The magazine hailed him as “the world’s most indispensable man”. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images His longevity has made him, in the foreign policy establishment, the grandest of all the grand old men. Kissinger’s absolute commitment to the belief that the US could do whatever it liked within its sphere made him, for all his elegance of thought and expression, a great enemy of human dignityįor most of Kissinger’s century on earth, he has been a vastly influential figure in America’s relations with the rest of the world. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Perhaps if he had known he would not have delivered his advice quite so bluntly: “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. Kissinger did not know that Nixon was recording the conversation. The Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, had asked Nixon to press the Soviets to allow more of them to emigrate. Just over 50 years ago, on March 1st, 1973, Kissinger was in the White House, discussing the plight of Soviet Jews with his boss, President Richard Nixon, whom he then served as national security adviser. It is tempting to add that birthday parties for centenarians become obsolete when Kissinger’s 100th birthday is a cause for celebration. The great American satirist Tom Lehrer remarked that “political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize”.
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