Henry Kissinger cytaty

Henry Kissinger, właśc. Heinz Alfred Kissinger – amerykański polityk i dyplomata, profesor nauk politycznych Uniwersytetu Harvarda. Doradca ds. bezpieczeństwa narodowego oraz sekretarz stanu podczas prezydentury Richarda Nixona oraz Geralda Forda. Za swój wkład podczas negocjacji w czasie konfliktu w Wietnamie otrzymał w 1973 roku Pokojową Nagrodę Nobla. Człowiek Roku tygodnika „Time” w 1972 roku . Wikipedia  

✵ 27. Maj 1923 – 29. Listopad 2023   •   Natępne imiona Henry A. Kissinger
Henry Kissinger Fotografia

Dzieło

A World Restored
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger: 63   Cytaty 4   Polubienia

Henry Kissinger słynne cytaty

„Nie wierzę, że nie da się przełamać oporu Północnego Wietnamu.”

Źródło: National Archives and Records Administration, cyt. za: Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States (2012), tłum. Anna Rajca, Mirosław Filipowicz, odcinek 7

„Wyważono równowagę tak doskonale, iż mogła zostać obalona jedynie wielkim wysiłkiem.”

o równowadze wypracowanej na Kongresie Wiedeńskim z 1815 r.

„Władza to największy afrodyzjak.”

w 1971.

Henry Kissinger cytaty

„To oblężone miasto z upadającym rządem.”

o Waszyngtonie ogarniętym masowymi protestami antywojennymi.
Źródło: National Archives and Records Administration, cyt. za: Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States (2012), tłum. Anna Rajca, Mirosław Filipowicz, odcinek 7

„Przy zastosowaniu odpowiedniej taktyki wojna nuklearna nie musi być aż tak niszczycielska, jak się wydaje.”

Źródło: A World Restored (1957); cyt. za: Howard Zinn, Ludowa historia Stanów Zjednoczonych. Od roku 1492 do dziś, tłum. Andrzej Wojtasik, Wyd. Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2016, s. 572.

„Henry Kissinger: Emigracja Żydów ze Związku Radzieckiego nie jest celem polityki Stanów Zjednoczonych. A jeśli w ZSRR będą pakowali Żydów do komór gazowych, to nie jest to amerykańskie zmartwienie. Może humanitarne zmartwienie.
Richard Nixon: Wiem. Nie możemy z tego powodu wysadzić świata w powietrze.”

rozmowa, która odbyła się w marcu 1973 w Białym Domu po wizycie Goldy Meir. Premier Izraela zabiegała, żeby Waszyngton zmusił Moskwę, by zezwoliła prześladowanym Żydom na wyjazd z ZSRR.
Źródło: wyborcza.pl, 14 grudnia 2010 http://wyborcza.pl/dziennikarze/1,96904,8817489,Kompromitacja_Nixona_i_Kissingera.html#ixzz18BcRKu1t

„Wszystko, co lata poleci tam i zbombarduje wszystko, co się rusza.”

w 1970, powtarzając dowódcom wojskowym rozkaz Richarda Nixona.
Źródło: National Archives and Records Administration, cyt. za: Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States (2012), tłum. Anna Rajca, Mirosław Filipowicz, odcinek 7

Henry Kissinger: Cytaty po angielsku

“Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.”

As quoted in The Other 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (1984) by Robert Byrne
1980s
Wariant: Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

“The reason that university politics is so vicious is that the stakes are so small.”

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
Misattributed

“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.
1970s
Kontekst: 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.

“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”

Henry Kissinger: The White House Years, quoted from Dinesh D'Souza: What's so great about America http://books.google.com/books?id=tFcDN5D1SLQC&pg=PA164&dq=kissinger+america+friends+only+interests&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=50&as_brr=0&ei=_UCDSs7YA6fuygTH3LTiCg&hl=sv#v=onepage&q=kissinger%20america%20friends%20only%20interests&f=false. This echoes Lord Palmerston's words: "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual".
1980s

“Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”

Speaking in Warsaw in 2012, Kissinger said that he didn't think the saying originated with him, "I am not sure I actually said it, but it's a good statement so why not take credit for it?"
Misattributed
Źródło: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/kissinger-says-calling-europe-quote-not-likely-his

“If you believe that their real intention is to kill you, it isn't unreasonable to believe that they would lie to you.”

Observation made privately, quoted by Time journalist Michael Kramer, The Case for Skepticism http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956604,00.html Time, (26 December 1988), in the context of doubts about PLO sincerity in hinting about recognition of Israel.
1980s

“I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.”

Meeting of the "40 Committee" on covert action in Chile (27 June 1970) quoted in The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (1974); the quotation was censored prior to publication due to legal action by the government. See New York Times (11 September 1974) "Censored Matter in Book About C.I.A. Said to Have Related Chile Activities; Damage Feared" by Seymour Hersh
1970s

“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.”

The White House Years (1979)
1970s
Kontekst: 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.

“Ever since the secret trip to China, my own relationship with Nixon had grown complicated.”

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
1970s
Kontekst: 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.

“We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one.”

"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."
1960s
Kontekst: 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.

“I've always acted alone. Americans like that immensely.”

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.
1970s
Kontekst: 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.

“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)
1970s
Kontekst: 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.

“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.”

1970s
Kontekst: 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

“Military men are "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy.”

Kissinger has denied saying it.
The only evidence that Kissinger ever said this was a claim in the book, The Final Days, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, in chapter 14 (p.194 in the 1995 paperback edition). Woodward & Bernstein claimed that one of Kissinger's political foes, Alexander Haig, had told someone unnamed, that he (Haig) had heard Kissinger say it. That's triple hearsay, made even weaker by the fact that one of the parties is anonymous. Kissinger has denied ever saying it, and it was never substantiated by Haig, nor by anyone of known identity who claimed to have heard it. As Kirkus Reviews noted about the whole book, "none of it is substantiated in any assessable way."
In fact, the quote is not even very plausible, on its face. Kissinger served with distinction in the U.S. Army during WWII, and was awarded the Bronze Star. He has always been very respectful of other servicemen and their sacrifices. For him to have said such a thing would have been wildly out of character. In fact, the awkward phrasing doesn't even sound like Kissinger, whose English prose is consistently measured and careful, despite his heavy accent, even when he speaks extemporaneously.
Misattributed

“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”

As quoted in The New York Times (28 October 1973)
Lesser known variant: Power is the great aphrodisiac.
As quoted in The New York Times (19 January 1971)
1970s

“The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.”

As quoted in "Special Section: They Are Fated to Succeed" in TIME magazine (2 January 1978) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915860,00.html
1970s

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”

As quoted in The New York Times Magazine (1 June 1969)
1960s
Wariant: There can't be a crisis next week, my schedule is already full.

“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

As quoted in The Washington Post (23 December 1973); he later joked further on this remark, on 10 March 1975 saying to Turkish Foreign Minister Melih Esenbel in Ankara, Turkey:
Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." … But since the Freedom of Information Act, I'm afraid to say things like that.
As quoted in "Sunshine Week Document Friday! Kissinger Says, “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer. But since the FOIA, I’m afraid to say things like that.” in Unredacted : The National Security Archive, unedited and uncensored http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/document-friday-kissinger-says-the-illegal-we-do-immediately-the-unconstitutional-takes-a-little-longer-but-since-the-foia-im-afraid-to-say-things-like-that/
Included in Cable P860114-1573_MC_b http://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/P860114-1573_MC_b.html#efmCS3CUB Wikileaks
1970s

“A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.”

Źródło: "Reflections on Containment", Foreign Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 3 (June 1994), p. 130

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