Frases de Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Data de nascimento: 27. Maio 1923
Outros nomes:Henry A. Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger é um diplomata americano, de origem judaica, que teve um papel importante na política estrangeira dos Estados Unidos entre 1968 e 1976.
Em 1938, devido às perseguições anti-semitas na Alemanha nazista, emigra com seus pais para os EUA, obtendo a cidadania americana em 19 de junho de 1943.
Depois de servir na Segunda Guerra Mundial, fez o seu doutoramento pela Universidade Harvard em 1954, tornando-se imediatamente instrutor na mesma instituição; depois de alguns anos, obteve o título de professor.
Kissinger foi conselheiro para a política estrangeira de todos os presidentes dos EUA de Eisenhower a Gerald Ford, sendo o secretário de Estado dos Estados Unidos , conselheiro político e confidente de Richard Nixon.
Em 1973 ganhou, com Le Duc Tho, o Prêmio Nobel da Paz, pelo seu papel na obtenção do acordo de cessar-fogo na Guerra do Vietnam. Le Duc Tho recusou o prêmio.
Henry Kissinger esteve envolvido numa intensa actividade diplomática com a República Popular da China, o Vietnã, a União Soviética e com África. Ainda hoje uma figura polémica e controversa, alguns dos críticos de Kissinger acusam-no de ter cometido crimes de guerra durante sua longa estadia no governo como dar luz verde para a invasão indonésia de Timor e a golpes de estado no Chile, Camboja e no Uruguai , sendo que por diversas vezes Kissinger usava de uma política tortuosa, em que parecia jogar com um "pau de dois bicos" ; entre tais críticos incluem-se o jornalista Christopher Hitchens e o analista Daniel Ellsberg . Apesar de essas alegações ainda não terem sido provadas em uma corte de justiça, considera-se perigoso para Kissinger entrar em diversos países da Europa e da América do Sul.
Henry Kissinger foi um dos mentores ou mesmo o mentor da chamada Operação Condor para a América do Sul, tendo o mesmo dito uma vez ao ministro de relações exteriores argentino da época, que: “Se há coisas que precisam ser feitas, vocês devem fazê-las rapidamente”, referindo-se a eliminação e repressão a quem era contra a ditadura, incluindo aí, obviamente torturas e mortes.
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Citações Henry Kissinger
„The reason that university politics is so vicious is that the stakes are so small.“
— Henry Kissinger
This remark was first attributed to Kissinger, among others, in the 1970s. The Quote Verifier (2006) attributes it to political scientist Paul Sayre, but notes earlier similar remarks by Woodrow Wilson. Clyde J. Wingfield referred to it as a familiar joke in The American University (1970)
Unattributed variants:
Somebody once said that one of the reasons academic infighting is so vicious is that the stakes are so small. There's so little at stake and they are so nasty about it.
The Craft of Crime : Conversations with Crime Writers (1983) by John C. Carr
The reason that academic politics is so vicious is that the stakes are so small.
Mentioned as an "old saw" in Teachers for Our Nation's Schools (1990) by John I. Goodlad
„The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.“
— Henry Kissinger
Context: The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision. Each side should know that frequently uncertainty, compromise, and incoherence are the essence of policymaking. Yet each tends to ascribe to the other a consistency, foresight, and coherence that its own experience belies. Of course, over time, even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.
The White House Years (1979)
„Ever since the secret trip to China, my own relationship with Nixon had grown complicated.“
— Henry Kissinger
Context: Ever since the secret trip to China, my own relationship with Nixon had grown complicated. Until then I had been an essentially anonymous White House assistant. But now his associates were unhappy, and not without reason, that some journalists were giving me perhaps excessive credit for the more appealing aspects of our foreign policy while blaming Nixon for the unpopular moves.
These tendencies were given impetus by an interview I granted to the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, without doubt the single most disastrous conversation I ever had with any member of the press. I saw her briefly on Nov. 2 and 4, 1972, in my office. I did so largely out of vanity. She had interviewed leading personalities all over the world. Fame was sufficiently novel for me to be flattered by the company I would be keeping. I had not bothered to read her writings; her evisceration of other victims was thus unknown to me.
As quoted in "Special Section: Chagrined Cowboy" in TIME magazine (8 October 1979) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,916877,00.html
„We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one.“
— Henry Kissinger
Context: We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition; our opponents aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process we lost sight of one of the cardinal maxims of guerrilla war: the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win. The North Vietnamese used their armed forces the way a bull-fighter uses his cape — to keep us lunging in areas of marginal political importance.
"The Vietnam Negotiations", Foreign Affairs, Vol. 48, No. 2 (January 1969), p. 214; also quoted as "A conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerilla army wins if he does not lose."
„I've always acted alone. Americans like that immensely.“
— Henry Kissinger
Context: I've always acted alone. Americans like that immensely.
Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse, the cowboy who rides all alone into the town, the village, with his horse and nothing else. Maybe even without a pistol, since he doesn't shoot. He acts, that's all, by being in the right place at the right time. In short, a Western. … This amazing, romantic character suits me precisely because to be alone has always been part of my style or, if you like, my technique.
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (November 1972), as quoted in "Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview" in Vanity Fair (December 2006) http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/12/hitchens200612; Kissinger, as quoted in "Special Section: Chagrined Cowboy" in TIME magazine (8 October 1979) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,916877,00.html called this "without doubt the single most disastrous conversation I ever had with any member of the press" and claimed that he had probably been misquoted or quoted out of context, but Fallaci later produced the tapes of the interview.
„Of course, over time, even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.“
— Henry Kissinger
Context: The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision. Each side should know that frequently uncertainty, compromise, and incoherence are the essence of policymaking. Yet each tends to ascribe to the other a consistency, foresight, and coherence that its own experience belies. Of course, over time, even two armed blind men can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.
The White House Years (1979)
