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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.

Henry A. Kissinger

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Henry A. Kissinger
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There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
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President Nixon in his inaugural address indicated that he wanted an era of negotiation. Our reasoning was that whatever our ideological differences, whatever our geopolitical differences, we were condemned to coexistence by nuclear weapons.
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When I became security advisor, I became familiar with the so-called SIOP war plans, I called in Secretary McNamara and asked him what they were hiding from me, because I couldn't believe that the National policy would foresee such a level of destructiveness.
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Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided more often it is a crisis invited.
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Why should we flagellate ourselves for what the Cambodians did to each other?
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A diamond is a chunk of coal that is made good under pressure.
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I don't think that that's a desirable option for us. Besides, it wouldn't work, because there are too many other countries that are willing to work economically with China. But I don't think the basic relationship depends on economics. It depends on a political understanding of what is required for peace in Asia.
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In my life, I have almost always been on the side of active foreign policy. But you need to know with whom you are cooperating. You need reliable partners.
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In my view, there's no doubt that the Soviets had infinitely greater trouble holding their structure together than we did.
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I don't read books, I write them.
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Democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.
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Does anyone have any questions for my answers?
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The greatest need of the contemporary international system is an agreed concept of order.
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China is a country with a record of continuous self-government going back 4,000 years, the only society that has achieved this. One must start with the assumption that they must have learnt something about the requirements for survival, and it is not always to be assumed that we know it better than they do.
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Donald Trump is a phenomenon that foreign countries haven't seen.
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It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
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We must learn to distinguish morality from moralizing.
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History is not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself what situations are in fact comparable.
Henry A. Kissinger
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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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