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It is one of history's ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.

Henry A. Kissinger

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Henry A. Kissinger
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The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it.
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Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.
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In a nuclear war, even if one side were to come out ahead by systems analytical standards, both sides would be so weakened, that it would - they would be in the position of Europe after the two World Wars.
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The convictions that leaders have formed before reaching high office are the intellectual capital they will consume as long as they continue in office.
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In the 1960s, I would have considered China with its CPC an ideologically more dynamic country than the Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union was strategically more threatening.
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The first reactions are often instinctive. So one of the first things we said was that the Chinese had no right to inspect the plane, and that we had a sovereign right to. I don't know what the legal position is, but it was surely psychologically absolutely the unwise thing to do.
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Power is the great aphrodisiac.
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If we do what is necessary, all the odds are in our favor.
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90% of politicians give the other 10% a bad name.
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Realism in foreign policy is made up of a clear set of values, since difficult foreign policy decisions are often decided with the narrowest of majorities. Without any sense of what is right and wrong, one would drown in a flood of difficult and pragmatic decisions.
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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.
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Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.
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The greatest need of the contemporary international system is an agreed concept of order.
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The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes.
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One thing I don't want around me is a military intellectual. I don't have to worry about you on that score.
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Does anyone have any questions for my answers?
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Baseball is the most intellectual game because most of the action goes on in your head.
Henry A. Kissinger
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I have always expressed respect for those people who make public declarations.
Henry A. Kissinger
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I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.
Henry A. Kissinger
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A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.
Henry A. Kissinger