I see the future of China as growth. I think that historically China has often gone through periods of consolidation, and then periods of sort of weakening central authority. They undoubtedly face tremendous challenges. Henry A. Kissinger More Quotes by Henry A. Kissinger More Quotes From Henry A. Kissinger It is steady, reliable, tough. It never yields to panic. It is never defeated one-sidedly. It achieves everything attainable by character and tenacity. Henry A. Kissinger football soccer character People think responsibility is hard to bear. It's not. I think that sometimes it is the absence of responsibility that is harder to bear. You have a great feeling of impotence. Henry A. Kissinger responsibility people thinking Our greatest foreign policy problem is our divisions at home. Our greatest foreign policy need is national cohesion and a return to the awareness that in foreign policy we are all engaged in a common national endeavor. Henry A. Kissinger division home needs History is the memory of States. Henry A. Kissinger states memories Intellectuals are cynical and cynics have never built a cathedral. Henry A. Kissinger cathedrals built cynical They [American forces] are there as an expression of the American national interest to prevent the Iranian combination of imperialism and fundamentalist ideology from dominating a region on which the energy supplies of the industrial democracies depend. Henry A. Kissinger democracy expression war The capacity to admire others is not my most fully developed trait. Henry A. Kissinger admiration admire capacity If Tehran insists on combining the Persian imperial tradition with contemporary Islamic fervor, then a collision with America and, indeed, with its negotiating partners of the Six is unavoidable. Iran simply cannot be permitted to fulfill a dream of imperial rule in a region of such importance to the rest of the world. Henry A. Kissinger islamic iran dream [Nixon] wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn't want to hear anything about it. It's an order, to be done. Anything that flies on anything that moves. Henry A. Kissinger campaigns order moving Even paranoid people have enemies. Henry A. Kissinger paranoid people enemy It is not often that nations learn from the past,even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it. Henry A. Kissinger conclusion draws past 90% of politicians give the other 10% a bad name. Henry A. Kissinger politician names giving Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. Henry A. Kissinger civilization In the current [Carter] administration, who can use the White House swimming pool and tennis courts is decided at the very highest level. President Ford did not bother himself with such minor details. He let me swim in the pool. He only got upset when I tried to walk across the water. Henry A. Kissinger swimming white water I think China will do nothing to obstruct it, and they probably will go along with it. Henry A. Kissinger china thinking The position is that stability and peace in Asia depend on a cooperative relationship between China and the United States. Henry A. Kissinger asia china united-states Everybody who has dealt with China over an extended period of time has come to more or less the same conclusions. There are nuances of differences, but not fundamental differences. I think that President Bush was heading in this direction, and I have no doubt that he will again wind up in this position. But right now he has to be preoccupied with the atrocity committed in New York and Washington. Henry A. Kissinger new-york wind thinking I would have said, before the World Trade Center events, that he would try to get a normal relationship with China - making clear to China what the limits are of what America can accept, but also showing understanding for some of Chinese necessities. I thought he was moving towards the position that I have more or less advocated. Henry A. Kissinger understanding america moving I knew Deng Xiaoping when he came out of prison. He had, after all, been imprisoned for nearly ten years by Mao. I know what China looked like before he took over, and so in my own mind, I don't think of Deng Xiaoping as an oppressor. I think of somebody who, faced with that crisis, made a very painful and decision with which I cannot agree. But I also think of him as a great reformer. Henry A. Kissinger decision years thinking He [Deng Xiaoping] said that he did not understand why we failed to grasp that the alternative was not democracy, but total chaos and risking all the reforms that had been achieved. Henry A. Kissinger reform alternatives democracy
