Henry Kissinger, a man whose life was extraordinary by any definition, and whose career and policies were both 'pivotal' and 'polarising', as a BBC obituarist put it, passed away at the end of November, at the age of 100. Even that number seems strategically calculated, like everything else about the man. In death, as in life, he achieved a landmark before leaving.
The Internet is full of assessments of the man and his life; I have no intention to add to their number. For a few years in New York, I knew him well enough to be on first-name terms with him. I was still amazed how 'Henry', the architect of the US tilt towards Pakistan in 1971, could morph with such insouciance into the most prominent advocate of closer US-India relations three decades later. I somewhat cattily remarked on X (formerly Twitter) that it helps to live long enough so people don't remember your earlier statements and actions. But of course, we in India have never forgotten his stand then -- and subsequent revelations of the contempt and distaste for India and Indians expressed by President Nixon in Kissinger's company have only underscored the unpleasantness we had to put up with from that duo, at a vital time in our national existence.
But all that, too, is sufficiently written about. So are his amoral faith in realpolitik, and (not unrelated) his close relations with, and deep understanding of, Communist China. What is not, surprisingly, discussed is another subject I would like to address today. With the horrors of Gaza completely eclipsing the war in Ukraine, the one current subject on which Kissinger left us some invaluable advice is my theme in this column.
Way back in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea and the beginnings of the conflict in the Donbas........