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Remembering Henry Kissinger

Portfolio Armor's Photo
by Portfolio Armor
Thursday, Nov 30, 2023 - 10:37
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger.

Do Leftists Even Understand Why They Hate Kissinger? 

Henry Kissinger has died, and predictably, leftists have been crassly celebrating his death. If they give a reason at all, it's usually some reference to Cambodia, such as this one below, or less frequently, Chile. 

In Cambodia, Kissinger supported Nixon's bombing campaign of the North Vietnamese Army's supply lines into South Vietnam, a campaign which helped defeat the NVA insurgency in South Vietnam and bring North Vietnam to the negotiating table. That led to the Paris Peace Accords that extricated the U.S. from the Vietnam War (and likely would have maintained South Vietnam's independence had Nixon not been forced out in, effectively, an establishment coup in 1974: had Nixon been President in 1975, he would have used U.S. airpower to stop North Vietnam's mechanized invasion as he had in 1972). 

The oddness of this leftist attack on Kissinger, combined with their relative silence about the communists who murdered millions of Cambodians in the 1970s, raises the question of whether they have confused Kissinger with Pol Pot, as one of our correspondents on X suggested below. 

Our friend Sergei Witte, whom some of you may recall from his insightful posts on the Russia-Ukraine War, made a similar point. 

In the case of Chile, the leftist attacks on Kissinger make even less sense. He and Nixon backed Pinochet, who prevented a communist takeover of Chile, and put in place economic policies that made Chile the most stable country in South America for decades to come. 

Respected More Abroad Than From Leftists At Home

Another friend of ours on X astutely predicted that we'd see more respect for Kissinger from non-leftists abroad than from leftists at home. 

And he was soon proved correct, first by the popular Russian streamers behind RWApodcast...

And then by the former Russian President, and current deputy head of Russia's National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, 

Here is the full text of Medvedev's post:

Henry Kissinger has died. He has faithfully served his country for many years. At the same time, he was a pragmatist who took realities into consideration, and not just followed the US foreign policy canons. Now, there aren't even traces of the people like him in the US Administration and the Western world. RIP

Similarly, the Australian naval officer, attorney, and foreign policy commentator Gray Connolly wrote respectfully of Kissinger, 

Applying Today's Identity Politics To Kissinger

The New York Times and the ADL pointed out that Kissinger was America's first Jewish Secretary of State, while Hannah Gais implied that Kissinger was antisemitic based on a quip he made once about Jews. 

Both miss the relevant point that Kissinger was Secretary of State when cabinet positions were appointed based on merit, and diplomats were expected to act in the interest of the United States, not their ethnic or religious group. Unlike our current Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who while on a state visit to Israel last month talked about his Jewish ancestors' experience fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire, Kissinger never saw himself as an advocate for his ethnic group, but for American policy. When he was asked about the plight of Soviet Jews in the 1970s, Kissinger said, 

The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.

Similarly, he was an even-handed negotiator in the Middle East, and famously bluffed the Israelis into releasing the Egyptian 3rd Army they had surrounded during the 1973 war by suggesting the Russians might intervene if they didn't. 

We Are In Worse Hands Today

Compared to the men and women who have run our foreign policy this century, Kissinger was a giant, who presciently warned against provoking Russia in the Ukraine. Edward Hamilton highlighted the key contrast between Kissinger and the ideologues we have running the show today.

Finally, even in his extreme old age, Kissinger understood the damage today's mass third world immigration was doing to the West. 

Let's hope his example and his wisdom on that inspires others. 

In Case You Missed It

In a post earlier this week (Trading Update: Which Signals Are The Strongest Now?), we wrote about which signals were the strongest now in predicting stock movements post-earnings.

As we mentioned there, we would be using the strongest signals to place earnings trades this week. We exited the first two of those earnings trades for gains of 66% and 78%, respectively, yesterday, and we exited the second two of those trades for gains of 39% and 106%, respectively, today. We have one more trade teed up for today, so if you're subscribed to our trading Substack/occasional email list, keep an eye on your inbox this afternoon. If you're not subscribed, you can subscribe below. 

 

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