members would spot him. And they'd drag him out 00:04:15.530 --> 00:04:18.449 and beat him. Yes. And the next week, he'd do 00:04:18.449 --> 00:04:20.990 it again. Just this incredible stubbornness. 00:04:21.170 --> 00:04:24.319 But the walls are closing in. His father loses 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:27.379 his teaching job. The family is being systematically 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.819 stripped of their rights and their dignity. And 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:34.120 finally, in 1938, his mother, Paula, who really 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:35.899 seems to have been the practical one. The driving 00:04:35.899 --> 00:04:39.649 force. She decides they have to get out. Now. 00:04:39.689 --> 00:04:42.410 And they were so lucky they got out just months 00:04:42.410 --> 00:04:44.970 before Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. 00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:47.430 They made it to London, then to New York City, 00:04:47.569 --> 00:04:50.129 and settled in Washington Heights. Frankfurt 00:04:50.129 --> 00:04:51.870 on the Hudson. That's what they called it, yeah, 00:04:51.949 --> 00:04:54.810 because of all the German Jewish refugees. And 00:04:54.810 --> 00:04:57.889 that is where Heinz becomes Henry. Now here's 00:04:57.889 --> 00:05:00.680 a really interesting psychological point. Later 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:03.160 in life, Kissinger always downplayed this period. 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:05.600 He'd sort of brush it off, saying the Nazi era 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:07.500 didn't really shape his worldview in the way 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:10.060 people assumed. He did. He famously wrote something 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:12.560 like, The Germany of my youth had a lot of order 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:15.120 and very little justice, so it wasn't exactly 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.839 a great advertisement for order. Which is a clever 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:21.019 line. It is. But most scholars, including his 00:05:21.019 --> 00:05:23.800 main biographer, Walter Isaacson, think he's 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:25.879 really rationalizing there. I mean, think about 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:30.040 it. He witnessed firsthand a modern, civilized, 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.360 democratic society, the Weimar Republic, completely 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:35.759 collapse into barbarism. Because the structure 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:38.339 failed. Because the order disintegrated. He saw 00:05:38.339 --> 00:05:40.759 what happens when you have chaos. You get Hitler. 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:43.579 So for him, the absolute worst case scenario 00:05:43.579 --> 00:05:46.459 isn't tyranny. The worst case scenario is chaos. 00:05:46.699 --> 00:05:50.040 Exactly. Chaos. Is the vacuum. Monsters are born 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:51.980 in the vacuum. So for the rest of his hundred 00:05:51.980 --> 00:05:54.660 year life, his prime directive, the thing that 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:57.199 overrides almost everything else is the pursuit 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:00.079 of stability, of equilibrium. Even if that stability 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:02.459 means you have to make deals with monsters. Even 00:06:02.459 --> 00:06:04.379 then, because it's better than the alternative. 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:06.399 So he's in New York. He's working in a shaving 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.259 brush factory, going to night school, keeping 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:10.600 that thick German accent his whole life. And 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:15.670 then, 1943, the U .S. Army drafts him. And this 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:17.730 is what transforms him. It gives him a new identity. 00:06:18.069 --> 00:06:20.250 He's not just a refugee anymore. He's an American 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:23.310 soldier. And because he's brilliant and a native 00:06:23.310 --> 00:06:26.750 German speaker, he gets fast -tracked into counterintelligence. 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:28.829 I mean, he goes back to Germany. He goes back, 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:31.350 but this time he's the one with the gun and the 00:06:31.350 --> 00:06:33.990 authority. That story about him in the town of 00:06:33.990 --> 00:06:36.779 Krefeld is just... It's incredible. He's this 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:39.560 20 -year -old private first class, and he basically 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.740 ends up running the entire civilian administration 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:44.699 of the city because all the officials had fled. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:49.199 He was hunting Gestapo officers, rooting out 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:51.600 Nazi stay -behind networks. He earned a bronze 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:53.740 star for it. It's the ultimate role reversal. 00:06:54.060 --> 00:06:56.399 But there is one specific moment one day during 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.800 the war that we have to focus on. April 1945. 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:04.139 The Alam Concentration Camp. Yes. His unit participates 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:06.720 in the liberation of this camp, which was a sub 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.699 -camp of a larger one. And he wrote about it 00:07:08.699 --> 00:07:11.839 in his journal, the descriptions. It's just brutal. 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:15.480 I have it here. He wrote, I had never seen people 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:17.819 degrading to the level that people were in Elam. 00:07:18.139 --> 00:07:20.740 They barely looked human. They were skeletons. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:23.899 They had been beaten and starved and worked until 00:07:23.899 --> 00:07:26.220 they dropped. To see that with your own eyes, 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:29.209 it... has to reinforce that core belief we just 00:07:29.209 --> 00:07:31.129 talked about. This is what happens when civilization 00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:33.949 breaks. This is the bottom. This is the abyss 00:07:33.949 --> 00:07:36.329 of chaos. So when he comes back and goes to Harvard 00:07:36.329 --> 00:07:38.930 on the GI Bill, he isn't just looking for an 00:07:38.930 --> 00:07:41.709 education. No, he's looking for a theory of everything. 00:07:41.889 --> 00:07:43.769 He's looking for a way to structure the world 00:07:43.769 --> 00:07:46.230 so that LM never happens again. And by all accounts, 00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:49.089 he hits Harvard like a bomb. His undergraduate 00:07:49.089 --> 00:07:52.449 thesis is the stuff of legend. Oh, the meaning 00:07:52.449 --> 00:07:55.410 of history. It was almost 400 pages long. It 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:58.069 was so dense, covering Spengler, Coinby, Kant, 00:07:58.290 --> 00:08:01.129 that Harvard actually created a page limit for 00:08:01.129 --> 00:08:04.230 all future undergrad theses. They literally named 00:08:04.230 --> 00:08:06.269 the rule after him. The Kissinger rule, yes. 00:08:06.610 --> 00:08:08.730 But it's his doctoral dissertation that really 00:08:08.730 --> 00:08:11.069 creates the intellectual blueprint for his entire 00:08:11.069 --> 00:08:13.449 career, isn't it? It is. It was called Peace, 00:08:13.670 --> 00:08:17.629 Legitimacy, and the Equilibrium. And he wasn't 00:08:17.629 --> 00:08:19.870 studying something modern. He went back to the 00:08:19.870 --> 00:08:22.600 19th century. To the Congress of Vienna. Where 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:24.800 the great powers of Europe tried to put the world 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.160 back together after the chaos of the Napoleonic 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:30.660 Wars. Exactly. He studied these old world diplomats, 00:08:30.740 --> 00:08:33.679 Metternich from Austria, Castlereagh from Britain. 00:08:33.940 --> 00:08:36.820 And in their actions, he found this core concept 00:08:36.820 --> 00:08:39.620 that he called legitimacy. OK, we really have 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.820 to define this because this word legitimacy is 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:45.070 the key to everything. He doesn't mean legitimate 00:08:45.070 --> 00:08:47.889 in the way you and I would use it, like a fairly 00:08:47.889 --> 00:08:50.529 elected government. Not at all. In the Kissingerian 00:08:50.529 --> 00:08:53.409 dictionary, legitimacy is a very specific technical 00:08:53.409 --> 00:08:56.590 term. It has nothing to do with justice or democracy. 00:08:56.929 --> 00:09:00.350 It simply means, do all the major powers, the 00:09:00.350 --> 00:09:02.429 great powers, agree on the basic rules of the 00:09:02.429 --> 00:09:04.990 game? So if the U .S., the Soviet Union, and 00:09:04.990 --> 00:09:07.070 China all accept the borders and the spheres 00:09:07.070 --> 00:09:09.730 of influence, even if they hate each other, the 00:09:09.730 --> 00:09:13.230 system is legitimate. Precisely. in that system 00:09:13.230 --> 00:09:17.110 you have stability you have order a power that 00:09:17.110 --> 00:09:20.149 rejects the system like say germany after world 00:09:20.149 --> 00:09:22.809 war one becomes what he called a revolutionary 00:09:22.809 --> 00:09:25.149 power and revolutionary powers are dangerous 00:09:25.149 --> 00:09:26.970 they want to burn the whole thing down so the 00:09:26.970 --> 00:09:29.289 job of the statesman the great diplomat is to 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:31.950 keep the great powers inside the tent keep them 00:09:31.950 --> 00:09:34.549 balanced keep them satisfied even if it means 00:09:34.549 --> 00:09:36.730 sacrificing the interests of smaller countries 00:09:36.730 --> 00:09:39.730 to do it The smaller countries are, well, they're 00:09:39.730 --> 00:09:41.909 the currency of great power politics. They are 00:09:41.909 --> 00:09:44.389 the pawns on the chessboard that you move and 00:09:44.389 --> 00:09:47.110 sometimes sacrifice to keep the major pieces 00:09:47.110 --> 00:09:49.250 from toppling each other. It is an incredibly 00:09:49.250 --> 00:09:52.590 cold logic. It is. But you can see how in an 00:09:52.590 --> 00:09:54.950 age with thousands of nuclear weapons pointed 00:09:54.950 --> 00:09:57.789 at everyone, that logic might seem not just appealing, 00:09:57.909 --> 00:10:00.909 but necessary. Which brings us to how he first 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:03.830 made his name outside of academia. his book in 00:10:03.830 --> 00:10:07.169 1957 nuclear weapons and foreign policy it became 00:10:07.169 --> 00:10:10.289 a bestseller which is just wild for a dense book 00:10:10.289 --> 00:10:12.009 on foreign policy it was controversial right 00:10:12.009 --> 00:10:15.590 very he made this argument that the u .s policy 00:10:15.590 --> 00:10:18.690 of massive retaliation you know if the soviets 00:10:18.690 --> 00:10:21.509 invade west berlin we launch everything was insane 00:10:21.509 --> 00:10:24.769 it was a suicide pact he suggested that maybe 00:10:24.769 --> 00:10:27.370 you could fight and win a limited nuclear war 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:30.639 using smaller tactical nuclear weapons. That's 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:33.220 terrifying. It terrified people, yes. But it 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:36.179 also made him seem like a serious man. a hard 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:38.600 -nosed realist who wasn't afraid to think the 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:41.519 unthinkable. And that reputation is what eventually 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:43.980 puts him on the radar of Richard Nixon. The ultimate 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:46.519 odd couple. You really couldn't invent two more 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:48.740 different people. Nixon, the grocer's son from 00:10:48.740 --> 00:10:51.820 California, full of resentments, hating the East 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:54.240 Coast elites. And Kissinger, the Harvard professor, 00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:57.639 the darling of that same elite, a guy who loved 00:10:57.639 --> 00:10:59.480 the George Count cocktail party circuit. And 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:02.159 it's funny, in 1968, Kissinger was working for 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:04.480 Nelson Rockefeller, who was Nixon's rival for 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:06.980 the Republicans. nomination. We have him on record 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:09.500 calling Nixon the most dangerous of all the men 00:11:09.500 --> 00:11:11.419 running. He said he was unfit for the presidency. 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:14.539 He did. And then a few weeks after Nixon wins, 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:17.340 he gets the call offering him the job of national 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:19.980 security advisor and he takes it instantly. That's 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:21.899 ambition for you. But once they were together, 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:25.080 they found they had this incredible bond. They 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:27.059 were both outsiders in their own way. They were 00:11:27.059 --> 00:11:29.419 both paranoid. They were both obsessed with secrecy. 00:11:29.460 --> 00:11:33.049 And they shared this deep. deep distrust of the 00:11:33.049 --> 00:11:35.029 federal bureaucracy. Exactly. The State Department. 00:11:35.210 --> 00:11:36.909 Oh, they saw the State Department as a bunch 00:11:36.909 --> 00:11:39.769 of leaky, soft -headed liberals who would undermine 00:11:39.769 --> 00:11:42.889 their grand plans. So they created a system where 00:11:42.889 --> 00:11:45.149 all the important foreign policy decisions were 00:11:45.149 --> 00:11:47.850 made by the two of them in secret from the White 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:49.889 House basement. Which leads directly to what 00:11:49.889 --> 00:11:52.169 even his harshest critics will often concede 00:11:52.169 --> 00:11:55.590 was his masterpiece. The opening to China. It's 00:11:55.590 --> 00:11:57.870 hard to overstate what a huge deal this was. 00:11:58.330 --> 00:12:00.169 It was a geopolitical earthquake. You have to 00:12:00.169 --> 00:12:02.750 put yourself back in 1969. The US is trapped 00:12:02.750 --> 00:12:05.669 in Vietnam. The Cold War with the Soviet Union 00:12:05.669 --> 00:12:08.830 is in this deep freeze. And China is just this 00:12:08.830 --> 00:12:12.929 enormous, isolated, hostile question mark. The 00:12:12.929 --> 00:12:15.490 US hadn't had any diplomatic contact with mainland 00:12:15.490 --> 00:12:18.590 China since 1949. We didn't even recognize them. 00:12:18.669 --> 00:12:20.889 We pretended the real China was the government 00:12:20.889 --> 00:12:23.850 in Taiwan. Right. But Kissinger saw an opportunity. 00:12:24.169 --> 00:12:26.330 He realized the communist world wasn't a monolith. 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:28.779 In fact, the Soviets and the Chinese hated each 00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:30.899 other. They were having border clashes, shooting 00:12:30.899 --> 00:12:33.659 at each other. So he thought, the enemy of my 00:12:33.659 --> 00:12:36.500 enemy is my friend. It was triangulation. If 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:38.779 the U .S. could get China on its side, it would 00:12:38.779 --> 00:12:40.980 completely isolate the Soviet Union. It would 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:43.580 terrify them. It would force them to negotiate 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:45.580 on things like arms control. It would change 00:12:45.580 --> 00:12:48.830 the entire balance of the Cold War. And so begins 00:12:48.830 --> 00:12:51.629 this incredible cloak and dagger operation in 00:12:51.629 --> 00:12:55.570 July 1971. It's pure spy novel stuff. Kissinger 00:12:55.570 --> 00:12:57.889 is on a public trip through Asia. While he's 00:12:57.889 --> 00:13:01.049 in Pakistan, he fakes a stomach illness. Deli 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:02.990 belly, I think, was the excuse. That was it. 00:13:03.070 --> 00:13:05.570 He's taken to a hill station to recover. The 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:07.750 press corps is told he's resting. But in the 00:13:07.750 --> 00:13:10.350 middle of the night, he slips out, gets in an 00:13:10.350 --> 00:13:13.090 unmarked car, and is driven to an airport where 00:13:13.090 --> 00:13:16.820 a Pakistani plane is waiting to fly him. in secret 00:13:16.820 --> 00:13:20.299 to Beijing. Can you imagine the feeling on that 00:13:20.299 --> 00:13:23.340 plane? You're heading into the heart of what 00:13:23.340 --> 00:13:25.779 America considered its mortal enemy. You have 00:13:25.779 --> 00:13:28.299 no idea what the reception will be. Nerves of 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:31.539 absolute steel. He lands and he begins these 00:13:31.539 --> 00:13:34.000 marathon talks with the Chinese premier, Zhu 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:37.139 Anlai. And they hit it off. They talk philosophy, 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:39.799 history. They bond over their mutual dislike 00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:42.700 of the Soviets. But there was one huge sticking 00:13:42.700 --> 00:13:46.389 point. Taiwan. Taiwan. The Chinese said, we can't 00:13:46.389 --> 00:13:48.389 have a relationship until you admit that Taiwan 00:13:48.389 --> 00:13:51.370 is part of China. And the U .S. had a defense 00:13:51.370 --> 00:13:53.889 treaty with Taiwan. So here comes the real politics. 00:13:54.029 --> 00:13:56.129 This is a textbook example. Kissinger and Nixon 00:13:56.129 --> 00:13:58.590 made the calculation. The strategic prize of 00:13:58.590 --> 00:14:00.549 an alliance with a billion people in mainland 00:14:00.549 --> 00:14:03.409 China against the Soviet Union was worth more 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:05.370 than our commitment to the government on Taiwan. 00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:07.889 They traded them. In essence, yes. He agreed 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:10.450 to what became the one China policy. He promised 00:14:10.450 --> 00:14:12.330 the U .S. would eventually pull its troops out 00:14:12.330 --> 00:14:15.279 of Taiwan. dismissed the American effort to keep 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:18.480 Taiwan in the U .N. as a doomed rear guard action. 00:14:18.659 --> 00:14:22.639 And it worked. The next year, 1972, Nixon goes 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:25.639 to China, shakes Mao's hand. The photos are iconic. 00:14:25.899 --> 00:14:28.840 The Soviets are panicked. The entire global chessboard 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:31.960 is tilted in America's favor. A stunning diplomatic 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:34.399 achievement. While they're celebrating this grand 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:38.529 strategic victory, there is a very hot. Very 00:14:38.529 --> 00:14:41.710 bloody war still raging in Southeast Asia. Vietnam. 00:14:41.730 --> 00:14:44.470 And the real politic applied there was a lot 00:14:44.470 --> 00:14:47.470 messier and a lot deadlier. This is the deepest, 00:14:47.509 --> 00:14:50.669 darkest shadow on Kissinger's entire legacy. 00:14:50.830 --> 00:14:52.769 There's no getting around it. When he and Nixon 00:14:52.769 --> 00:14:56.009 came into office in 69, they knew the war was 00:14:56.009 --> 00:14:58.129 basically unwinnable in a military sense, right? 00:14:58.190 --> 00:15:00.350 They did. They knew pretty quickly that short 00:15:00.350 --> 00:15:03.269 of a massive politically impossible escalation, 00:15:03.269 --> 00:15:05.009 they couldn't just beat the North Vietnamese 00:15:05.009 --> 00:15:07.450 on the battlefield. The American public was done 00:15:07.450 --> 00:15:09.509 with the war. So the goalpost shifted. It wasn't 00:15:09.509 --> 00:15:11.570 about victory anymore. It was about peace with 00:15:11.570 --> 00:15:14.250 honor. Which is a great slogan. But what it actually 00:15:14.250 --> 00:15:16.710 meant was finding a way for the U .S. to get 00:15:16.710 --> 00:15:18.649 out of Vietnam without looking like it had been 00:15:18.649 --> 00:15:21.039 defeated. It was all about American credibility. 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.679 He believed that if the US just packed up and 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:26.019 left, it would be a signal of weakness to the 00:15:26.019 --> 00:15:29.639 whole world. No ally would ever trust a US security 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:32.100 guarantee again. So they needed a strategy to 00:15:32.100 --> 00:15:34.740 withdraw, but to leave the South Vietnamese government 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:37.679 in place for long enough that the US could claim 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.360 it hadn't abandoned its ally. And this is where 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:42.690 we get to the decent interval theory. It's one 00:15:42.690 --> 00:15:44.789 of the most cynical foreign policy concepts I've 00:15:44.789 --> 00:15:47.909 ever heard of. It is. The accusation, which is 00:15:47.909 --> 00:15:49.990 backed by a lot of evidence from their own tapes, 00:15:50.149 --> 00:15:52.850 is that Kissinger and Nixon knowingly negotiated 00:15:52.850 --> 00:15:55.210 a peace agreement that they believed would ultimately 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:57.970 fail. But they just needed it to hold together 00:15:57.970 --> 00:16:00.289 for a year or two. Exactly. Get the American 00:16:00.289 --> 00:16:03.250 POWs home, get the American troops out. And then 00:16:03.250 --> 00:16:06.149 if South Vietnam collapses 18 months or two years 00:16:06.149 --> 00:16:08.899 later, well... That's a tragedy, but it's not 00:16:08.899 --> 00:16:11.360 America's fault. The interval creates plausible 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:14.559 deniability. We have the transcripts. We have 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:17.399 Kissinger telling Nixon that the terms of the 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:19.700 Paris Peace Accords would eventually destroy 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:22.200 the South Vietnamese President Thieu. He told 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:24.559 the Chinese that the U .S. wasn't necessarily 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:27.559 committed to a permanent South Vietnam. The goal 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:30.980 was an exit strategy, not a lasting peace. And 00:16:30.980 --> 00:16:33.639 to get to that exit strategy, to force North 00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:36.919 Vietnam to the table on their terms, they didn't 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:39.480 de -escalate the war, they expanded it. Which 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:43.139 brings us to Cambodia. Operation Menu. This is 00:16:43.139 --> 00:16:45.960 maybe the single most damning part of his record. 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:48.919 The North Vietnamese army was using trails through 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:51.720 officially neutral Cambodia to supply their forces 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:54.360 in the south. It was called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.269 So Nixon and Kissinger decided to bomb those 00:16:57.269 --> 00:16:59.470 supply lines and sanctuaries. But they couldn't 00:16:59.470 --> 00:17:01.610 do it publicly because bombing a neutral country 00:17:01.610 --> 00:17:04.589 is an act of war. So they did it in total secrecy. 00:17:04.589 --> 00:17:07.690 They created a separate clandestine system of 00:17:07.690 --> 00:17:10.089 record keeping to hide the bombing runs from 00:17:10.089 --> 00:17:12.730 Congress, from the American people, even from 00:17:12.730 --> 00:17:14.430 the secretary of the Air Force. And the scale 00:17:14.430 --> 00:17:16.930 of this bombing is just. Mind boggling. It's 00:17:16.930 --> 00:17:19.529 almost incomprehensible. The U .S. dropped more 00:17:19.529 --> 00:17:22.230 tons of bombs on rural Cambodia than the allies 00:17:22.230 --> 00:17:24.549 dropped on Japan during all of World War II. 00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:27.130 The civilian cost. The estimates vary, but credible 00:17:27.130 --> 00:17:29.309 sources put the number of Cambodian civilian 00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:31.650 deaths from the bombing somewhere between 50 00:17:31.650 --> 00:17:34.930 ,000 and 150 ,000 people. The strategic result 00:17:34.930 --> 00:17:37.210 was an absolute catastrophe, wasn't it? It was 00:17:37.210 --> 00:17:40.069 arguably one of the worst foreign policy blunders 00:17:40.069 --> 00:17:43.390 in U .S. history. The bombing completely destabilized 00:17:43.390 --> 00:17:45.970 the neutral government of Cambodia. It shattered 00:17:45.970 --> 00:17:49.630 the rural society. And it drove hundreds of thousands 00:17:49.630 --> 00:17:53.210 of enraged, radicalized peasants into the arms 00:17:53.210 --> 00:17:56.410 of a tiny, fanatical communist insurgency. A 00:17:56.410 --> 00:17:58.910 Khmer Rouge. An obscure group that almost no 00:17:58.910 --> 00:18:01.309 one had heard of before the bombing. The bombing 00:18:01.309 --> 00:18:03.529 campaign was the single greatest recruitment 00:18:03.529 --> 00:18:06.430 tool Pol Pot ever had. And we know what happened 00:18:06.430 --> 00:18:09.650 next. The Khmer Rouge take power and you get 00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:12.029 the killing fields. The murder of almost 2 million 00:18:12.029 --> 00:18:14.220 people. Kissinger would argue for the rest of 00:18:14.220 --> 00:18:16.059 his life that they didn't cause the Khmer Rouge 00:18:16.059 --> 00:18:18.640 to win. But the evidence is overwhelming that 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:20.759 the U .S. bombing created the conditions, the 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:24.240 chaos, that made their victory possible. It's 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:26.460 the ultimate tragic irony of his philosophy. 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:29.500 In the name of preserving order for American 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:32.640 credibility, he unleashed absolute genocidal 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:35.420 chaos on Cambodia. And yet in the middle of all 00:18:35.420 --> 00:18:38.259 this, he and his North Vietnamese counterpart, 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:42.900 Lu Duc Tho, are awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace 00:18:42.900 --> 00:18:46.000 Prize for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords. 00:18:46.099 --> 00:18:48.420 It's just surreal. The war was still raging on 00:18:48.420 --> 00:18:50.400 the ground. Two members of the Nobel Committee 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:52.980 resigned in protest, which had never happened 00:18:52.980 --> 00:18:56.279 before. And Lu Duc Tho, he turned it down. He 00:18:56.279 --> 00:18:59.640 refused to accept it. He said, with perfect clarity, 00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:02.700 Peace has not yet been restored. He had the integrity 00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:05.259 to reject it. So what did Kissinger do? He accepted 00:19:05.259 --> 00:19:08.099 with humility. He donated the prize money to 00:19:08.099 --> 00:19:10.119 a scholarship for children of American soldiers 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:12.940 killed in Vietnam. He was afraid to go to Oslo 00:19:12.940 --> 00:19:14.980 to pick it up because of the protests. And then 00:19:14.980 --> 00:19:18.299 in 1975, when Saigon fell exactly as the decent 00:19:18.299 --> 00:19:20.619 interval had predicted, he actually tried to 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:22.220 return the medal. And they wouldn't take it back. 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:24.559 The Nobel Committee refused to take it back. 00:19:24.619 --> 00:19:27.059 So he was stuck with it. A peace prize for a 00:19:27.059 --> 00:19:29.000 peace that never was. It's an incredible story. 00:19:29.299 --> 00:19:32.099 But Vietnam and Cambodia, as dark as they are, 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:34.960 weren't the only places where this great power 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.420 chess game had lethal consequences. Let's turn 00:19:38.420 --> 00:19:41.539 to South Asia. The year is 1971, the Bangladesh 00:19:41.539 --> 00:19:43.839 Liberation War. This is a moment that I think 00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:46.839 most Americans know very little about, but it's 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:48.839 a defining event in that part of the world. It's 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:51.339 huge. So Pakistan at the time was split into 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:54.400 two parts, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, which 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:57.390 were separated by India. In 71, the military 00:19:57.390 --> 00:20:00.109 dictatorship in West Pakistan launched a horrific 00:20:00.109 --> 00:20:03.069 military crackdown on East Pakistan, which was 00:20:03.069 --> 00:20:05.630 pushing for independence. And we say horrific. 00:20:05.990 --> 00:20:08.329 We're talking about what was widely described 00:20:08.329 --> 00:20:11.710 at the time as a genocide. Mass killings, systematic 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:14.869 rape as a weapon of war, targeting intellectuals 00:20:14.869 --> 00:20:17.230 and leaders. Hundreds of thousands of people 00:20:17.230 --> 00:20:20.170 were killed. Millions fled into India as refugees. 00:20:20.589 --> 00:20:23.150 And the U .S. had diplomats on the ground in 00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:25.740 East Pakistan, in the city of Dhaka. They were 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:27.980 seeing this happen. Yes. The consul general, 00:20:28.059 --> 00:20:29.900 there was a career diplomat named Archer Blood, 00:20:30.140 --> 00:20:33.440 a man of incredible integrity. And he and his 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:35.900 staff were watching the slaughter unfold and 00:20:35.900 --> 00:20:37.880 they were cabling Washington, begging them to 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:39.740 do something to condemn the violence. And they 00:20:39.740 --> 00:20:42.450 were being ignored. Completely ignored. So Archer 00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:45.150 Blood did something almost unprecedented. He 00:20:45.150 --> 00:20:48.230 and 20 of his staff signed and sent a formal 00:20:48.230 --> 00:20:50.809 dissent cable through official channels. It's 00:20:50.809 --> 00:20:53.309 now known as the Blood Telegram. It's one of 00:20:53.309 --> 00:20:55.150 the most powerful documents in the history of 00:20:55.150 --> 00:20:57.470 American diplomacy. I have a line from it here. 00:20:57.549 --> 00:20:59.650 It says, Our government has failed to denounce 00:20:59.650 --> 00:21:02.170 the suppression of democracy. Our government 00:21:02.170 --> 00:21:05.890 has failed to denounce atrocities. The overworked 00:21:05.890 --> 00:21:09.690 term genocide is applicable. He used the word 00:21:09.690 --> 00:21:11.849 genocide. He did. He accused the U .S. government 00:21:11.849 --> 00:21:14.529 of moral bankruptcy. And how did Kissinger and 00:21:14.529 --> 00:21:17.250 Nixon respond to this courageous act of truth 00:21:17.250 --> 00:21:19.950 telling? They fired him. They recalled Archer 00:21:19.950 --> 00:21:22.410 Blood. They ended his career. They shot the messenger. 00:21:22.730 --> 00:21:24.990 Why? Why would the U .S. side with a government 00:21:24.990 --> 00:21:28.430 committing genocide? One word. China. Remember 00:21:28.430 --> 00:21:31.890 when this is happening. Mid -1971. The dictator 00:21:31.890 --> 00:21:35.150 of Pakistan, Yahya Khan, was the secret go -between. 00:21:35.549 --> 00:21:37.549 He was the one carrying Kissinger's messages 00:21:37.549 --> 00:21:40.009 to Beijing to set up the secret trip. So they 00:21:40.009 --> 00:21:42.170 couldn't risk upsetting him. To Kissinger, the 00:21:42.170 --> 00:21:44.730 opening to China was the grand prize. It was 00:21:44.730 --> 00:21:47.009 the move that would change the world. And if 00:21:47.009 --> 00:21:49.190 the price of that prize was turning a blind eye 00:21:49.190 --> 00:21:52.329 to the slaughter of Bengalis, so be it. The smaller 00:21:52.329 --> 00:21:54.950 country was sacrificed for the great power game. 00:21:55.170 --> 00:21:57.470 The private comments from the Oval Office tapes 00:21:57.470 --> 00:22:01.400 from this time are just... They are stomach turning. 00:22:01.579 --> 00:22:04.440 You have Nixon and Kissinger egging each other 00:22:04.440 --> 00:22:06.880 on. Kissinger is recorded calling the Indians 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:09.920 who are helping the Bengalis bastards. He called 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:12.440 the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi a bitch. 00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:15.460 He later said he regretted the language, but 00:22:15.460 --> 00:22:18.000 it reveals the contempt they had for anyone who 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:20.720 got in the way of their grand strategy. It's 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:22.980 perfectly consistent with the real politic framework, 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:26.380 though. Pakistan was the U .S. ally and the key 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:29.390 to China. India was seen as pro -Soviet. Therefore, 00:22:29.630 --> 00:22:32.990 Pakistan gets a pass. And you see the same cold 00:22:32.990 --> 00:22:35.150 logic applied to an issue that should have been 00:22:35.150 --> 00:22:37.569 deeply personal for Kissinger, the plight of 00:22:37.569 --> 00:22:39.710 Soviet Jews. Right. There was a huge movement 00:22:39.710 --> 00:22:42.009 in the U .S. Congress to pressure the Soviet 00:22:42.009 --> 00:22:44.470 Union to allow its Jewish citizens to emigrate. 00:22:44.630 --> 00:22:46.430 But for Kissinger, this was just an annoying 00:22:46.430 --> 00:22:48.950 distraction. He was in the middle of negotiating 00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:51.789 the first major arms control treaty, Salt West. 00:22:52.380 --> 00:22:55.119 He was trying to establish detente, a relaxation 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:57.759 of tensions with the Soviets. He didn't want 00:22:57.759 --> 00:22:59.900 messy human rights issues getting in the way. 00:22:59.980 --> 00:23:02.240 And this leads to another one of those Oval Office 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:05.559 tapes that is just chilling. It's from 1973. 00:23:06.140 --> 00:23:08.900 Yes. He's talking to Nixon after a meeting with 00:23:08.900 --> 00:23:11.660 Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and he tells 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:14.240 Nixon the emigration of Jews from the Soviet 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:16.799 Union is not an objective of American foreign 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:18.839 policy. And then he goes further. He does. He 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:21.380 says, and if they put Jews into gas chambers 00:23:21.380 --> 00:23:23.819 in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. 00:23:24.299 --> 00:23:27.180 maybe a humanitarian concern. To hear a man who 00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:29.839 fled the Nazis, who lost more than a dozen relatives 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.480 in the Holocaust, say that if the Soviets start 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.480 using gas chambers, it's not an American concern. 00:23:35.660 --> 00:23:37.940 I mean, it's almost impossible to process. It 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:39.839 is the ultimate expression of his ability to 00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:42.579 compartmentalize, to separate the personal from 00:23:42.579 --> 00:23:45.099 the political. He truly believed that if you 00:23:45.099 --> 00:23:47.240 let moral outrage guide your foreign policy, 00:23:47.460 --> 00:23:50.660 you get crusades. And crusades lead to endless, 00:23:50.740 --> 00:23:54.369 catastrophic wars. So in his mind, ignoring the 00:23:54.369 --> 00:23:56.970 gas chambers is what prevents a nuclear war that 00:23:56.970 --> 00:23:59.470 would kill everyone. That is the steel man argument 00:23:59.470 --> 00:24:02.869 for his position. Yes, that by securing detente, 00:24:02.890 --> 00:24:05.109 he was preventing a nuclear holocaust. And compared 00:24:05.109 --> 00:24:07.630 to that, all other tragedies were in his cold 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:11.269 calculus secondary. OK, so we've looked at the 00:24:11.269 --> 00:24:13.630 exhibits for the war criminal case. Let's pivot 00:24:13.630 --> 00:24:16.509 to the Middle East, because if Vietnam and Bangladesh. 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.940 are exhibit A for the prosecution. The Yom Kippur 00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:22.519 War is almost always exhibit A for the defense. 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:24.880 It is. This is where his supporters say you can 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:27.900 see the genius of real politic in action. So 00:24:27.900 --> 00:24:32.200 set the scene. October 1973. On Yom Kippur, the 00:24:32.200 --> 00:24:34.420 holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Egypt and 00:24:34.420 --> 00:24:37.559 Syria launch a massive coordinated surprise attack 00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:40.579 on Israel. The Israeli military is caught completely 00:24:40.579 --> 00:24:42.839 by surprise. The first few days of the war are 00:24:42.839 --> 00:24:44.839 a complete disaster for them. And by this point, 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:46.640 Kissinger is no longer just national security 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:49.579 advisor. He is now also secretary of state. And 00:24:49.579 --> 00:24:52.539 Nixon is completely consumed by Watergate. So 00:24:52.539 --> 00:24:54.480 Kissinger is effectively running U .S. foreign 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.640 policy on his own. He's the acting president 00:24:56.640 --> 00:24:59.319 when it comes to this crisis. And his first move 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:02.480 is fascinating. He actually delays sending weapons 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.420 to Israel. He does. He holds back the airlift. 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:08.460 The theory is that he wanted Israel to bleed 00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:11.240 a little. He felt that if Israel won another 00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:14.960 swift, crushing victory like in 1967, they would 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.339 become arrogant and would never feel the need 00:25:17.339 --> 00:25:20.339 to negotiate for peace. He wanted a stalemate. 00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:22.900 That's playing with fire. It is. But then he 00:25:22.900 --> 00:25:25.480 sees the Soviets pouring weapons into Syria and 00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:27.759 Egypt, and he realizes the balance is tipping 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:30.720 too far. The Arabs might actually win. So he 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:33.359 flips the switch and authorizes Operation Nickelgrass. 00:25:33.619 --> 00:25:35.819 A massive round -the -clock airlift of American 00:25:35.819 --> 00:25:38.059 tanks, ammunition, everything Israel needs. It 00:25:38.059 --> 00:25:41.140 saves Israel from defeat. But then, as the tide 00:25:41.140 --> 00:25:43.599 turns and the Israeli army is about to encircle 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:46.660 and destroy the entire Egyptian Third Army, Kissinger 00:25:46.660 --> 00:25:49.450 steps in again. He forces the— Israelis to stop. 00:25:49.569 --> 00:25:51.829 Why do that? Because his goal wasn't just to 00:25:51.829 --> 00:25:54.490 save Israel. It was to reshape the entire Middle 00:25:54.490 --> 00:25:57.150 East. By saving the Egyptian army from total 00:25:57.150 --> 00:25:59.509 humiliation, he gave the Egyptian president, 00:25:59.710 --> 00:26:02.230 Anwar Sadat, a reason to turn away from the Soviets 00:26:02.230 --> 00:26:04.190 and toward the United States. It was a brilliant 00:26:04.190 --> 00:26:06.609 move. And this is what leads to shuttle diplomacy. 00:26:07.339 --> 00:26:09.400 The famous images of him on his plane, flying 00:26:09.400 --> 00:26:12.319 constantly between capitals. He was a force of 00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:15.579 nature. He'd spend hours negotiating with Golda 00:26:15.579 --> 00:26:18.900 Meir in Tel Aviv, then fly to Damascus to haggle 00:26:18.900 --> 00:26:21.839 with Hafez al -Assad, whom he called a riverboat 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:25.630 gambler. And he brokers a deal. He brokers disengagement 00:26:25.630 --> 00:26:28.130 agreements that separated the armies and stabilized 00:26:28.130 --> 00:26:31.230 the situation. It was a diplomatic masterclass 00:26:31.230 --> 00:26:33.710 that lead the foundation for the Camp David Accords 00:26:33.710 --> 00:26:36.789 a few years later. And crucially, it effectively 00:26:36.789 --> 00:26:39.109 kicked the Soviet Union out of the Middle East. 00:26:39.410 --> 00:26:42.130 For the next 40 years, the U .S. was the indispensable 00:26:42.130 --> 00:26:44.750 power in the region. But there was a price for 00:26:44.750 --> 00:26:47.210 that airlift, wasn't there? Oh yes, the Arab 00:26:47.210 --> 00:26:50.509 oil embargo. The Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, 00:26:50.690 --> 00:26:52.750 were furious about the U .S. support for Israel, 00:26:52.930 --> 00:26:55.230 so they cut off the oil. Leading to gas lines 00:26:55.230 --> 00:26:57.890 around the bloc, a massive economic shock in 00:26:57.890 --> 00:27:00.089 the West. But even there, Kissinger managed to 00:27:00.089 --> 00:27:02.670 turn a crisis into an opportunity, eventually 00:27:02.670 --> 00:27:05.109 forging the petrodollar system with the Saudis 00:27:05.109 --> 00:27:07.650 that stabilized the global economy for decades. 00:27:08.049 --> 00:27:11.210 So, the Middle East? You could call it a win 00:27:11.210 --> 00:27:14.160 for his brand of diplomacy. But then we have 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:16.660 to turn our gaze south to America's backyard. 00:27:16.980 --> 00:27:19.259 To Latin America. And this is where that cold, 00:27:19.339 --> 00:27:22.200 real politic just looks like straight -up support 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:24.759 for fascism. In Latin America, the Kissinger 00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:28.039 Doctrine was simple. No more Cubas. He had zero 00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:30.000 tolerance for left -wing governments in the Western 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:32.400 Hemisphere, democratically elected or not. Which 00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:35.630 brings us to Chile. 1970, the socialist candidate 00:27:35.630 --> 00:27:39.109 Salvador Allende wins a free and fair election. 00:27:39.230 --> 00:27:42.069 And Kissinger and Nixon are immediately hostile. 00:27:42.309 --> 00:27:44.130 This is where we get one of his most infamous 00:27:44.130 --> 00:27:46.730 quotes. He said. I don't see why we need to stand 00:27:46.730 --> 00:27:49.230 by and watch a country go communist due to the 00:27:49.230 --> 00:27:51.950 irresponsibility of its own people. The irresponsibility 00:27:51.950 --> 00:27:54.210 of its own people. It's such an incredibly arrogant 00:27:54.210 --> 00:27:56.630 and anti -democratic statement. It's the order 00:27:56.630 --> 00:28:00.210 over justice thesis in its purest form. A democratic 00:28:00.210 --> 00:28:02.730 vote that produces what he considers a revolutionary 00:28:02.730 --> 00:28:05.869 outcome is, in his view, an illegitimate vote. 00:28:05.970 --> 00:28:08.369 The stability of the hemisphere trumps the will 00:28:08.369 --> 00:28:11.130 of the Chilean people. So the CIA was authorized 00:28:11.130 --> 00:28:13.710 to undermine Allende's government, to make the 00:28:13.710 --> 00:28:17.150 economy scream. They did. And in September 1973, 00:28:17.710 --> 00:28:20.109 the military, led by General Augusto Pinochet, 00:28:20.230 --> 00:28:23.529 launched a coup. Allende was killed. And Pinochet 00:28:23.529 --> 00:28:25.869 established one of the most brutal dictatorships 00:28:25.869 --> 00:28:28.769 in modern history. We're talking torture, concentration 00:28:28.769 --> 00:28:31.750 camps, political opponents being thrown from 00:28:31.750 --> 00:28:35.250 helicopters, thousands. disappeared. And Kissinger 00:28:35.250 --> 00:28:37.769 not only supported Pinochet, he defended him. 00:28:38.049 --> 00:28:40.470 There's a damning piece of evidence where the 00:28:40.470 --> 00:28:42.849 U .S. ambassador to Chile, who was horrified 00:28:42.849 --> 00:28:45.309 by the human rights abuses, wanted to send an 00:28:45.309 --> 00:28:47.609 official diplomatic letter warning the Pinochet 00:28:47.609 --> 00:28:50.349 regime against assassinating its political opponents 00:28:50.349 --> 00:28:52.630 abroad. And Kissinger ordered him not to send 00:28:52.630 --> 00:28:55.509 it. He personally canceled the cable. A few weeks 00:28:55.509 --> 00:28:57.990 later, a car bomb planted by Pinochet's agents 00:28:57.990 --> 00:29:00.569 exploded in Sheridan Circle in Washington, D 00:29:00.569 --> 00:29:03.710 .C., killing a prominent Chilean dissident. Orlando 00:29:03.710 --> 00:29:07.009 Letelier, and his American colleague. It's sickening. 00:29:07.009 --> 00:29:09.009 And it's not an isolated case. There's also Argentina. 00:29:09.309 --> 00:29:13.609 The dirty war. Yeah. 1976. Another military junta 00:29:13.609 --> 00:29:15.970 takes power and begins a campaign of mass murder 00:29:15.970 --> 00:29:18.269 against suspected leftists. And this is where 00:29:18.269 --> 00:29:20.890 we have the green light meeting. Yes. Kissinger 00:29:20.890 --> 00:29:23.519 meets with the Argentine foreign minister. The 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:25.420 Argentine is worried about condemnation from 00:29:25.420 --> 00:29:28.619 the U .S. Congress. And Kissinger basically tells 00:29:28.619 --> 00:29:31.299 him not to worry about the White House. He says, 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:33.680 and this is a quote, if there are things that 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:35.640 have to be done, you should do them quickly. 00:29:35.900 --> 00:29:39.380 In other words, do your killing now before Congress 00:29:39.380 --> 00:29:41.579 comes back from recess and cuts off your funding. 00:29:41.700 --> 00:29:44.880 It was perceived as a clear green light from 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.490 the highest level of the U .S. government. The 00:29:47.490 --> 00:29:49.950 U .S. ambassador in Buenos Aires at the time, 00:29:50.009 --> 00:29:52.750 Robert Hill, was appalled by the slaughter and 00:29:52.750 --> 00:29:55.150 was trying to push a human rights agenda. But 00:29:55.150 --> 00:29:57.869 Kissinger completely undercut him. And this all 00:29:57.869 --> 00:30:00.210 took place under the umbrella of a larger program, 00:30:00.369 --> 00:30:03.089 right? Operation Condor. Operation Condor was 00:30:03.089 --> 00:30:05.829 a coordinated multinational intelligence and 00:30:05.829 --> 00:30:08.289 assassination program set up by the right wing 00:30:08.289 --> 00:30:10.670 dictatorships of the southern Conchili, Argentina, 00:30:11.170 --> 00:30:14.369 Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay. They hunted down their 00:30:14.369 --> 00:30:16.869 political opponents across borders. Exactly. 00:30:16.890 --> 00:30:19.190 They shared intelligence. They kidnapped people 00:30:19.190 --> 00:30:21.690 in one country and sent them to be tortured in 00:30:21.690 --> 00:30:24.009 another. It was a state -sponsored terror network. 00:30:24.309 --> 00:30:26.690 And the CIA and Kissinger's State Department 00:30:26.690 --> 00:30:29.609 were, at a minimum, aware of it and did nothing 00:30:29.609 --> 00:30:32.269 to stop it. Because these dictators were anti 00:30:32.269 --> 00:30:34.890 -communist. They provided order. They were our 00:30:34.890 --> 00:30:37.890 guys. There are two other cases from this period 00:30:37.890 --> 00:30:41.890 we have to mention. Cyprus in 1974. Classic Kissinger. 00:30:42.329 --> 00:30:44.769 A coup in Cyprus backed by the military junta 00:30:44.769 --> 00:30:47.470 in Greece, followed by a Turkish invasion of 00:30:47.470 --> 00:30:50.509 the island, a war between two NATO allies. And 00:30:50.509 --> 00:30:53.450 Kissinger's response? He tilted toward Turkey, 00:30:53.650 --> 00:30:55.289 which he saw as the more important strategic 00:30:55.289 --> 00:30:57.990 prize. He basically allowed the invasion to happen. 00:30:58.170 --> 00:30:59.970 There's a report he said the Turkish approach 00:30:59.970 --> 00:31:02.210 was correct. Grab what they want and then negotiate. 00:31:02.779 --> 00:31:04.799 which led to the permanent partition of Cyprus 00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:07.480 and massive anti -American riots in Greece. That's 00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:09.980 when Kissinger, murderer, became a popular chant 00:31:09.980 --> 00:31:12.519 there. And then, maybe the most clear -cut case 00:31:12.519 --> 00:31:17.299 of all, East Timor, 1975. This one is just, there's 00:31:17.299 --> 00:31:20.380 no ambiguity. President Gerald Ford and Kissinger 00:31:20.380 --> 00:31:22.819 are in Jakarta meeting with the Indonesian dictator 00:31:22.819 --> 00:31:26.579 Suharto. And Suharto tells them he's about to 00:31:26.579 --> 00:31:29.400 invade the newly independent nation of East Timor. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:33.299 And he asks for America's blessing. The declassified 00:31:33.299 --> 00:31:36.019 transcript of the meeting is just shocking. Kissinger 00:31:36.019 --> 00:31:38.500 tells Suharto, it is important that whatever 00:31:38.500 --> 00:31:41.640 you do succeeds quickly. And then he adds a request. 00:31:42.099 --> 00:31:44.319 We would be able to influence the reaction in 00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:46.579 America if whatever happens, happens after we 00:31:46.579 --> 00:31:49.509 return. He literally says. Please just wait until 00:31:49.509 --> 00:31:52.109 our plane is in the air. Don't embarrass us by 00:31:52.109 --> 00:31:54.470 invading while we're still here. The day after 00:31:54.470 --> 00:31:57.190 they left, Indonesia invaded using American -made 00:31:57.190 --> 00:31:59.289 weapons. And the result was a near genocide. 00:31:59.549 --> 00:32:01.930 A quarter of the population of East Timor, maybe 00:32:01.930 --> 00:32:05.549 200 ,000 people, died during the Indonesian occupation 00:32:05.549 --> 00:32:08.690 that followed. When you add it all up, Cambodia, 00:32:08.910 --> 00:32:12.049 Begalish, Chile, Argentina, East Timor, the body 00:32:12.049 --> 00:32:14.430 count is staggering. And yet the man himself 00:32:14.430 --> 00:32:17.549 didn't just survive these controversies, he thrived. 00:32:17.799 --> 00:32:20.980 He became a celebrity. The first celebrity diplomat. 00:32:20.980 --> 00:32:22.920 It was a completely new phenomenon. He was on 00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:24.980 the cover of magazines. He was photographed at 00:32:24.980 --> 00:32:28.160 fancy clubs like Studio 54. He was dating Hollywood 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.339 actresses. Which is where that famous line comes 00:32:30.339 --> 00:32:34.039 from. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. He knew 00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:36.940 how to cultivate an image. But his ego was also 00:32:36.940 --> 00:32:40.509 his greatest weakness. Which brings us to the 00:32:40.509 --> 00:32:44.369 disastrous Oriana Falaci interview. Oh, the cowboy 00:32:44.369 --> 00:32:47.029 interview. Falaci was this legendary Italian 00:32:47.029 --> 00:32:49.809 journalist who could get anyone to say things 00:32:49.809 --> 00:32:53.549 they shouldn't. And in late 72, she gets Kissinger 00:32:53.549 --> 00:32:56.410 to open up about his own fame. And he says what? 00:32:56.569 --> 00:32:58.769 He says the main point arises from the fact that 00:32:58.769 --> 00:33:01.190 I've always acted alone. And then he compares 00:33:01.190 --> 00:33:03.369 himself to a cowboy from an American Western 00:33:03.369 --> 00:33:06.490 movie. The cowboy who leads the wagon train by 00:33:06.490 --> 00:33:09.400 riding ahead alone on his horse. Which must have 00:33:09.400 --> 00:33:12.019 made his boss, Richard Nixon, absolutely exploit. 00:33:12.140 --> 00:33:14.359 Nixon went ballistic. The idea that Kissinger 00:33:14.359 --> 00:33:16.940 saw himself as the lone hero and Nixon was just, 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:19.099 what, driving the wagon. It was an act of supreme 00:33:19.099 --> 00:33:21.700 arrogance. Kissinger later said it was the single 00:33:21.700 --> 00:33:24.440 stupidest interview he ever gave. But he survived 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:26.619 it. He survived Nixon's resignation. He stayed 00:33:26.619 --> 00:33:29.220 on under Ford. And then when he finally left 00:33:29.220 --> 00:33:31.460 government, he basically invented the modern 00:33:31.460 --> 00:33:34.380 career for a post -administration official. Kissinger 00:33:34.380 --> 00:33:37.119 associates. He didn't just retire to a university. 00:33:37.869 --> 00:33:41.190 He monetized his contacts. He created a consulting 00:33:41.190 --> 00:33:43.950 firm that charged huge fees to corporations who 00:33:43.950 --> 00:33:46.210 wanted access to the world's leaders. If you 00:33:46.210 --> 00:33:48.950 wanted to do business in China, you hired Kissinger. 00:33:49.150 --> 00:33:51.490 Exactly. He wouldn't lobby for you directly. 00:33:51.690 --> 00:33:53.710 He would just pick up the phone. He was the old 00:33:53.710 --> 00:33:56.309 friend of the Chinese people, and that opened 00:33:56.309 --> 00:33:58.809 doors that no one else could. Which led to another 00:33:58.809 --> 00:34:01.670 huge controversy after the Tiananmen Square Massacre 00:34:01.670 --> 00:34:05.019 in 1989. The Chinese government murders hundreds, 00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:08.119 maybe thousands of student protesters. The world 00:34:08.119 --> 00:34:11.559 is horrified. And Kissinger goes on TV and writes 00:34:11.559 --> 00:34:14.519 op -eds urging against HAARP sanctions, arguing 00:34:14.519 --> 00:34:16.760 that the U .S. shouldn't isolate China. While 00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:19.460 his firm, Kissinger Associates, had major corporate 00:34:19.460 --> 00:34:21.420 clients with billions of dollars at stake in 00:34:21.420 --> 00:34:23.559 China. The line between his real politic philosophy 00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:26.320 and his personal financial interests became very, 00:34:26.380 --> 00:34:29.199 very blurry. And he just kept going. He remained 00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:31.829 a relevant voice right up until his death. I 00:34:31.829 --> 00:34:33.590 mean, he was co -authoring books about artificial 00:34:33.590 --> 00:34:36.389 intelligence in his late 90s. It was incredible. 00:34:36.630 --> 00:34:39.050 He worried that AI controlled weapons systems 00:34:39.050 --> 00:34:41.409 would destabilize the nuclear balance he'd worked 00:34:41.409 --> 00:34:44.110 so hard to create. It was the same old fear of 00:34:44.110 --> 00:34:46.909 chaos just applied to a new technology. And he 00:34:46.909 --> 00:34:49.670 even changed his mind on major issues like Ukraine. 00:34:50.139 --> 00:34:53.179 He did. For years after Russia's 2014 invasion, 00:34:53.500 --> 00:34:56.079 he made the classic realist argument that Ukraine 00:34:56.079 --> 00:34:59.079 should be a neutral buffer state, not a member 00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:01.500 of NATO. But after the full -scale invasion in 00:35:01.500 --> 00:35:04.880 2022, he completely reversed his position. In 00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:07.820 2023, he said neutrality was no longer an option 00:35:07.820 --> 00:35:10.139 and that Ukraine should be admitted to NATO to 00:35:10.139 --> 00:35:12.960 guarantee its security. He adapted his realism 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:15.460 to the new reality on the ground. At 100 years 00:35:15.460 --> 00:35:18.059 old, he flew to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping. 00:35:18.460 --> 00:35:20.639 And he was received like a visiting head of state. 00:35:20.739 --> 00:35:22.739 She called him an old friend that China would 00:35:22.739 --> 00:35:26.460 never forget. So finally, November 2023. At 100 00:35:26.460 --> 00:35:29.699 years old, Henry Kissinger dies. And the global 00:35:29.699 --> 00:35:32.019 reaction was the perfect summary of his life. 00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:34.579 It was a perfect Rorschach test. In Washington, 00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:37.400 the establishment eulogized him. Biden, George 00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:40.079 W. Bush, they all talk about his towering intellect 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:42.400 and his service to the nation. But then you looked 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:44.260 elsewhere. Rolling Stone magazine's headline 00:35:44.260 --> 00:35:47.869 was. Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by 00:35:47.869 --> 00:35:50.969 America's ruling class, finally dies. In Chile, 00:35:51.190 --> 00:35:54.409 in Argentina, in Cambodia, there were celebrations. 00:35:54.769 --> 00:35:56.389 And that really brings us back to the central 00:35:56.389 --> 00:36:00.050 question. Was he a great man whose cold -blooded 00:36:00.050 --> 00:36:02.489 realism saved the world from nuclear war by managing 00:36:02.489 --> 00:36:04.670 the superpowers? Or was he a man who treated 00:36:04.670 --> 00:36:08.389 entire nations, Cambodia, East Tamor, Chile, 00:36:08.570 --> 00:36:11.969 as disposable pawns in his game, leaving a legacy 00:36:11.969 --> 00:36:15.619 of mass death and instability? He believed, fundamentally, 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:18.539 in order over justice. He did. And that leaves 00:36:18.539 --> 00:36:20.800 us with a final, I think, very provocative thought 00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:22.320 for today's world. We're living in a time of 00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:25.500 growing chaos. We have a rising China, a belligerent 00:36:25.500 --> 00:36:27.780 Russia, disruptive new technologies like AI. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:30.400 The stable order he prized seems to be fraying. 00:36:30.670 --> 00:36:32.949 So the question is, are we drifting back into 00:36:32.949 --> 00:36:35.309 a world that needs a Kissinger? Does managing 00:36:35.309 --> 00:36:37.610 this new era of great power competition require 00:36:37.610 --> 00:36:40.989 that same cold, ruthless realism where smaller 00:36:40.989 --> 00:36:43.010 nations are once again sacrificed for the sake 00:36:43.010 --> 00:36:46.130 of stability? Or have we, or should we, evolved 00:36:46.130 --> 00:36:49.710 past that? Is the human cost of that kind of 00:36:49.710 --> 00:36:52.710 order simply too high a price to pay? Kissinger's 00:36:52.710 --> 00:36:54.550 answer would be clear. He'd say you can have 00:36:54.550 --> 00:36:57.159 a world based on justice. Or you can have a world 00:36:57.159 --> 00:37:00.239 based on peace. But in the real world, you can 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:02.880 rarely have both. A sobering thought to end on. 00:37:02.980 --> 00:37:05.639 If you want to dig deeper into this, I really 00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:08.260 recommend Gary Bass's book, The Blood Telegram. 00:37:08.500 --> 00:37:10.719 It is a devastating account of the Bangladesh 00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:13.480 crisis. Or for the other side, read Kissinger's 00:37:13.480 --> 00:37:16.300 own memoirs, White House Years. The sheer intellectual 00:37:16.300 --> 00:37:19.539 power is undeniable. Absolutely. Thanks for joining 00:37:19.539 --> 00:37:21.219 us for this deep dive. We'll see you next time.