The British Sunday Times published an interview by Scottish historian Neil Ferguson with Henry Kissinger, a veteran politician and former Secretary of State, which covered a wide range of international issues.
The interview also included Kissinger’s views on international leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, US President Joe Biden and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Before entering the heart of the interview, Ferguson, who is currently a researcher at the Hoover Institution, began by saying that Kissinger turned 99 on May 27 and was born in Germany.
He was ten years old when Nazi leader Adolf Hitler came to power. Five years later, he and his family immigrated to the United States and landed in New York City.
Ferguson says that Kissinger, despite his old age, has not lost his “supernatural” ability to think strategically and seek solutions to unsolvable problems, the intellectual power “that distinguishes him from other professors and foreign policy figures of his generation and future generations. he does”.
To illustrate this, the Scottish historian explains that while personally writing Kissinger’s biography, the veteran American politician published not only one but two books, the first on artificial intelligence and the second on a collection. . From 6 case studies on translating the lives of those who were driving. The books were written by Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and computer scientist Daniel Hutnellucher.
Although Kissinger walks on a stick, leans on a phone and speaks more slowly than ever, his mind is as sharp as ever.
Evidence of his ability to anger left and right is not substantiated by the controversy sparked by his short speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on May 23. Kissinger had called on Ukraine to cede large parts of the Donbas and Crimea regions.
Because of this statement, Ukrainian President Zelensky accused Kissinger of violently attacking him in an attempt to appease Russia. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this – according to Ferguson – is that the former US Secretary of State did not say such a thing.
Kissinger, however, believes that there is no doubt that Zelinsky has carried out a “historic mission” in his country’s war against Russia, “and that he comes from a background that has never appeared in the leadership of Ukraine at any point in history.” . ” Shows that the man is a Jew like him.
He added that Zelensky was an “accidental president” who “faced Russia’s attempt to return Ukraine to a state of dependence and to gather its state and international public opinion behind it in a historic way.” He described it as a great achievement.
In the interview, the Scottish historian then asked him what he thought of Zelensky’s opponent, Russian President Putin, with whom Kissinger had met several times, dating back to the early 1990s when Kissinger was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.
Kissinger says he thought Putin was a “profound analyst” based on the view that Russia was a mystical entity that coexisted with “spiritual effort” despite 11 time zones.
He adds that Ukraine has always – in this respect – played a special role, but this idea contradicts periods of Ukrainian history that distinguish it from the Russian Empire.
He goes on to say that Putin’s problem is that he is “the head of a deteriorating country” and “has lost the ability to understand the seriousness of the crisis,” noting that he has no excuse for what he has done this year.
Asked whether NATO was able to attract Finland and Sweden to its membership, Kissinger said NATO was the right alliance against “the invading Russia, which was a major threat to world peace.”
The veteran politician claims that NATO has become an institution that reflects European-American cooperation “in an almost unique way”, adding that it is important to maintain it and “it is important to understand that fundamental issues “It will happen in relations. The Middle East and Asia with Europe and the United States.”
Kissinger believes that NATO members, as an entity, do not necessarily have compatible views. “They came together about Ukraine because it reminded us of these threats,” Kissinger said. [القديمة] “They did a great job and I support what they did.”
Regarding China, he said that the country is playing the same role as the Soviet Union and stressed that the world is now on the brink of a Cold War.
He stressed that the two countries – the United States and China – with their ability to impose their hegemony on the world, “face each other as the biggest competitors and are governed by incompatible local systems. “It means that war leads to war. The overthrow of civilization, if not its destruction.”
However, as Kissinger puts it, the two superpowers “have a minimal common commitment to prevent a catastrophic collision.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
