Henry Kissinger.
Photo: REUTERS
– Vyacheslav Alekseevich, Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State of the United States, has died. Have you met him?
– Yes, I met with Kissinger at several conferences, there were individual meetings. In principle I know him quite well. I really consider it, compared to the general background of American analysts, a very serious lump. Lump, who, however, was not pro-Russian. He never sympathized with us…
– And yet he still aroused a certain respect in you?
– Respect – yes, absolutely. He is a man who retained mental clarity until he was 100 years old and who wrote numerous fundamental works on diplomacy and international relations. He is undoubtedly an outstanding intellectual.
-And sympathy?…
– I can’t say that I had much sympathy for him. I read his memoirs very carefully and listened to what he said. Of course, he is more careful in his statements than many other American analysts and politicians. Of course, he sought, above all, to realize American state interests. And if I moved towards rapprochement with the Soviet Union at the time when he was Secretary of State, Assistant to the President for National Security, then it was, of course, to weaken the Soviet military-technological potential, which began to gain strength. leadership in our country in the early 70s. And to separate Russia (then Soviet Union) and China.
Kissinger was precisely the initiator of the rapprochement between the United States and China, in fact, the alliance between the United States and China in the 70s. But he did not do all this out of love for China, but to create, once again, a counterweight to the sovietic Union.
That is to say, he did everything possible to complicate our lives. Therefore, I have great respect, but no serious sympathy.
– Did you perceive him as the grandson of Molotov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in the pre- and post-war period? He probably knew Molotov’s works if he was involved in the Soviet Union.
– Naturally, he knew that I was a descendant of Molotov. But I think that for him this was not the main factor. Of course, he did not know the works of Molotov, he did not read the works of Russian authors in large quantities, this is obvious. He didn’t know Russian and wasn’t particularly interested in it. Maybe I saw something our authors wrote in American magazines, nothing more. He spoke bad English and until the end of his life he never learned to speak normal English; he had a very strong accent. After all, his native language is German. But I never got to Russian.
Vyacheslav Nikonov in the studio of Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Photo: Alexander ShPAKOVSKY
– Maybe it’s a stupid question. Why didn’t she teach Biden some common sense?
“I don’t think Biden consulted him at all.” First of all, I think he couldn’t teach intelligence to anyone for quite some time. His ideas have been, I would say, not very constructive in recent years. Well, actually, they could only be considered constructive if his ideas about American national interests coincided with our ideas about our interests. But Kissinger and Biden are representatives of different political parties: Kissinger is a Republican and Biden is a Democrat. Not to mention ideologies. Biden is a very liberal internationalist and Kissinger is a conservative realist. These are completely different schools of thought in foreign policy.
– Will American politics lose something with Kissinger’s departure? What about the world?
– Yes, Kissinger was one of those who formulated certain policy postulates, which determined, I would even say, the language of world politics. That is, his terms were operated as such universals.
– For example?
– For example, the concept of what “download” is. That was his mandate.
The term is “ping pong diplomacy” that began with China, a diplomacy that began with the exchange of table tennis equipment.
Or “shuttle diplomacy.” This is also Kissinger’s term; This is how he defined his numerous visits then: to Moscow, to Beijing and to the Middle East, when he was in the White House. Well, many terms that came from him. This is really a magnitude.
As for changes in American policy, Kissinger has not influenced American politics in recent years, so it is difficult to say that American policy will change in any way after his departure. But, naturally, we have lost another person who personified the 20th century.
– Tell me, is there any equivalent value left in American politics and diplomacy after Kissinger’s departure or do they no longer have it?
– I believe that there is no figure equivalent to Kissinger in the United States. In any case, no one enjoys such authority. But now, if we talk about representatives of the school of conservative realists, there is one notable figure – this is, of course, John Mearsheimer. He clearly dominates everyone. And as for other schools of liberal thought, this is Richard Haass, who heads the Foreign Affairs Council. But I think Haass is still a long way from Kissinger.
-If the White House had followed the trajectory of Kissinger’s ideas, how would it have behaved, in your opinion?
– The question, of course, is purely hypothetical. Because Kissinger could only influence Republican presidents. At the same time, the last Republican president, Trump, was not Kissinger’s favorite. There was no mutual and very serious sympathy between them.
Of course, if today’s American politicians and diplomats had been more attentive to Kissinger’s legacy, their policies would certainly have been more balanced. In any case, Kissinger would never allow the White House to stoop to directly insulting heads of state. Now this is par for the course. He still spoke the language of diplomacy, while now the language used by Biden himself, which the White House directs to other leaders, is more like the language of street hooligans. Kissinger was not a bully.
– Are we now very close to World War III? Some say it is already underway.
– Many people even argue when World War II began. Some believe this occurred on September 1, 1939, when Germany attacked Poland, while others start counting from 1931, when Japan attacked China. It must be said that there are also reasons for this.
But in any case an essential circumstance must be taken into account: both the First and Second World Wars began as wars within the Western world. Now this is not the case.
It really all depends on the definition. If we talk about hybrid warfare, it has been happening for a long time. In fact, it never stopped. I believe that the Cold War has always been fought and continues to be fought. And the Third World War, as a clash between the armies of the great powers, well, things have not yet come to that, and I think they will not come to that.
Because everyone understands perfectly well that there is such a factor as nuclear weapons. And Kissinger understood it very well, better than many others. And this situation of mutually assured destruction, which Kissinger also wrote about more than once in his works, persists and is the main guarantee of maintaining peace throughout the world.
– So blessed memory for Henry Kissinger?
– Well, for some it is light, for others not so much. In any case, of course, we will remember it.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS