Partnership with National Security advisor kissinger. Im going to share the screen so we could look at powerpoint pictures as we go through the sequence. First of all, here is president nixon himself. He had been born in 1913. He grew up in a lower middleclass family in california. To dukeated and went University Law school. This was in the worst years of the great depression. The mid1930s. During the Second World War he joined the u. S. Navy. Nixonuld see a photo of as an officer. He served with distinction in the pacific. Noncombat but as a logistics expert. Getting the right equipment to the right place at the right time. He was given a series of commendation from his commanders. He was also a very talented poker player. He had a great ability to bluff. That is a valuable quality in someone who is undertaking policy at a highlevel. In 1946 after he had been demobilized from the navy, he ran for congress. On the right, you could see a poster from his first election campaign. In 1946, a lot of world war ii veterans elected into congress and senate, one of them was nixon himself. The other was john f. Kennedy. Another is joe mccarthy. His early political career, nixon rose very rapidly through the ranks. He was an anticommunist. He worked hard to understand communism and why briefly during the depression Many Americans had been attracted could to communism. He was dedicated to rooting out communism from high places. He understood it was a good weapon to use against the democrats. A characteristic of republican rhetoric in the 40s was the insertion that in the state department and other parts of the government, communists were at work and truman knew they were at work. He ran successfully for a seat in the senate in 1950. Red baiting his opponent. He was chosen by eisenhower to be his running mate. Between 1946 and 1952. He goes from a congressman to Vice President ial candidate. Because he won the the election of 1952, he was inaugurated as Vice President. That is the job he held throughout the eisenhower administration. In 1960 he was the republican candidate in the election against john f. Kennedy. This was an election that he lost very narrowly. One of the closest elections of the 20th century. To make matters worse, he lost again in 1962 when he ran unsuccessfully for the governorship of california. In 1962, when he was in his late 40s it seemed as though is political career had now come to an end. He went back into relative obscurity of the life of a new york lawyer. Barrysastrous failure of goldwater in the president ial campaign of 1964, he was unsuccessful in running against lyndon johnson. It gave nixon the opportunity to revive his political career. , won68 he was back again the republican nomination and won the election against hubert humphrey. By then, the vietnam war was in full swing. This was the election in which johnson had been entitled to run but withdrew from the race after he had been challenged inside the democratic primaries by Jean Mccarthy and robert kennedy. Housecomes into the white , inaugurated in 1969. Henry kissinger was the man he chose his National Security advisor. Kissinger had been born 10 years later than nixon. He was born and raised in germany. He loves playing soccer as a kid. Very good in school. He was jewish. His family was jewish. As the nazi persecution of the German JewishCommunity Exit escalated the family eventually took the decision to emigrate. Certainly saved their lives. He was 15 when he came to the United States for the first time. He became a citizen during world war ii. Because he was perfectly fluent person fore was a the american armies fighting in europe. The german counterattack against the americans in the winter of 19441945. Briefly as a private soldier he had the job of organizing a newly liberated town in germany from the nazis. The organizational abilities made his superiors look favorably upon him. When the war finished kissinger went to college, first at hevard and that is where wrote his doctoral citation. Politician atr the austrohungarian empire. He contributed to the pacification of europe at the end of the napoleonic wars of 1815. Kissinger wrote admiringly. He was somebody who perfectly understood the concept and the balance of power and the importance of using hard political realities. In theds we read about influential article. Kissinger was a great believer in balance of power in politics. It has to be subordinated to current political realities. 1950s, kissinger had the faculty appointment at harvardharvard and soon got ten. He published a book when you got Nuclear Weapons use them in a way that prevented an earth destroying apocalypse. He was cautiously optimistic. It was possible to fight a limited nuclear war. This became a bestseller among the policy elite and had kissingers name spread around washington about upandcoming Foreign Policy advisers. During the early 1960s, he was an advisor to nelson rockefeller. A moderate republican. The opposite of Barry Goldwater. In 1968, when nixon approached him with the possibility you might become National Security advisor, he was perfectly well to jump over to nixons camp and sees this marvelous opportunity to become a senior policymaker inside the new nixon white house. Although eisenhower had been president in the 50s, eisenhower was really a very bipartisan politician. That is the first time the republicans had been in the presidency since Herbert Hoover left the office in 1932. There wasnt a big pool of republican officeholders as there were democrats. One of the things nixon and kissinger did together was to revolutionize americas diplomatic posture with respect to two of the other great powers in the world. One was the soviet union. The other was china. The Nuclear Weapons race had been going on ever since the end of world war ii. Tested the russians their Nuclear Weapons for the first time. By 1969, the low population states of the great plains and west were honeycombed with missile silos. So were the great plains of siberia. Both sides gradually realized they had a common motive in trying to reduce the danger of an accidental exchange of weapons. In fact, they had a common interest in preventing nuclear war from ever taking place. The destructiveness was so complete. They reached a condition of mutually assured destruction. They even reach the point of overkill. They could kill each other each others populations many times over. It was time to start rethinking how to understand the arms race. Whether it made any kind of sense. Both sides had already appreciated when they signed the treaty in 1963 that they had a common interest in not testing these weapons in the atmosphere. 1969 they also recognized a common interest in trying to deescalate back from the brink of an accidental war. On the right it shows Neil Armstrong walking on the surface of the moon. This took place in the first year of the Nixon Administration. The summer of 1969. An incredible achievement. People are interested in the world of weapons and military hardware understood perfectly any rocket that could take man to the moon could be packed with Nuclear Warheads and used against the other side. Bmssharacteristics of ic when they are fired into space and they come down at a supersonic speed out of space orbit to attack their targets on the ground. Wrinkle in the weapons by 1968 was what was called the mirv. Warhead,f having one there would be nine or 10 packed into the rocket. They would be fired and dispersed in space. Each would head for a different target. These are the conditions under which nixon decided to approach the soviet union. Here is a cartoon from the time. Paradoxes ofe Nuclear Weapons. Two armies facing each other. Both loaded with these powerful bombs. Used, theunt to be enemy might retaliate. Other side it says do not be used because the enemy right might retaliate. There they are firing archaic weapons because they cant use the most powerful weapon in their arsenal. The characteristics of the Nixon Kissinger style of diplomacy was not to use the regular channels. Not go through the state department and use the professional foreignpolicy staff who were trained to do exactly this kind of work. Instead, they have back channels with the soviet ambassador in d. C. He is a fascinating person. Inbecame soviet ambassador 1962 when kennedy was president. He remained in that job right through 1986. He worked with president kennedy, johnson, nixon, ford, carter, and reagan. Continuity of office overseeing the soviet union inside the usa. Everyone agreed he was charming and populated and incredibly knowledgeable about Foreign Policy affairs. Than throughrather the state department, nixon and kissinger talk about the crucible of data with the soviet premier. He is shown there on the left. Here is nixon talking with him, leaning in to make sure he gets the nuances of the translation right. Himn was able to persuade with the rightness of reducing nuclear arsenals. Each side was spending far too much money on nuclear arsenals. They were increasing the danger of accidental war. They have a mutual interest in deescalating. Negotiations began. The strategic arms litigation. In 1972 it leads to the signing of the salt agreement. One interesting aspect of it t is depicted on the right it shows an antiballistic missile. If the enemy fires its Nuclear Weapons against us, we will surround our cities with defensive missile bases. If our radar shows enemy missiles are coming towards us, we will fire antiballistic missiles which will intercept them and prevent our cities from being destroyed. At first glance that seems like a very good idea. As you know, one of the characteristics of war planning and wargaming during the cold war was to think very carefully about the way in which the enemy would interpret your actions. You have to make sure your intention is understood. The american war planners, especially the negotiators from the treaty said this if we build antiballistic Missile System and surround our cities, what the enemy might think is this. That is a sign the americans are planning the first strike against us. Retaliate they only have to shoot down our counterstrike. In the words, the fact they are is anng abm systems ominous sign that they are planning to strike us first. That is dangerous because it escalates the mutual perception of threat so that the question becomes how do we reduce the danger that this is what they will think . , itanswer they came up with was in the treaty was this we are not going to build the systems. We will leave ourselves defenseless. By leaving ourselves defenseless, we are making it less likely that our intentions will be misunderstood. That if they launch against us, we will be utterly destroyed. We know we could launch against them before our missiles hit us. Ascends to the principle of making itself defenseless as a way of reducing the danger of nuclear war. It is a complicated way of thinking but it does have internal logic that proved largely persuasive to policymakers on all sides. It was at a summit meeting in 1972 that the soviet and american leaders signed the treaty. The u. S. Senate also endorsed it. In america people were horrified by this. Anticommunist, the toughest of the anticommunists like perry goldwater thought this was dismayed. Goldwaters view was they wont ascend to it unless they believe it helps them. If it helps them a cant possibly help us as well. There were people who still said whatever one side gains, the other side must lose. This is a condition in which both sides could gain because both could be reassured of the reduction of danger. Another thing that made it particularly painful was the year before nixon came into the checks in 1968 , just like the hungarians had attempted to establish a little distance between themselves and soviet control. Was in check government no way hostile to the soviet union. Responded byians ofding tanks, this was one the many traumatic events of 1968. Anticommunist throughout america, it was one more sign the soviet union is utterly untrustworthy. Nixon had got such a strong anticommunist credentials from his earlier career, we can do this in the first place. If democratic president s tried it almost certainly wouldve won the united opposition of the republicans. Nixon understood he was in a his democratic rivals probably could not have accomplished this. Another development of the first Nixon Administration was the diplomatic opening to china. Zedong successfully completed the Chinese Revolution in 1949. There was the use of chinese troops in the early days of the againstar when attacks the chinanorth korea border were moving north in north korea. Earlyn 1949 and the 1970s, the United States didnt have diplomatic relations with communist china, the peoples republic of china at all. United states continued to recognize taiwan. That is the offshore island in the pacific to which they had led the retreat of nationalist chinese at the end of the Chinese Revolution in 1949. On the few occasions when an were doingp to let this, diplomat, they are having formal talks. By 1970 and 71 nixon is thinking extremely odd about the situation. Nixon wrote an article in the journal of Foreign Affairs which was published in 1967 in which he said this. View, we cannot afford to leave china forever outside the family of nations. By 1969, 1970 it was becoming clear that communism was not monolithic. There were differences between russian communists and chinese communist. The difference is again between them and vietnamese communists. It was possible to see the difference between the various brands of national communists. One of the central principles of Foreign Policy is the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Begander incidents to take place between china and the soviet union, nixon and kissinger understood if we could be friends with china or achieve diplomatic normalization, that will add pressure on the soviet union. Want to give them an easy target. In 1946,o way back eventually the soviet system is going to fold up because of its own imperfections. A little badge. Here is mao in the foreground. The people in the background are karl marx, frederick engels, lenin, and stalin. In this classic lineage of communism. The next of the great leaders. Inside china it had been incredibly turbulent between the Chinese Revolution and the arrival of nixon and kissinger. Perhaps the most catastrophic policy decision ever made was the greatly forward. Towas the attempt by china increase Grain Production in the chinese countryside and also go through a crash course in industrialization. What actually happened was the peasant farms were forcibly collectivized. You could see people in the photograph working on farms. Hope was the rationalization and efficiency of largescale farms would lead to a sharp increase in Grain Production. What actually happened was they wound up being taken away from them. Formsorked hard on such then they wouldve done if they had been working on lands of their own. Productivity went down very sharply. Another aspect of the greatly forward was the decision to have a crash course of industrialization. System that marxs is predicated on an industrial society. That the industrial working class would be revolutionaries. People were encouraged to make homemade furnaces. To bring all of their metal hope china could become a mass producer of steel goods. The technology could not be done on a homemade scale. This was another policy initiative which failed drastically. Just to give you an idea of the scale of calamity, the famine that began in china is regarded by most people as the single worst famine in the entire history of the world. Literally millions, perhaps as many as 50 Million People died of starvation between 1959 and 1961. One of the many crazy policies pursued in the greatly forward was for pests, rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. Theres something to be said about the first three, when the have to kill sparrows, the result was the natural predator against insects disappeared. The killing of the sparrows was almost immediately followed by a great plague of locusts, the damage was on a biblical scale. Luckily there was the calling off of this crazy program. The chineseike is death rate. It is an and upward jump. It was a sharp rise in the birth rate. That led to the chinese one child policy, that has been highly controversial human rights issue. The other policy amo undertook was the cultural revolution. The Chinese Revolution was becoming the rock retires. There was a lot of corruption inside the government offices. Ofwas to restore a sense revolution inside china. The booklet of his own sayings. Unsettlebout trying to the stability. Which china begun to achieve by the 1960s. The intellectuals. People had been accused of intellectual deviancy from the strict path of maoist communism are being denounced. They could be executed altogether. Also rituals of public shaming been accused of being intellectuals. They stood on chairs in public squares denouncing them for their decency deviancy from the maoist policy. When late summer and early fall came about, and enormous urban depopulation took place. Chinese officials no longer worked in agriculture and were forced to go work in the harvest with the memory of the routes for which they become. Nearly all books from the west were banned unless they were books of marxist orthodoxy. The revolution was also remembered as a horrible period of regression and mass persecution. As i mentioned earlier, this is along the boundary between the soviet union and china. It is becoming clear that although china and the soviet union are both communist nations , and mao admired stalin. The policy and political differences are opening up between them. It offers an opportunity for american Foreign Policy makers to create some distance. One of the first times when the distance between the usa and china debate began to diminish was when the American Table Tennis Team went to visit china in 1971. Players of the american were talking with some of the chinese players. The chinese political handlers interpreted this as a diplomatic imbalance. They invited the americans to get on a plane. The chinese were much better at pingpong. The result was a massive win for the chinese team. Team apparently said they had never seen the game played at this level and they were defeated. A little crack in the armor. A moment suggesting perhaps it will be possible for us. What happened later that year was Henry Kissinger went secretly to china to talk with mao. Here they are meeting. This is a reference back to marco polo, the european adventurer who visited china centuries previously on one of the first occasions where china started to be opened up to the western world. Kissinger was on a visit to pakistan. He claims to have fallen ill. Him as else impersonated he recuperated. Secretly he flew off to china and got into negotiations with mao. Restoring normal diplomatic relations between the two and potentially regarding china rather than taiwan at the united nations. Everybody in the state department was frozen out from it. The secretary of state didnt even know this had happened. Worked. By mao toe given kissinger open the way for a visit by nixon. It really would be hard to overstate the shock photographs like this had when they first appeared in the American Press in 1972. Richard nixon, his horror life had been based upon his whole life and been based upon this, shaking hands and making toast with the leader of communist china. It had a revolutionary affect upon diplomatic relations. On the same journey he visited china and the soviet union. In 1970 two. Is was a president ial election year. He understood he was likely possible to get mileage out of these two diplomatic accomplishments. Syncing up his reelection campaign. He won the nomination and reelection overwhelmingly in 1972. Anticommunist like Barry Goldwater and ronald reagan, the governor of california were horrified by this. They got was a betrayal of longstanding principles. This was the agreement that was made. From that time on china and the United States moved towards the normalization of diplomatic relations. Trading relations were strung up between the two. This is probably the most iconic photograph taken from that visit. One third of the families in america have probably been to the great wall of china. A photo like this had been unimaginable since before world war ii. The dignitaries from the chinese and American Government on top of the great wall. Really spectacular. In 1973 the war between israel and its arab neighbors, something we will get into more detail led to the first gasoline crisis of the 1970s, when the price went up very sharply. Henry kissinger again was right in the midst of attempting to negotiate Diplomatic Solutions of this crisis. He developed a technique called shadow diplomacy. They were going constantly back and forth between israel and egypt. The egyptian leader, making periodic trips to the to saudi arabia to speak to the king there. This time exhausting back and forth. The treaty was going to be signed into administration between egypt and israel. Something that was unimaginable the few years previously. This is a typical cartoon from the time. It could be interpreted in various ways. Like a bomb. St is it is very volatile, it is about to blow up. Suddenly, like a genie coming out, out pops Henry Kissinger to defuse the bomb. That is the idea behind this. The thing about kissinger is he became very famous. Normally the secretary of state isnt someone of particular interest, except the people who are very interested in politics. Kissinger became a celebrity. To learn the language and spoke it fluently. He almost sounded like a cartoon german. Interviewed, people asked him about his girlfriend. Just to give you an idea, here the cover of Newsweek Magazine from june, 1974. This was at a time when nixons fortunes he is within a month two fromam month or resigning because of watergate. Tos is comparing kissinger superman. In the picture on the right, this is a picture from the political left. The Antiwar Movement, kissinger was a devil figure. When nixon and kissinger came into office in 1969, it was clear the americans had got to find a way out of the war. It wasAntiwar Movement, absolutely disgraceful that four more years had gone by before the final american disengagement. Everyone of those years more americans were killed. Of japanesesands people had died. In cambodia had widen the scope of the war. That set of the cambodian genocide. That could be laid at kissingers door. It implied he was a figure behind the nation. On the contrary, he was extremely controversial. Whory significant one played a big role in the reorientation of american Foreign Policy at that time. Lets leave the pictures and move on to the next stage of todays class. The discussion of kissingers memoirs. If you want to know every single detail of kissingers work, sometimes literally hourbyhour, this is the book you could read. It is full of great stuff. Nevertheless it is fascinating. Lets look at some of the things he talks about. Particularly describing what it is like to be in the position he found himself in. I wonder if you could go First Talking about the relationship between kissinger with the Washington Press corps . Throughout the reading i would say kissinger makes it that the press could be your friend and enemy if you hold political office. On one hand there is an anecdote about lyndon b. Johnson saying the press is saying good things about a member of your cabinet you are weak and you should fire them immediately. I thought that was pretty funny. A really good example of people who are lowering the administration, the press could serve as a good way by giving them credit for things that go well and shifting blame for things that dont go well. Also the sense that the press is at odds with the u. S. Government. They are always trying to find out what is going on in the background. Kissinger will talk pretty favorably about them in terms of the intelligence and the knowledge of the people in the press court. On page 21 at the top of the says i too was ignorant of the way washington was governed when i announced my new permission position that i would have no dealings with the press. Senior members of the press began calling. Then i had read or listen to for years and was now meeting at the firsthand. , they were toman become personal friends. He goes on to say i had the impression that he had ascended judgment. We then know more about Foreign Policy than he himself did or any other person in the cabinet did. Litman had been famous in america since world war i. Incredible about of accumulated experience. Pagee very bottom of the could you talk about the journalist motives . He must woo and flatter the officials because he will be deprived of information. Will lose his objectivity. A lovehate relationship is inevitable. Prof. Allitt that is the point, isnt it . Kissinger quickly realizes their job is to exploit me. My job is to exploit them right back. You have all had the experience of reading a newspaper story that are so glowing. Youre suspecting there has been some sort of informal quid pro quo. Policymakers say if you Say Something nice about me i will give you access to the next set of secrets. Having made that initial declaration, kissinger realizes d. C. It wont work here in he has that in sample insightful summary that is also calibrated by physicians of power. James, why did nixon choose William Rogers . What consequences . Rogers had a previous relationship. Asy knew each other lawyers in private practice. They worked in the eisenhower administration. Nixons main idea behind appointing rogers was the Foreign Policy experience. Nixon saw that as a great plus. Would notogers enforce the will of the state department and that Foreign Policy will largely be controlled by the security council. Then said a quote from policy direction would remain within the white house. The consequences of this were it enhanceger said the state department and the press. It backfired on nixon. Rogers oftentimes would not defend nixons policies with the attitude of congress and the attitude within the press. Often times they support policies that contradicted nixon stances. There was a power struggle that in ensued. Very little cooperation. Nixon would exclude rogers from negotiations. He had a lot of negotiations that went through the white house. They were back channels for diplomacy became the standard for interacting with foreign governments. He did not keep rogers in the loop. Kissinger took the trip to china that we talked about. Rogers didnt know about that until kissinger was already on the way. Things. Ld say different they would contradict each other. Kissinger says the soviet union was even able to foresee that, they were not on the same page. At one point kissinger says ideally the theytary of state if are not the right kind of personal relationship it is mutual and supported. This is where as he gets into more details about his relationship inside the theynment, he admits that get the better of them. He exploited nixons weakness. Look at the middle of page 31 where it says the relationship was bound to deteriorate. The relationship was found to deteriorate. He wouldve understood that we wouldve served the country best buy opposing our differences and reinforcing each other. Tensionslated implemented. All of our attempts to meet regularly floundered. , iers was too brown proud was too arrogant, you couldve saved need this and bureaucratic headaches. Prof. Allitt my problem was excessive arrogance. Nobody who has studied him ever disagreed with that judgment. You could make the case even more strongly than he did himself. And the broaddom mindedness to say i need to keep rogers informed. We need to work together. The mutual suspicions of that atmosphere of the Administration Made it impossible. What qualities made him a quality secretary of defense . I think he has a number of really good qualities. Starting, he had a lot of experience. He worked for approximately 16 years under the senate subcommittee. It meant he also knew a lot of people in washington. He had a lot of Strong Networks and powerful connections. He was also extremely intelligent and kissinger said he was good at solving daily problems. On the likes of military tactician side. He was unwilling to give up an advantage when he saw one. Kissinger said on page 33 he did not believe in fighting losing battles. On page 32, he loved to win but unlike nixon derive no great pleasure from seeing someone else lose. Rigidness fors a what he is believing in. A sobering aspect of humility and he is she wanted to win but he understood when people lost. He also constantly look for ways to circumvent challenges that came up. He was very cunning. On page 33 he said it was safest to begin a battle by closing off as far as possible. All of the bureaucratic or congressional escape routes. He kind of box them into a corner. If youre trying to get something done, make sure he would look at something with a new angle. Lastly, he was also very much publicly thespect authority of the office of president. Though in private he was more than willing to offer dissenting opinions. A decision had been made and it was finalized, he was always willing to stand behind it if you had a unity. Prof. Allitt good, that is right. He is one of the few people who kissinger gave a high measure of praise. Theres a line there just after the one you read where it says buoyancy and good humor. Made working with him as a satisfying as a code on occasion. He was a very talented roots totic he took getting his own way. About the joint chiefs of staff. By were they demoralized 1969. The morale issues within the joint chiefs of staff and the issues of psychological of the war. Onwas easy for them to focus strategic aspects of war. They are placed on the concepts of fundamental values. He discussed this well on page 34. Strategies and ultimately conducting a war they did not understand. Vulnerable were too by the ideas. Traditional tactics that were not compatible with this relationship. Leaders would acquiesce to these ideas. This would just create further division and we can morale even more. There were several internal movees and they wanted to to new systems. There was no real cause behind it. Remedy theyas to had been making throughout the 60s. Thaty, kissinger described we were disappointed in both members of the joint chiefs and himself by feeling these challenges. Kissinger describes that quote anyone of which he was able to defend was the impact that he could not really justify himself. Prof. Allitt that is right. He is one of those world war ii veterans who has gone on to a very distinguished career in military life. He has never been able to capture the euphoria of victory in world war ii. That came along with the danger. Here is a victory and that a career. Even more so at the end, victory was not an option. It was a limited war. It was the most demoralizing time. The Antiwar Movement at home made it more popular. Many were fighting reluctantly. The army itself has been taken over by these policy wonks called a systems analyst. They didnt really believe in it. Kissinger says they didnt quite have the strength and mind to stand up against the transformation that was taking place around us. It was that point where kissinger says the armys defiant against the civil war authorities. It is true in the case of douglas macarthur. Iny were willing to fall with the civil war authorities. This is the case in point. Contrary to some of the public mythology, they rarely challenge the commanderinchief. Out as well. Comes they understood perfectly well. Aroundsensus formed containment. Late 1940s and late 1960s. Nextcould ask the question, redus this package passage on page 62 about what is going on with the concept of the policy of containment. Its obvious containment was flawed in three ways. Our military conception with the balance of power and its corollary with the postwar with its conquest and to address the nuclear imbalance. He is saying prof. Allitt he is saying effective atasnt preventing the soviet development of a Nuclear Weapon which consolidated the soviet position. The relative strength was never greater. Could you read the next one . The nature of military technology have the power to no longer be thought of. Nuclear weapons were so cataclysmic that as arsenals improve they showed to be less and less useful. Prof. Allitt thirdly. It could never be an adequate response with the ideologies. It transformed into conflicts between philosophies and posed a challenge to the balance of power with the domestic people. Prof. Allitt could you paraphrase that one . He sang the containment he outlined back in the early 1950s or late 1940s would not work now because these conflicts simply arent just wars anymore. In germany it was a direct conquest of territories. Conflict more of a ideologies like communism versus capitalism, essentially. Prof. Allitt are they saying it wouldve worked better if the adversary had been the British Empire for example where the values were comparable . Sure if i would say that. Itf. Allitt let me just put to you this way. War so the vietnam unpopular . It was containment action. Goal. Re was no end they didnt want to push forward to explore from there. Fromwanted to prevent them invading south vietnam. It because itis doesnt meet the Psychological Task . It is not gratifying on the everlasting Holding Action . There issnt seem like an end goal insight they are fighting a war that seems unwinnable, essentially. Prof. Allitt each american in vietnam was far lower than the incentives of each vietnamese person. Exactly. At this point isnt really good enough. They need to start thinking about a new way of going about it. Does kissinger strike between morality and power considerations . Presents himself as pretty ethical. And hes less evidence refused to hire people in prominent positions in the government. Standard of merit within his administration. When nixon is being elected . Kissinger looks at him and says these guys are not good enough. Yes. He wanted to test his own. He is selfaware that he is pretty opinionated. He wanted to test that against the most intelligent men and women he could find. Exactly translate in his respect of the chain of command. He realizes in order to be an ,ffective secretary of state you need a strong connection with the president. Ofrecognizes a failure previous secretaries of state that have competed with the president and lost influence. Prof. Allitt let me stop you there. Im picking not so much of his personal physician as his policy position. The role of morality in the actual policy . Let me ask you to read us a passage on page 55. Have you got that . Look at the first four full paragraph and start there. If history teaches us anything it is that there could be more peace on equilibrium. That nothingally should define its choices about and must makes sacrifices meaningful. Prof. Allitt good. Could you paraphrase that . I think he is basically saying that in decisions of leaders they have to have some sense of moral judgment. If they have a position of power, they need to check that power. They are going to the same things, not just for themselves making that decision. Prof. Allitt you inherit a situation. Things happen and youve got to respond. You cant respond in abstract. You have to respond in the world situation right now. Sometimes that tempts you to do things like the way in which the allies didnt come to rescue poland in world war ii for example. You could bemean completely contextualized of moral questions. Carry on from where you got to. The willingness to walk this fine line. Between anyfference outside perception of morality. In terms of thinks absolute. For him, right and wrong are defined in their perfection. Political leaders do not have this luxury. Inherently and morally imperfect. Morality cannot be participated without it. Keep going . Prof. Allitt yes. This is the reasoning behind the masking. Prof. Allitt that is right. Themselves in a position of having to answer questions like this. Shall i use this in the knowledgeable use it will kill 100,000 people . Sometimes the answer will be yes. Even though it is hard to imagine a philosopher answering the question is it justifiable to use a bomb that kills 100,000 people. He is making the comparison between philosophers who look at these questions and statesmen in context. He is also saying even the politician cant be completely oblivious of moral context. He has got to be aware of many more factors thinking about these things in the abstract. We look at that example when truman could make could justify the use of the atom bomb and claim that it would abbreviate the war from killing one group of people and save the lives of many more. Kissinger is harking back to that point. He is reflecting on the fact that he comes from academic life where in this respect only, he was an academic history professor who spent his time teaching about it, thinking about it, speculating about principles. Easy, calm, safe. Suddenly he is pitched into a world where this terrifying wars going on. Terrifying war in vietnam is going on. Potentially Nuclear Exchanges are going on and he has to make decisions. Yes to get clarence. What is permissible for me to do and what must i absolutely not do . I think that paragraph on 55 is putting a huge red circle around. I guess you will see the papers later on. Conditions used as the next demonstration began . They were very broad. Kissinger saw the United States infraction. He said the Nixon Administration was the first to conduct Foreign Policy without a nationally incentive. Different sanctions different factions presented the Nixon Administration with a host of problems, including Foreign Policy. Kissinger saw the world differently. Confrontation and uncertainties were being played out for the first time on a global scale. Was when alleriod kinds were interacting and mass media fostered uncertainty. Directing and in that context, i think kissinger makes it clear that he thinks a world had more decisions that needed to happen. The United States cannot be fully responsible for holding up the entire noncommunist world. Instead you would need to cultivate relationships, meaningful and effective relationships with other noncommunist powers throughout the global sphere. He thinks that ending the war was the utmost priority. Meetsxt administration the lay a foundation of a longterm strategy. Changing the doctrine of containment. Secondly, he thought that we needed to manage a global bribery with the soviet union a global rivalry with the soviet union. It was casting a dark shadow over the entire globe. He mentions reinvigorating our relationship with democracies. Othert know that he sees democracies this way. He said we needed to coop relationships of them in order to not be the single threshold for noncommunist countries within the entire world. He says both. He says its very important that we cultivate these other nations and they join us in leadership. Oh what he is thinking about is france, west germany, britain and japan. So he is reaching out to them, but he is also excluding the people in the area around him. One of the implications of sharing the leadership is having less power. Here is an area where we cannot get our own way. Although he was an incredibly talented negotiator, he also found the middle east in a maddening place. The various leaders were even more stubborn than he was. A lot of things going on there for him to unravel. On the one hand he says, its not enough to be dealing with the immediate crisis as a,. We also have a longterm approach to the middle distance into the future if we are going to create conditions of greater stability. This is a chronic problem in Foreign Policymaking. What is the appropriate timescale for thinking . Democracy,rica is a its thinking about the next election. That every member of the houses up for reelection every two year, every president is up every four years. To get them to think about the issue that will play out over 100 years is impossible. That is the great problem with the politics and climate change. Climate change happens gradually. People who suffer most from the warming planet have not even been born yet. So its hard to diapered Political Capital and resources into that and problems like that when there are day by day problems right in front of us. Did you get a good impression of him . Are inoral judgment terms of his personality generally . Are it he knew about him. Did it improve your judgment of him or worsen it . A lot of times he gets a bad rap and i dont know enough about rights to make a judgment. You can see he does care about morality to some degree. He states nominally that there is room for moral judgment reading about kissinger in American History. For reasons of time we need to leave it here, but as the course goes on the will be a lot more. One of the things we will be glancing at later on is after ford,replacing general kept hoping he would be called back to some Senior Administrative point. But each republican president would that kissinger and thought about it and then say, no, i dont think we will. So he has written some great books and has never been allowed back into the centers of power making. You, and i look forward to seeing you all again next week. Inyou can watch lectures history every weekend on American History tv. We take you inside College Classrooms to learn about topics ranging from the American Revolution to 9 11. That saturday at 8 00 p. M. And midnight eastern on cspan3. Up next on American History tv, novelist, historian and journalist kevin baker discusses his book. How a nation of dreamers, immigrants and tinkerers change the world. In an event hosted by keep kia Cape Cod Museum on the green, he describes a he thinks of the key factors in the nations innovative spirit. I want to think our guest tonight, kevin baker. He lives in new york city, correct . Raised inas massachusetts, so you has experience with being a massachusetts person. Really looking forward to tonight and again, keeping an i on the weather behind me, but would you welcome kevin baker. Mr. Baker thank you for having me. Great to be on the cape, if only virtually,