Talleyrand wasn't the mastermind. He was the representative of a defeated nation and would normally never have returned to power.
Metternich, however, saw Alexander looming in Central Europe and understood the need for France as a counterpoise to Russian power. So he brought Talleyrand out of history's dustbin and welcomed France back into the European order.
Castlereagh was appalled by that and other things Metternich had done--until the two men met. Then he saw that Britain's interests and Austria's were virtually identical and decided to cooperate. They jointly empowered Talleyrand while Castlereagh simultaneously worked against all odds to keep the British committed to a Europe that they had traditionally avoided in what would become known as Splendid Isolation.
The emotional toll of that work probably contributed to Castlereagh's unfortunate demise, which left Metternich alone to rebuild the continent.
Yep. Talleyrand was an inveterate sycophant and it served him well. I sometimes think the inn keeper in Les Miserables is a treatment of Talleyrand: no matter what happened to society, the inn keeper and his wife always floated to the top.
Nixon was actually more astute than Kissinger. He had spelled out the detente strategy--forming a relationship with Beijing to use against Moscow--years before Kissinger could find China on a map. RN spent a great deal of his wilderness years talking to the consul general in Hong Kong (Osborne, his name was), Ambassador Marshall Green in Indonesia, and John Holdrige, and outlined the results in his 1967 Foreign Affairs article, in which he outlined the detente he would later implement. Kissinger tried to take some of the credit for that in his memoirs (White House Years). but all he could say was that China "had figured" in his work as well.
You're right about surviving Nixon. Kissinger was about the only insider who escaped Watergate with any reputation left, but his second volume of memoirs (Years of Upheaval) describe how very difficult that was--as well as how dangerous Rumsfeld and Cheney already were during the Ford Administration.
But Nixon was as visionary as he was evil--a point it is easy to neglect--which is probably why he was able to manage Mao and Brezhnev so adroitly. It is probably not an overstatement to say that the best person to deal with sociopathic leaders is another sociopathic leader. Yet if the paranoia goes too far, you end up burning down your own house.
There were two different Reagan teams. The first was Richard Allen, Al Haig, Casper Weinberger, and other relatively shallow and reactionary officials. Those guys made a right mess of things and came fairly close to starting a nuclear war.
But what was astonishing was that Reagan realized things were going awry and changed direction in 1983-1984. Then he brought in a bunch of Nixon-Kissinger people: Brady, the Mormon Scowcroft, Eagleburger, and Shultz. As a result, when Gorbachev came along there were people in Washington who saw the opportunity to revivify detente. The word had to be avoided, of course, given how toxic Nixon and by this time Kissinger had become, but at the end of the Reagan presidency the US was basically following Nixon's strategy. And George W. Bush was also a Kissinger guy, so he was able to wind down the USSR without triggering a global war as well as managing Saddam Hussein with a degree of judgment that the United States would miss a decade later.
Kissinger's Birthday is (was?) May 27, 1923. And thanks, dagny--perhaps the nicest thing I've heard here in a while. We Cassandras aren't known for making (or keeping) friends. That, or maybe my Asperger's.
HK appears to have had few friends in the military, most likely there will often if not always be tension between politicians (state department) & the military. I'm more comfortable with some tension as opposed to control or heavy-handed control or manipulation.
I think those in the military seem to often have a longer-range vision of matters.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2023 02:16AM by GNPE.
Military guys don't like genocidal maniacs, whether they are on our side or not. Kissinger escalated the war in Vietnam and was instrumental in Nixon's massive bombing of Cambodia. He made the US look like the bad guys, so as a result Pol Pot came to power and killed two million of the best Cambodians.
I suppose passing war criminals should be talked about in glowing terms because blowing people to bits is so much fun. Madeline Albright should be ashamed of herself. Her body count isn't even a million.
In the PBS documentary, "Last Days in Vietnam,", Mr. Kissinger admitted that both he and President Ford were wrong about bringing out the last Americans from a country that was being rapidly taken over by the north in late april of 1975. We almost left a group of 21 embassy Marine guards there because of that miscalculation. That said, I am inclined to agree with both LW and Anybody regarding his diplomatic style and approach.
This has been a bad week for the ~100 folks. Mrs. Carter, Mr. Kissinger, and two days ago, Charlie Munger.
Charlie was a hoot and a financial role model for us. I first learned about him back when I was in my 20s. We had moved to Nebraska where Warren (Buffett) and Charlie lived. RIP Charlie! Maybe God can use Charlie as a financial advisor in heaven so He quits needing everyone's money.