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Henry Kissinger Has Died

nytimes.com

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Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#371
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> meme-ing with little actual specific policy substance behind it. This is a good point. Can we really say for certain that “bombing noncombatant countries both during a war and after a treaty was signed” is a war crime, and even if it were would “coming up with the whole idea” even count as contributing to something like that? It is confusing stuff like this that has led to no person ever being convicted for war cri…

You can be both a war criminal and an insightful writer.

Indeed - that's why I didn't deny above that Kissinger was interesting; he was a deep thinker, and I can see the motive behind many of his decisions, though I don't agree with it. Likewise I read Nixon and many other people whose politics I find disagreeable or even atrocious. What I dislike about Kissinger are both his extremely cynical strategic policies and that in the ~50 years since, he appears to have spent most of his time defending those policies and the ideas behind them, while making little or no effort to mitigate the negative outcomes.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#373
post #314
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading through the descriptions of the episodes of this podcast it seems a lot like they start with a conclusion and then confirmation bias themselves (and everyone else who already agrees with them). Maybe not the most objective source.

You might listen to the podcasts. They are good and they are well researched. Listen: I met Kissinger a few times and spent a few decades of my life working with foriegn policy wonks. He was a monster beyond compare. And I'll just add this in. When I was 24 I got a job at the New York Times working on the tech team that would launch nytimes.com. The "web editor" was one Bernard Gwertzman. Look him up. He was the fore…

Rest in piss indeed! Good riddance!

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#374
A shadowy character. For all his public appearances brokering Peace Deals, he engineered military coups all over Latin America in the 70s (Allendes government for one) and helped set up “School of the Americas” in Panama, where the US trained military juntas how to fight leftist “insurgency”(or civilian opposition, depending who you ask). A lot of the torturing and dirty wars that crippled Latam for 15 years is his doing.

While I recognize a number of good deeds he pulled, I get upset when his shadowy part gets untold.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but not every person needs "counter programming". Kissinger was a war criminal and we don't need a "balanced take" of a monster

Nuanced and unbiased conversation is much needed in this world, and having multiple viewpoints from people with different biases helps us all.

Rhetoric can be used to craft any message, no matter how absurd. Eloquent defenses exist for all of the most heinous actions by men. We have to assess the viewpoint before we grant it legitimacy, not absorb it simply because it exists.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> assume he was smarter than the people without clearance Idk, it's actually wild how HN is almost entirely "Kissinger is a war criminal" meme-ing with little actual specific policy substance behind it. Meanwhile, if you read any Kissinger, you'd realize he understood history and the international relations better than 99% of these comments. Truly, word-for-word basis you will undoubtedly learn far more about history…

Should a country overthrow the democratically elected government of another country because of non-life-threatening business losses? (Chile) Should a country delay a peace process with an enemy nation for several years for the sake of optics over peace? (Vietnam) Should a world leader meant to promote peace and de-escalation of armed conflict intentionally snub and antagonize their chief political rival with nukes, f…

Now judge every US president and Secretary of State by the same criteria.

Kissinger might be worse than average but he certainly isn't exceptional.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#377
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've already listened and it's excellent. Tl;dr version: Kissinger was an almost superhuman ass-kisser. He had an incredible knack for playing along with whatever insane idea somebody had and made everybody in the room feel goddamned brilliant. The richest, most powerful, and most beautiful people in the world just loved being around him because he consistently sounded interesting and made them feel intelligent. And…

> ...was an almost superhuman ass-kisser. This piques my curiosity. Does anyone have the mechanical specifics of how this worked, as in actual conversations when Kissinger was in his element that demonstrated this quality in action? Teens today who have never experienced Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field normally don't believe my shorthand description of the RDF like the above encapsulated description of "superhum…

If you listen to Nixon’s tapes, there are many instances where Nixon makes outrageously antisemitic comments, and Kissinger (who was Jewish himself), ever the brown-noser, agrees and responds with an even more outlandish one.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#378

From the obituary in the New York Times: "Michael T. Kaufman, a former correspondent and editor for The Times who died in 2010, contributed reporting." So, Kissinger outlived the guy who wrote his obituary!

That's very common. Basically all elderly people of note have obituaries written by reporters on staff so that an article can be gotten out quickly if the subject dies suddenly. Not uncommonly, the targets of the obituary are of a higher class and have better medical treatment and so live beyond their obituary writer.

In this case, Kaufman died at 71 of an incurable cancer though.

Re: Henry Kissinger Has Died

#379

Monty Python tribute to Henry Kissinger: https://youtu.be/ABeGhyAD_DM?si=6eAeatEaB7U_znd7

or this one... https://youtu.be/V00Crn56wk0?si=W36uEA20Ce6BwaDr

is it tacky to dance on a war criminals grave? probably, but i'm not sure i care at the moment.

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