Henry A. Kissinger Quotes About Today
-
Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government
→ -
What is applicable is to understand that first of all China has undergone a huge revolution in the last years. Anyone who saw China as I did in 1971 - and for that matter even in 1979, because not much had changed between 1971 and 1979 - and sees China today, knows one is in a different economic system.
→ -
There are some people who think that at some time in the future, China may challenge us for supremacy in the Pacific, and therefore, what do we do today to prevent that? And you, of course, will say that we will try to thwart any economic progress in China. If we engaged in such a policy, we would turn a billion-plus people into nationalist opponents of the United States.
→ -
People are now starting to explain the Cold War. Even in the crises at that time the survival of millions of people was at stake. And we (the USA) had to threaten the other super power with retaliation to prevent it from doing something to us. Today we live in a world in which a lot of things are in flux. That creates a lot of fear. But it is also a time of great opportunity. And I would call on today's statesmen to not allow their thinking to be directed by fear.
→ -
The Chinese military budget today is officially listed as, I think, about $15 billion. But even if you double it, that's only a tenth of ours. So the possibility of China challenging the United States for the next ten years over the Pacific is next to zero. There could be a conflict between us and China over Taiwan, but I think that, too, will not occur with the proper policies on both sides.
→
Related Authors
-
Barack Obama 44th U.S. President -
Alexander Haig Former United States Secretary of State -
Zhou Enlai Diplomat -
Fareed Zakaria Journalist -
-
Richard M. Nixon 37th U.S. President -
Niall Ferguson Historian -
William Westmoreland Military Commander -
John McCain United States Senator -
Zbigniew Brzezinski Former National Security Advisor -
George W. Bush 43rd U.S. President -
Robert McNamara Former United States Secretary of Defense -
Christopher Hitchens Author -
Salvador Allende Former President of Chile -
Helmut Schmidt Former Chancellor of Germany -
William J. Clinton 42nd U.S. President -
Jimmy Carter 39th U.S. President -
George P. Shultz Former United States Secretary of State -
Gerald R. Ford 38th U.S. President -
David Rockefeller Banker