Ask anyone of the street today if they know who Henry Kissinger was and you will get blank stares. An accomplished man, Kissinger was none the less a confidant to a number of presidents.
An obituary usually soft peddles a person's faults while enhancing the accomplishments.
Ask anyone of the street today if they know who Henry Kissinger was and you will get blank stares. An accomplished man, Kissinger was none the less a confidant to a number of presidents.
An obituary usually soft peddles a person's faults while enhancing the accomplishments.
Or to point out that what is ACTUALLY meant by that is "dead Jews from the river to the sea".
It's odd to observe that Hitler was bad because he committed genocide, but the same people who like to call everyone Nazis ALSO advocate genocide against the same Jews. This allies them with Hitler, pretty obviously, and in my view undeniably.
I doubt if, in 2010, 1 in 10 Americans could have differentiated Iran and Iraq--on a map or culturally--if they had not served over there.
I am very pro-military. I count many veterans as friends. But on balance I don't anyone can honestly argue that our governments since Korea--which should have resulted in a unified non-Communist peninsula--have supported our troops with integrity.
If you look at, say, Afghanistan, it's become hard for me to believe that many of our wars are not just some horrifying for-profit game.
Last I checked, was he president? All the people ringing their hands about Kissinger, he wasn't president. Nixon was. It was government policy during war. Some things work, some things don't work. It's the same people who are whining about all the Palestinians getting killed after they start a war. Everybody wants things to be sweetness and light, but the world is not that way. And anybody that wants to have it that way, should have no proximity to power. Good point. Have a great weekend
Johnson was by no means a war monger. He hated the war, it was a distraction from the Great Society he wanted to build as FDR's successor. But he felt bound by the commitments Kennedy had made. So he went forward with the war in a half-hearted way, always trying to restrict its cost and hoping for some negotiations to bring it to an end. Had Johnson been a war monger, the U.S. would have won the war in less than a year.
Given that The Obama used “complicit” in such a horrid - but entirely for him predictable - way, I recommend avoiding that word in any context.
Vietnam, the Soviet threat, the Kennedy assassinations, and more are so much of our past and are at least partially obscured by shadows, lies, and preferred Narratives that truth, particularly, political truth are hard to find. Particularly if one engages in presentism. Events happen in their own times.
That's not true. Nixon orchestrated the Paris Peace Accords but felt the office of president was too high to take a visible role. He sent Kissinger to do his bidding, knowing North VietNam would not honor the agreement while we bailed on our partners in the South.
Nixon ran the policies....Kissinger had to do the heavy lifting.
Ask anyone of the street today if they know who Henry Kissinger was and you will get blank stares. An accomplished man, Kissinger was none the less a confidant to a number of presidents.
An obituary usually soft peddles a person's faults while enhancing the accomplishments.
“ An obituary usually soft peddles a person's faults while enhancing the accomplishments.”
Same as it ever was.
Most people on the street can't find France on a map, or tell you who our first two Presidents were.
Wouldn't you love to quiz the protestors chanting "from the river to the sea" to ask them the names of the river and the sea?
Or to point out that what is ACTUALLY meant by that is "dead Jews from the river to the sea".
It's odd to observe that Hitler was bad because he committed genocide, but the same people who like to call everyone Nazis ALSO advocate genocide against the same Jews. This allies them with Hitler, pretty obviously, and in my view undeniably.
I had a recommendation recently. If we want to go to war, 50% of random Americans have to find the country on a map.
I doubt if, in 2010, 1 in 10 Americans could have differentiated Iran and Iraq--on a map or culturally--if they had not served over there.
I am very pro-military. I count many veterans as friends. But on balance I don't anyone can honestly argue that our governments since Korea--which should have resulted in a unified non-Communist peninsula--have supported our troops with integrity.
If you look at, say, Afghanistan, it's become hard for me to believe that many of our wars are not just some horrifying for-profit game.
You will likely get blank stares asking about anyone other than a rap or pop star or movie star. Sad
Or athlete.
Last I checked, was he president? All the people ringing their hands about Kissinger, he wasn't president. Nixon was. It was government policy during war. Some things work, some things don't work. It's the same people who are whining about all the Palestinians getting killed after they start a war. Everybody wants things to be sweetness and light, but the world is not that way. And anybody that wants to have it that way, should have no proximity to power. Good point. Have a great weekend
It was President Johnson who escalated the Vietnam War. He was a war monger.
Johnson was by no means a war monger. He hated the war, it was a distraction from the Great Society he wanted to build as FDR's successor. But he felt bound by the commitments Kennedy had made. So he went forward with the war in a half-hearted way, always trying to restrict its cost and hoping for some negotiations to bring it to an end. Had Johnson been a war monger, the U.S. would have won the war in less than a year.
Another cheap shot blaming one man for a very complicated situation.
Before TET and invading Cambodia, late '60's after LBJ resigned, public sentiment was in favor of stopping the advance of communism in Asia.
Not a cheap shot. Is it a cheap shot to blame everything on Kissinger? They were all complicit.
Given that The Obama used “complicit” in such a horrid - but entirely for him predictable - way, I recommend avoiding that word in any context.
Vietnam, the Soviet threat, the Kennedy assassinations, and more are so much of our past and are at least partially obscured by shadows, lies, and preferred Narratives that truth, particularly, political truth are hard to find. Particularly if one engages in presentism. Events happen in their own times.
Unfortunately we don't seem to ever get the truth including with current events.
Nixon was the face -- Kissinger ran the policies.
That's not true. Nixon orchestrated the Paris Peace Accords but felt the office of president was too high to take a visible role. He sent Kissinger to do his bidding, knowing North VietNam would not honor the agreement while we bailed on our partners in the South.
Nixon ran the policies....Kissinger had to do the heavy lifting.