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10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 | Back In TIME
TIME
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11/30/2023
Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State known for his realist approach to foreign policy during the Nixon and Ford administrations, has died. He was 100.
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00:00
Dr. Henry Kissinger was the U.S. 56th Secretary of State under President Nixon and Ford.
00:29
He's now chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm, and he's
00:33
written a new book on China.
00:35
Today, he's answering ten questions from Time magazine.
00:38
Dr. Kissinger, welcome.
00:40
Thank you.
00:41
Should America be afraid of China?
00:44
America should understand China and think about China, but it need not be afraid of China.
00:52
Can you briefly explain the idea you have of a Pacific community?
00:56
China and the United States are now in part afraid of certain tendencies in each other.
01:03
So therefore, I think we should find common projects on which we can work together that
01:10
create a sense of cooperation and community.
01:15
Now, a lot of people might believe that the Americans will not likely be the aggressors
01:21
in this situation.
01:22
It will be the Chinese.
01:24
How would you respond to that?
01:25
I want to emphasize this.
01:27
If our fundamental interests are challenged, we will defend ourselves and we will resist.
01:34
But I ask myself, when I look at World War I, if the statesmen that decided to go to
01:42
World War I had known what the world would look like two years after that war, would
01:49
they not have made another effort to find a more peaceful solution?
01:55
We are in that position with China.
01:58
We can let things drift in a competitive relationship all over the world.
02:07
Or we can, on both sides, make an effort to see whether a parallel evolution is possible.
02:18
Now, on other matters, do you feel optimistic about the developments in the so-called Arab
02:23
Spring?
02:24
It's a tremendous historical event that the people in these countries are asserting a
02:30
claim to participation in government.
02:34
But the history of revolution shows that the first outburst of the revolution is a coming
02:41
together of various resentments that don't necessarily agree with each other.
02:48
After the first outburst, the challenge is how to sort out these various resentments
02:54
and establish a common direction.
02:58
That is why, almost invariably in the history of revolutions, the first group of revolutionaries
03:04
get overtaken by some other groups.
03:09
So the challenge we have now is to see how we can contribute to a democratic revolution
03:17
that is in the first scene of the first act of a five-act play.
03:24
It's been said that the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court because
03:28
former secretaries of state such as yourself and others might face prosecution under its
03:33
auspices.
03:34
Do you believe this is true?
03:36
The reason we are not a member of the International Criminal Court has a better justification
03:45
than the fear that secretaries of state would be put before the Criminal Court.
03:52
The reason is that this is left to prosecutors that are drawn from a variety of countries
04:03
and very often cannot understand what the issues are.
04:07
And then it has started a process where some American officials are reluctant to travel
04:15
abroad for fear that somebody will launch some sort of indictment against them.
04:22
And if that becomes a method by which a kind of diplomacy is conducted, I do not favor
04:30
the International Criminal Court.
04:32
I wrote an article about it many years ago, but not for fear of myself.
04:38
Not even remotely for fear of myself.
04:42
I guess a lot of people will be surprised how dovish you are towards China, which is
04:49
still a communist nation, when the communist Chinese was the sort of propulsive threat
04:55
of the Vietnam War.
04:57
So people might think that you have changed positions on this.
05:01
No.
05:02
I think peace has two elements.
05:07
You can't have peace without equilibrium.
05:11
But you can't have an equilibrium unless people think it is just.
05:15
So you have to work on both problems simultaneously.
05:19
So what you're saying is you advised not pulling out of Vietnam earlier was that there
05:24
was not a perception of...
05:26
We came into office when there were 550,000 Americans already in place.
05:33
You can't turn that off like a television channel.
05:38
Our single objective was that the people of South Vietnam should have the opportunity
05:46
to choose their own fate.
05:49
If that was achieved, we would leave.
05:53
Until it was achieved, we withdrew gradually.
05:56
When the North Vietnamese agreed to a sort of democratic process in the South, then we
06:06
settled.
06:07
That's the essence of it.
06:09
It was not a question of not wanting to withdraw.
06:15
And someday an accurate history of the Vietnam War will be written for the sake of American
06:24
unity.
06:25
Well, it sounds like it frustrates you, the misunderstanding.
06:28
No, but by now I'm used to that.
06:31
More under the bridge by now.
06:34
Dr. Kissinger, thank you so much.
06:35
Thank you.
06:36
Thank you.
06:37
Thank you.
06:37
[BLANK_AUDIO]
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