10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 | Back In TIME
Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State known for his realist approach to foreign policy during the Nixon and Ford administrations, has died. He was 100.
Transcript
00:00 Dr. Henry Kissinger was the U.S. 56th Secretary of State under President Nixon and Ford.
00:29 He's now chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm, and he's
00:33 written a new book on China.
00:35 Today, he's answering ten questions from Time magazine.
00:38 Dr. Kissinger, welcome.
00:40 Thank you.
00:41 Should America be afraid of China?
00:44 America should understand China and think about China, but it need not be afraid of China.
00:52 Can you briefly explain the idea you have of a Pacific community?
00:56 China and the United States are now in part afraid of certain tendencies in each other.
01:03 So therefore, I think we should find common projects on which we can work together that
01:10 create a sense of cooperation and community.
01:15 Now, a lot of people might believe that the Americans will not likely be the aggressors
01:21 in this situation.
01:22 It will be the Chinese.
01:24 How would you respond to that?
01:25 I want to emphasize this.
01:27 If our fundamental interests are challenged, we will defend ourselves and we will resist.
01:34 But I ask myself, when I look at World War I, if the statesmen that decided to go to
01:42 World War I had known what the world would look like two years after that war, would
01:49 they not have made another effort to find a more peaceful solution?
01:55 We are in that position with China.
01:58 We can let things drift in a competitive relationship all over the world.
02:07 Or we can, on both sides, make an effort to see whether a parallel evolution is possible.
02:18 Now, on other matters, do you feel optimistic about the developments in the so-called Arab
02:23 Spring?
02:24 It's a tremendous historical event that the people in these countries are asserting a
02:30 claim to participation in government.
02:34 But the history of revolution shows that the first outburst of the revolution is a coming
02:41 together of various resentments that don't necessarily agree with each other.
02:48 After the first outburst, the challenge is how to sort out these various resentments
02:54 and establish a common direction.
02:58 That is why, almost invariably in the history of revolutions, the first group of revolutionaries
03:04 get overtaken by some other groups.
03:09 So the challenge we have now is to see how we can contribute to a democratic revolution
03:17 that is in the first scene of the first act of a five-act play.
03:24 It's been said that the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court because
03:28 former secretaries of state such as yourself and others might face prosecution under its
03:33 auspices.
03:34 Do you believe this is true?
03:36 The reason we are not a member of the International Criminal Court has a better justification
03:45 than the fear that secretaries of state would be put before the Criminal Court.
03:52 The reason is that this is left to prosecutors that are drawn from a variety of countries
04:03 and very often cannot understand what the issues are.
04:07 And then it has started a process where some American officials are reluctant to travel
04:15 abroad for fear that somebody will launch some sort of indictment against them.
04:22 And if that becomes a method by which a kind of diplomacy is conducted, I do not favor
04:30 the International Criminal Court.
04:32 I wrote an article about it many years ago, but not for fear of myself.
04:38 Not even remotely for fear of myself.
04:42 I guess a lot of people will be surprised how dovish you are towards China, which is
04:49 still a communist nation, when the communist Chinese was the sort of propulsive threat
04:55 of the Vietnam War.
04:57 So people might think that you have changed positions on this.
05:01 No.
05:02 I think peace has two elements.
05:07 You can't have peace without equilibrium.
05:11 But you can't have an equilibrium unless people think it is just.
05:15 So you have to work on both problems simultaneously.
05:19 So what you're saying is you advised not pulling out of Vietnam earlier was that there
05:24 was not a perception of...
05:26 We came into office when there were 550,000 Americans already in place.
05:33 You can't turn that off like a television channel.
05:38 Our single objective was that the people of South Vietnam should have the opportunity
05:46 to choose their own fate.
05:49 If that was achieved, we would leave.
05:53 Until it was achieved, we withdrew gradually.
05:56 When the North Vietnamese agreed to a sort of democratic process in the South, then we
06:06 settled.
06:07 That's the essence of it.
06:09 It was not a question of not wanting to withdraw.
06:15 And someday an accurate history of the Vietnam War will be written for the sake of American
06:24 unity.
06:25 Well, it sounds like it frustrates you, the misunderstanding.
06:28 No, but by now I'm used to that.
06:31 More under the bridge by now.
06:34 Dr. Kissinger, thank you so much.
06:35 Thank you.
06:36 Thank you.
06:37 Thank you.
06:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]