10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 | Back In TIME - video Dailymotion

TIME

Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State known for his realist approach to foreign policy during the Nixon and Ford administrations, has died. He was 100.

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00:00 Dr. Henry Kissinger was the U.S. 56th Secretary of State under President Nixon and Ford.

00:29 He's now chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm, and he's

00:33 written a new book on China.

00:35 Today, he's answering ten questions from Time magazine.

00:38 Dr. Kissinger, welcome.

00:40 Thank you.

00:41 Should America be afraid of China?

00:44 America should understand China and think about China, but it need not be afraid of China.

00:52 Can you briefly explain the idea you have of a Pacific community?

00:56 China and the United States are now in part afraid of certain tendencies in each other.

01:03 So therefore, I think we should find common projects on which we can work together that

01:10 create a sense of cooperation and community.

01:15 Now, a lot of people might believe that the Americans will not likely be the aggressors

01:21 in this situation.

01:22 It will be the Chinese.

01:24 How would you respond to that?

01:25 I want to emphasize this.

01:27 If our fundamental interests are challenged, we will defend ourselves and we will resist.

01:34 But I ask myself, when I look at World War I, if the statesmen that decided to go to

01:42 World War I had known what the world would look like two years after that war, would

01:49 they not have made another effort to find a more peaceful solution?

01:55 We are in that position with China.

01:58 We can let things drift in a competitive relationship all over the world.

02:07 Or we can, on both sides, make an effort to see whether a parallel evolution is possible.

02:18 Now, on other matters, do you feel optimistic about the developments in the so-called Arab

02:23 Spring?

02:24 It's a tremendous historical event that the people in these countries are asserting a

02:30 claim to participation in government.

02:34 But the history of revolution shows that the first outburst of the revolution is a coming

02:41 together of various resentments that don't necessarily agree with each other.

02:48 After the first outburst, the challenge is how to sort out these various resentments

02:54 and establish a common direction.

02:58 That is why, almost invariably in the history of revolutions, the first group of revolutionaries

03:04 get overtaken by some other groups.

03:09 So the challenge we have now is to see how we can contribute to a democratic revolution

03:17 that is in the first scene of the first act of a five-act play.

03:24 It's been said that the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court because

03:28 former secretaries of state such as yourself and others might face prosecution under its

03:33 auspices.

03:34 Do you believe this is true?

03:36 The reason we are not a member of the International Criminal Court has a better justification

03:45 than the fear that secretaries of state would be put before the Criminal Court.

03:52 The reason is that this is left to prosecutors that are drawn from a variety of countries

04:03 and very often cannot understand what the issues are.

04:07 And then it has started a process where some American officials are reluctant to travel

04:15 abroad for fear that somebody will launch some sort of indictment against them.

04:22 And if that becomes a method by which a kind of diplomacy is conducted, I do not favor

04:30 the International Criminal Court.

04:32 I wrote an article about it many years ago, but not for fear of myself.

04:38 Not even remotely for fear of myself.

04:42 I guess a lot of people will be surprised how dovish you are towards China, which is

04:49 still a communist nation, when the communist Chinese was the sort of propulsive threat

04:55 of the Vietnam War.

04:57 So people might think that you have changed positions on this.

05:01 No.

05:02 I think peace has two elements.

05:07 You can't have peace without equilibrium.

05:11 But you can't have an equilibrium unless people think it is just.

05:15 So you have to work on both problems simultaneously.

05:19 So what you're saying is you advised not pulling out of Vietnam earlier was that there

05:24 was not a perception of...

05:26 We came into office when there were 550,000 Americans already in place.

05:33 You can't turn that off like a television channel.

05:38 Our single objective was that the people of South Vietnam should have the opportunity

05:46 to choose their own fate.

05:49 If that was achieved, we would leave.

05:53 Until it was achieved, we withdrew gradually.

05:56 When the North Vietnamese agreed to a sort of democratic process in the South, then we

06:06 settled.

06:07 That's the essence of it.

06:09 It was not a question of not wanting to withdraw.

06:15 And someday an accurate history of the Vietnam War will be written for the sake of American

06:24 unity.

06:25 Well, it sounds like it frustrates you, the misunderstanding.

06:28 No, but by now I'm used to that.

06:31 More under the bridge by now.

06:34 Dr. Kissinger, thank you so much.

06:35 Thank you.

06:36 Thank you.

06:37 Thank you.

06:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 | Back In TIME

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