[rad-green] Henry Kissinger Gets It… US ‘Exceptionalism’ Is Over

*https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/29/henry-kissinger-gets-it-us-exceptionalism-is-over/
<https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/29/henry-kissinger-gets-it-us-exceptionalism-is-over/>Strategic
Culture Foundation          November 29, 2019*


*Editorial*



*Henry Kissinger Gets It… US ‘Exceptionalism’ Is Over*
[image: image.png]
*© Photo: Wikimedia*

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made prudent remarks recently
when he said the United States is no longer a uni-power and that it must
recognize the reality of China as an equal rival.

The furor over a new law passed by the US this week regarding Hong Kong and
undermining Beijing’s authority underlines Kissinger’s warning.

If the US cannot find some modus vivendi with China, then the outcome could
be a catastrophic conflict worst than any previous world war, he admonished.

Speaking
<https://finance.yahoo.com/news/henry-kissinger-a-permanent-us-china-conflict-will-be-catastrophic-155631408.html>
publicly
in New York on November 14, the veteran diplomat urged the US and China to
resolve their ongoing economic tensions cooperatively and mutually, adding:
“It is no longer possible to think that one side can dominate the other.”

A key remark made by Kissinger was the following: “So those countries that
used to be exceptional and used to be unique, have to get used to the fact
that they have a rival.”

In other words, he is negating the erroneous consensus held in Washington
which asserts that the US is somehow “exceptional”, a “uni-power” and the
“indispensable nation”. This consensus has grown since the early 1990s
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the US viewed itself as the
sole super-power. That morphed into a more virulent ideology of
“full-spectrum dominance”. Thence, the past three decades of unrelenting US
criminal wars and regime-change operations across the planet, throwing the
whole world into chaos.

Kissinger’s frank assessment is a breath of fresh air amid the stale and
impossibly arrogant self-regard held by too many American politicians who
view their nation as an unparalleled power which brooks no other.

The seasoned statesman, who is 96-years-old and retains an admirable acumen
for international politics, ended his remarks on an optimistic note by
saying: “I am confident the leaders on both sides [US and China] will
realize the future of the world depends on the two sides working out
solutions and managing the inevitable difficulties.”

Aptly, Kissinger’s caution about danger of conflict was reiterated
separately by veteran journalist John Pilger, who warned
<https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/27/american-exceptionalism-driving-world-to-war-john-pilger/>
in
an exclusive interview for Strategic Culture Foundation this week that,
presumed “American exceptionalism is driving the world to war.”

Henry Kissinger is indeed a controversial figure. Many US scholars regard
him as one of the most outstanding Secretaries of State during the
post-Second World War period. He served in the Nixon and Ford
administrations during the 1970s and went on to write tomes about
geopolitics and international relations. Against that, his reputation was
badly tarnished by the US war in Vietnam and the horrendous civilian death
toll from relentless aerial bombing across Indochina, believed to have been
countenanced by Kissinger.

Kissinger has also been accused of supporting the military coup in Chile in
1973 against elected President Allende, and for backing the dirty war by
Argentina’s fascist generals during the 1970s against workers and leftists.

To his credit, however, Kissinger was and is a practitioner of
“realpolitik” which views international relations through a pragmatic lens.
Another realpolitik US state planner was the late Zbigniew Brzezinski [the
architect of the idea to use jihadis against the USSR in Afghanistan], who
died in 2017 at the age of 89. Both advocated a policy of detente with the
Soviet Union and China.

President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit to China in 1972 is credited
to the advice given by Kissinger who was then National Security Advisor to
the White House.

That same year, the US and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) treaty, also under the guidance of Kissinger on the American
side. The US would later withdrew from the treaty in 2002, a move which has
presaged a long deterioration in bilateral relations between the US and
Russia to the present day.

For all their faults, at least people like Kissinger and Brzezinski were
motivated by practical goal-orientated policy. They were willing to engage
with adversaries to find some modus vivendi. Such an attitude is too often
missing in recent Washington administrations which seem to be guided by an
ideology of unipolar dominance by the US over the rest of the world. The
current Washington consensus is one of hyper-ideological unrealism and
hubris, which leads to a zero-sum mentality of antagonism towards China and
Russia.

At times, President Donald Trump appears to subscribe to realpolitik
pragmatism. At other times, he swings to the hyper-ideological mentality as
expressed by his Vice President Mike Pence, as well as Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mike Esper. The latter has labeled
<https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-china-defense-secretary-mark-esper>
China
as the US’s “greatest long-term threat”.

This week President Trump signed into law “The Human Rights and Democracy
Bill”, which will impose sanctions on China over alleged repression in its
Hong Kong territory. Beijing has reacted furiously to the legislation,
condemning
<https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/28/china-condemns-us-bills-supporting-hong-kong-protesters.html>
it
as a violation of its sovereignty.

This is exactly the kind of baleful move that Kissinger warned against in
order to avoid a further poisoning in bilateral relations already tense
from the past 16 months of US-China trade war.

One discerns the difference between Kissinger and more recent US
politicians: the former has copious historical knowledge and appreciation
of other cultures. His shrewd, wily, maybe even Machiavellian streak,
informs Kissinger to acknowledge and respect other powers in a complex
world. That is contrasted with the puritanical banality and ignorance
manifest in Trump’s administration and in the Congress.

Greeting Kissinger last Friday, November 22, during a visit to Beijing,
President Xi Jinping thanked him for his historic contribution in
normalizing US-China relations during 1970s.

“At present, Sino-US relations are at a critical juncture facing some
difficulties and challenges,”  said
<http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1170869.shtml> Xi, calling on the two
countries to deepen communication on strategic issues. It was an echo of
the realpolitik views Kissinger had enunciated the week before.

While sharing a public stage with Kissinger, the Chinese leader added: “The
two sides should proceed from the fundamental interests of the two peoples
and the people of the world, respect each other, seek common ground while
reserving differences, pursue win-win results in cooperation, and promote
bilateral ties to develop in the right direction.”

Likewise, China and Russia have continually urged for a multipolar world
order for cooperation and partnership in development. But the present and
recent US governments refuse to contemplate any other order other than a
presumed unipolar dominance. Hence the ongoing US trade strife with China
and Washington’s relentless demonization of Russia.

This “exceptional” ideological mantra of the US is leading to more
tensions, and ultimately is a path to the abyss.

Henry Kissinger gets it. It’s a pity America’s present crop of politicians
and thinkers are so impoverished in their intellect.

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