Valuetainment - Henry Kissinger Legacy： Hero or Villain？

00:00:00.000 Henry Kissinger is one of the worst people to ever be a force for good, said Nicholas Thompson, editor at New Yorker.

00:00:08.660 Henry Kissinger, what a complicated person. He just passed away November 29th at 100 years old.

00:00:13.700 You know, this man won a Nobel Prize for negotiating the end of Vietnam.

00:00:17.860 He was known as a playboy, dated Diane Sawyer, dated Shirley MacLaine.

00:00:21.620 He was on Playboy. He was quoted saying, this is one of the men that we would like to go on a date with.

00:00:26.980 On top of that, he authored dozens of books.

00:00:30.580 He was the first person ever to serve both as a national security advisor and secretary of state.

00:00:35.140 Aside from that, a couple of the things that he said, which is pretty wild.

00:00:37.680 His quotes, power is the ultimate afrodisiac.

00:00:41.120 He also said the illegal we do immediately.

00:00:44.120 The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

00:00:46.740 He also said a country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

00:00:54.140 And he's pretty much the guy that led the way to get China into the trade deal.

00:00:57.640 Matter of fact, he was sitting with Mao Zedong while he was negotiating.

00:01:00.460 Mao says, look, Henry, we don't really have anything to offer America, but we have a lot of excessive women here. 1.00

00:01:06.100 We'll give you tens of thousands of women. 1.00

00:01:07.840 And he really doesn't say anything.

00:01:09.180 He kind of sharks it off.

00:01:10.120 Mao comes back.

00:01:10.860 He says, look, like I said earlier, how about we give you 10 million Chinese women? 1.00

00:01:16.620 And he says, we're going to have to study that and get back to you.

00:01:19.420 This is a very unique character, Henry Kissinger.

00:01:22.740 We're going to talk about him today.

00:01:33.320 If you get value out of this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel.

00:01:36.260 Let's get right into it.

00:01:36.900 So early life and immigration, Kissinger's family immigrated to U.S. in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution of Jews.

00:01:45.360 His real name is Heinz Alfred Kissinger.

00:01:48.560 He changed his name to Henry.

00:01:50.720 He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943.

00:01:53.580 He served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a German interpreter.

00:01:57.000 Also served in post-war U.S. military government in Germany.

00:02:00.460 He attended Harvard.

00:02:01.400 He earned his B.A. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1954.

00:02:04.900 He wrote a 400-page essay titled, The Meaning of History, Reflections on Spengler, Tony B., and Kant.

00:02:11.600 It was so long that Harvard had to implement a new word count limit in his response.

00:02:16.600 His academic career, he joined the Harvard faculty in 1954, became a professor of government in 1962 and associate director of Department of Government and Center for International Affairs in 1957.

00:02:27.040 He went on to direct Harvard's Defense Studies program from 1959 to 1969.

00:02:32.020 Then he served as a consultant on security matters to various U.S. agencies, including National Security Council, the State Department, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1955 to 1968.

00:02:42.540 During the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, in 1957, he wrote a book called Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy.

00:02:50.600 When he wrote this book, he was only 33, 34 years old.

00:02:53.540 His foreign policy, when he came down to nuking everybody, whenever I was like, we've got to retaliate, he was not for it.

00:02:58.140 Massive retaliation policy opposed Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' policy of nuclear massive retaliation, advocating instead for flexible response,

00:03:07.200 which meant more of a combination of tactical nuclear weapons, conventional forces, and weapons technology development according to strategy needs.

00:03:14.120 His influence on Kennedy, he wrote a book called The Necessity for Choice, warned of a missile gap between the Soviet Union and the U.S.,

00:03:20.960 and influenced the activities of the Kennedy administration.

00:03:23.680 Here's how he increased his influence politically, his ascendants.

00:03:26.080 Kissinger's reputation as political scientist led to his role as an advisor to New York Governor Republican Presidential Aspirant Nelson Rockefeller,

00:03:33.260 heir to Rockefeller family fortune and moderate Republican, and in 1968, he was appointed by President Nixon to become his National Security Advisor.

00:03:41.380 Leading to the National Security Council, Nixon then elevated Kissinger to Secretary of State, but allowed him to retain his former role, an unprecedented move.

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00:04:40.720 And Kissinger maintained, in these roles, after the Watergate scandal brought down Nixon and led to the presidency of Gerald Ford,

00:04:47.840 Kissinger served as head of National Security Council from 1969 to 1975, and as Secretary of State from September 1973 to January 20th of 1977.

00:04:55.640 There's a lot of things you can talk about, especially with foreign policy.

00:04:58.480 We're going to focus on four here.

00:04:59.940 One is going to be the petrodollar, we'll talk about Vietnam, we'll discuss China,

00:05:04.020 and maybe the Chilean, where he influenced the election that was taking place.

00:05:07.800 This guy had a lot of influence over a lot of things that happened worldwide.

00:05:11.080 I mean, some good, some bad, some ugly.

00:05:12.920 Some, you may sit there and say, why was he touching Chile?

00:05:15.580 What was he doing with the way he's negotiating what happened with the petrodollar?

00:05:19.640 Getting off the gold standard, that influenced a lot of the economy where we are today with all the printing that we're doing.

00:05:24.500 But let's start off with what he did with China.

00:05:26.140 Kissinger engineered the opening of diplomatic relations between U.S. and the people of the Republic of China.

00:05:30.280 This strategic move, which began his secret trip to China in 1971, led to President Nixon's historic visit in 1972

00:05:36.540 and dramatically altered the global balance of power, particularly in the relation to Soviet Union.

00:05:41.200 It broke China away from falling totally under Soviet influence and gradually opened up China's economy to the world market.

00:05:47.500 This happened at the same time that the U.S. got off the gold standard and played a large role in exporting U.S. inflation

00:05:53.980 by enabling U.S. companies to use much cheaper labor from China.

00:05:57.960 Now, some may say that was good for that time, but today, we made China a powerhouse.

00:06:01.780 So, some may even say Kissinger was the reason why China became a powerhouse, okay?

00:06:05.900 So, the discussion can be made on what if he didn't do it?

00:06:08.300 Well, the Soviet Union would have been more powerful. 0.90

00:06:10.200 Communism would have won.

00:06:11.020 Okay, great.

00:06:11.480 But he did do it.

00:06:12.140 Well, China is still communism, and they're winning, and now they're getting bigger, and they've got so much control on other industries.

00:06:16.980 Some of that has to do with Kissinger and Nixon.

00:06:19.160 When it comes down to Vietnam War, this guy was a key negotiator in preventing and finishing up the war, which could have gotten even uglier.

00:06:25.860 When it comes down to Vietnam negotiations, Henry Kissinger was one of the lead voices for ending the war.

00:06:30.920 This is why he won the Nobel Prize.

00:06:32.700 Kissinger led secret negotiations with North Vietnamese representatives beginning in 1969.

00:06:37.360 These talks were aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to end the war.

00:06:41.300 Paris Peace Accord, his efforts culminated in the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, which officially ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

00:06:49.180 Courts called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, the return of prisoners of war, and a ceasefire in Vietnam.

00:06:55.000 Kissinger was instrumental in shaping the Vietnamization policy, which involved gradually withdrawing American troops and transferring combat responsibilities to South Vietnamese forces.

00:07:04.920 This was a very big deal back then because it was so political.

00:07:07.640 Soldiers were coming back, they had bad experiences.

00:07:10.180 This policy was part of a broader strategy to disengage the U.S. from the war while attempting to maintain a non-communist government in South Vietnam.

00:07:17.800 Bombing campaigns during the negotiations, Kissinger supported escalating bombing campaigns in North Vietnam, especially during controversial Christmas bombing in December of 72.

00:07:27.500 These actions were aimed at pressuring North Vietnam to agree to terms favorable to the U.S.

00:07:32.720 You got to know, like this goes back to the quote where he says,

00:07:35.280 A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

00:07:40.880 And that's what happens here.

00:07:41.840 He approved of that because he's saying it's not possible for us to have it if we're not willing to get a little bit dirty.

00:07:47.380 In 1973, there was a controversy with his Nobel Prize.

00:07:50.020 He was awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with Le Duc Toho, the North Vietnamese negotiator, for their efforts to negotiate peace.

00:07:55.500 However, the award was controversial as the ceasefire quickly collapsed and Le Duc Toho declined the prize, stating that true peace had not yet been achieved.

00:08:04.420 Here's his involvement when it comes down to the petrodollar.

00:08:06.840 By the 60s, a surplus of U.S. dollar caused by foreign aid, military spending, and foreign investment threatened the system.

00:08:14.060 The U.S. did not have enough gold to cover the volume of dollar in worldwide circulation at the rate of $35 per ounce.

00:08:21.360 As a result, the dollar was overvalued.

00:08:23.920 Several measures were attempted to support the dollar and sustain Bretton Woods, foreign investment disincentives,

00:08:28.320 restrictions on foreign lending, efforts to stem the outflow of the dollar, international monetary reform, and cooperation with other countries.

00:08:34.720 Nothing worked.

00:08:35.340 Meanwhile, traders and foreign exchanges markets, believing that the dollar's overvaluation would one day compel the U.S. government to devalue it,

00:08:43.320 proved increasingly inclined to sell dollars.

00:08:46.920 This resulted in periodic runs on the dollar.

00:08:49.520 The Federal Reserve and a group of economists developed a plan, and Kissinger executed it.

00:08:53.620 He made a visit to meet the king of Saudi Arabia in 1974 as the biggest oil producer worldwide in order to convince him to go forward with the petrodollar system.

00:09:01.920 Saudi Arabia accepted to denominate its oil in U.S. dollars only and convince other OPEC countries by the same idea the oil revenues will reinvest it in U.S. treasuries.

00:09:12.960 U.S. will offer full military security to Saudi Arabia.

00:09:16.740 This is obviously a very big negotiation, dear.

00:09:19.040 You're convincing everybody this piece of paper is worth the same thing as gold standard.

00:09:23.240 And the world bought it.

00:09:24.300 They're like, okay, let's do it.

00:09:25.940 Saudi said yes.

00:09:27.080 The world followed.

00:09:28.140 One of the biggest negotiation deals that doesn't get a lot of attention today, but completely changed the economical system till today.

00:09:34.200 If there's one of the things he has a reputation for is interfering with other countries' elections.

00:09:38.440 I'm from Iran.

00:09:38.960 He was kind of involved.

00:09:40.120 Yes, no, maybe.

00:09:41.480 Chilean's a complete different thing with the innovation that they went through. 1.00

00:09:44.040 Here's what he once said.

00:09:44.920 He said, I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people.

00:09:52.060 The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.

00:09:57.720 Let me read it one more time.

00:09:59.220 The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.

00:10:04.300 Kissinger urged President Nixon to overthrow the democratically elected Atlantic government in Chile because his model effect can be insidious.

00:10:12.300 According to documents posted by the National Security Archive, this involvement included support for a military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, a move criticized for his disregard for democratic principles and human rights.

00:10:26.080 This is election interference, but again, it goes back to his quote, a country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

00:10:34.640 And he also said the illegal will do immediately, but the unconstitutional will take a little longer.

00:10:40.240 This one has to do more about him imposing himself and saying, no, communism is the enemy.

00:10:45.860 We're not going to tolerate it, whether it's in America or in another country.

00:10:49.180 So, you know, many times the question becomes, was this guy a hero or a villain?

00:10:52.560 I mean, there's an argument for both sides.

00:10:54.240 This is the type of guy that, you know how you know a person that they're convinced they know what's right and they don't care what you think.

00:10:59.640 This is not somebody that's asking you what you think.

00:11:02.220 This is a person that knows what they think and they're sticking to their guns.

00:11:06.400 This could be somebody that you want on your team, not as an opponent or as an enemy.

00:11:10.060 There's many things that he was able to do that helped America and hurt a lot of other countries.

00:11:15.420 Some comparing him to Soros.

00:11:16.760 He was not a money guy.

00:11:18.020 I think he died, net worth 40, 50 million bucks.

00:11:20.560 He had some money, but he wasn't able to pull his influence like he did.

00:11:23.900 So look, is this guy a good guy or a bad guy?

00:11:25.580 Is he evil or is he a hero?

00:11:26.580 What did he do?

00:11:27.040 Some people think he was evil because he was set in his ways.

00:11:30.220 He wanted power.

00:11:31.460 He wanted all of that.

00:11:32.840 And he thought he knew better than you did on what to do.

00:11:35.500 And, you know, he gave the vibe of if you offended him or God forbid wanted to cross him.

00:11:40.080 Probably not the type of guy you wanted to do it with.

00:11:42.080 At the same time, very ambitious.

00:11:43.180 Similar to like a Robert Moses.

00:11:44.840 What Robert Moses, the book Power Broker, what he did to New York, Kissinger did worldwide.

00:11:49.240 Robert was more of a low-key guy.

00:11:50.740 Kissinger was flamboyant.

00:11:51.960 Kissinger was out there.

00:11:52.960 Kissinger was putting his stuff out there.

00:11:54.360 But at the end of the day, he's a guy you want negotiating on your behalf.

00:11:57.420 And he did some of the biggest deals the world's ever done the last hundred years.

00:12:00.780 He's on that list.

00:12:01.500 So having said that, if you got value out of this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe

00:12:04.360 to the channel.

00:12:05.020 If you've never seen us do a video like this on George Soros, it is a must watch.

00:12:09.880 If you've never seen, click here to watch it.

00:12:11.760 Take care, everybody.

00:12:12.660 Bye-bye, bye-bye.

Valuetainment - December 18, 2023

Henry Kissinger Legacy： Hero or Villain？

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