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

—  Henry Kissinger

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:<br>Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings &quot;The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.&quot; … But since the Freedom of Information Act, I&#x27;m afraid to say things like that. <br class="br">As quoted in &quot;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/ <br class="br">Included in Cable P860114-1573_MC_b http://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/P860114-1573_MC_b.html#efmCS3CUB Wikileaks <br class="br">1970s

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Henry Kissinger50
United States Secretary of State 1923–2023

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