Latest Henry A. Kissinger Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• The attitude of the West and of Russia towards a crisis like Ukraine is diametrically different. The West is trying to establish the legality of any established border. For Russia, Ukraine is part of the Russian patrimony. A Russian state was created around Kiev about 1,200 years ago. Ukraine itself has been part of Russia for 500 years, and I would say most Russians consider it part of Russian patrimony. The ideal solution would be to have a Ukraine like Finland or Austria that can be a bridge between these two rather than an outpost.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Attitude, Trying, Different

  Source: www.wbur.org

• I know Hillary Clinton as a person. And as a personal friend, I would say yes, she'd be a good president. But she'd put me under a great conflict of interest if she were a candidate because I intend to support the Republicans.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Support, President, Republican

  Source: www.wbur.org

• The members of the Islamic Staye have cut the throat of an American on television. This is an insult to the United States, which requires that we demonstrate that this is not an act that is free. I would strongly favor a strong attack on ISIS for a period that is related to the murder of the American.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Strong, Islamic, Cutting

  Source: www.wbur.org

• From a geo-strategic point of view, I consider Iran a bigger problem than the Islamic State. ISIS is a group of adventurers with a very aggressive ideology. But they have to conquer more and more territory before they can became a geo-strategic, permanent reality. I think a conflict with ISIS - important as it is - is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Islamic, Thinking, Reality

  Source: www.wbur.org

• One of the hardest things for the president is to distinguish the routine issues that come through from the essential issues that affect the long term, and not to let himself get sucked into the battles of the bureaucracy for marginal issues, and to keep them focused and to keep his mind clear on what the fundamental things are that he has to accomplish.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Long, Mind, Battle

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

• Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Country, Phenomenon

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

• I grew up in Germany during the Nazi period, and I came to this country when I was 15. And then I had to work in a factory because we had no resources. And I went to night school. So, it was not a rational ambition for me to become a world statesman.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Country, School, Ambition

  "America's Senior Statesman". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. September 22, 2016.

• I think an appeal to American idealism and willingness to sacrifice would be an important contribution, because what is happening now in many countries, not yet in the United States, but in many European countries, it's the inability of government to ask for sacrifices of its people.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Country, Sacrifice, Thinking

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• The challenge is whether China as a rising country, the United States as the superpower, can develop a cooperative relationship in this period before nationalism becomes so dominant in China as a substitute for communism, and a kind of self-righteous isolationism in this country that substitutes China for the Soviet Union.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Country, Self, Challenges

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• Historically when there is a rising power like China, it has usually led to confrontations between the rising power and the existing dominant powers. And when you have a shift of the center of gravity of world affairs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, then you have an additional element.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Rising, Elements, World

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• Now we have a whole series of problems - energy, environment, proliferation - which go beyond the nation. And we also know that a conflict between major powers would be a catastrophe for which there is no compensation in anything you can gain.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Gains, Energy, Would Be

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• We cannot give Russia veto over deployment of forces on NATO territory. But we have to understand their particular sensitivities, and, therefore, there should be a dialogue on these issues.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Issues, Russia, Giving

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• I think Vladimir Putin will give up power.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Giving Up, Thinking, Giving

• I do not believe that Putin intends to leave office in a Cold War atmosphere with the United States.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  War, Believe, Office

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• The mistake we make with many people - not just Russia - is that we believe we have the model, and there is a sort of a condescension in our dialogue with other societies, which was especially painful in several administrations to Russia. I think in Russia, the Yeltsin period is not considered a period of great achievement, but a period of corruption and humiliation.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Mistake, Believe, Thinking

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• The Gorbachev period is conceived as an abandonment of historic Russian positions. So this is the framework, in my view, in which Putin operates.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Views, Abandonment, Historic

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• The Russian people, at least the ones I know, have pride in being a Russian. And, therefore, they want to be taken seriously in international affairs.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Taken, Pride, People

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• The problem is Russia is a country that has lost 300 years of its history, in terms of most of what was part of the Russian Empire in Europe, towards Europe, since Peter the Great, has been the territory that is no longer under Russian rule.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Country, Years, Europe

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• We have to be careful in negotiating with Iran that we don't create the impression among the Arab states and the Sunni states that we are working on a condominium between Iran and the United States, because that will panic them and drive them into making their own arrangement.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Iran, United States, Panic

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• Iraq has to be made an international, and not just a national American problem.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Iraq, Problem, Made

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• I was always convinced that decent people in the case of Vietnam, highly intelligent, decent people, got us involved because they had made, in part, a misjudgment about the nature of the communist system and the unity of the communist world and the degree to which the experience of Europe could be repeated in Vietnam.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Intelligent, Europe, People

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• Let me make my point about Vietnam. When the Nixon initiation came into office, there were 550,000 Americans in combat. And ending the war was not a question of turning off a television channel. And so, debating on how we got there and what judgments were made was not going to help us.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  War, Office, Vietnam

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• The important thing is to do the right thing. Then credibility will follow.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Important, Credibility, Important Things

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• We are used to dealing with problems that have a solution and that can be solved in a finite period. But we're at the beginning of a long period of adjustment that does not have a clear-cut terminal point, and in which our wisdom and sophistication and understanding has to be one of the key elements.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Cutting, Keys, Long

  Source: www.nytimes.com

• In Asia, the nation state still is extremely vital, and of course, then in Africa, a whole new pattern is emerging because the states in Africa reflected the preferences of the colonial powers when they were established.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Patterns, Asia, Preference

  Source: www.nytimes.com