Henry Kissinger turns 100 years old in a few days. Of course, he had developed a bad public image in the 1970’s as being a “war hawk” or “warmonger”, and as being generally manipulative. That, however, very closely reflects the zeitgeist of that era. I don’t feel that this reputation was at all deserved. He is a brilliant guy, a former brilliant student, who was more influential and effective as Secretary of State than anybody excepting (perhaps) George Marshall. He certainly appears to have a clear conscience. He even more certainly had a huge, one might even say “outsized”, influence upon the drift of history during the second half of the twentieth century. What are your thoughts about the “century of Kissinger”, and his role in it?
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