Opinion: Henry Kissinger, dead at 100

In Loving Memory, Henry Kissinger

We are to speak no ill of the dead

Photo Credit: Reddit

There used to be a time when white people discovered new lands all over the place quite literally. There also used to be a time when individuals like Henry Kissinger were considered brilliant men — men who could achieve the tasks set out before them without a conscience. Sociopaths on a massive scale who once had unlimited power to kill thousands on the yellowish-to-brownish gradient fill in pursuit of their country’s interests, as understood by them.

He worked alongside the likes of William Colby, a charismatic killer of the Pinochet fame, a real psycho who was rumored capable of performing a stabbing mid-conversation. Together they became the true masters of realpolitik, the idea that the end justifies the means.

History books beg to paint the duo as literal tools, the kind to employ reluctantly much like you would a white phosphorous artillery shell. That you used them because you absolutely had to achieve a goal.

“We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.” George Orwell