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China Rising – Dr. Kissinger

7 May 2002

Headquarters Auditorium

**George Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence:** We are delighted that you are with us today, Dr. Kissinger. Describing his early years in Washington, Dr. Kissinger once said, and I quote, "I can't recall anyone ever inviting me to dinner to hear my views about China." They did, though, very soon, and they still are for every meal of the day, and for all of the hours in between. When many Americans looked on China as a distant, mysterious enemy, fit only for isolation, Dr. Kissinger saw China for what it was—a huge fact of international life, a country with goals and interests, many hostile to us, and some not. In those days of the Cold War, of tension and competition with the Soviet Union, he saw something else in China—opportunity. An opportunity to reshape in America's favor the balance of power in Asia. But he knew that opportunities are easier to identify than they are to preserve. They tend to pass very quickly, turning timing itself into a decisive tactic of foreign policy.

As we know, the vision, boldness, and timing all came together in 1971 with Dr. Kissinger's groundbreaking trip to China, a mission that paved the way for President Nixon's historic visit the following year. Through study, daring, and a sound read of the world, a piece of inspired diplomacy overcame more than two decades of ignorance and suspicion between the United States and China. It was a key accomplishment in a lifetime of original thinking about the world, a lifetime of asking and answering tough questions in global politics, and of tackling the monumental problems of conflict and conciliation. Through it all, the countless trips, negotiations, meetings, speeches, and articles, Dr. Kissinger has had a single, overriding purpose.

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As he put it years ago, and I quote, "I'd like to leave behind a world that seemed to be more peaceful than the one we entered, more creative in the sense of fulfilling human aspirations."

Like most goals worth having, it is as difficult as it is noble, and it springs from a basic reality, to build the world as it might be, you must start with the world as it is, with its hopes and virtues, flaws, and evils. While a boy in Nazi Germany, Dr. Kissinger saw first-hand the absence of freedom. Yet, when he returned to Germany with the US Army in the closing months of the Second World War, his aim was not revenge, but reconstruction and the revival of freedom. As a military administrator, he got local governments up and running. As a counterintelligence officer, he had the task of identifying and rounding up local members of the Gestapo. He recounted his approach to that challenge, and I quote, "I merely put an ad in the local paper saying all Germans with police experience who wanted jobs should show up at company headquarters, the next day at a certain time and sign up." The Gestapo people showed up and signed up by the dozen, according to Dr. Kissinger. As those very sorry agents could attest, Dr. Kissinger's talents extend from theory to practice.

When faced with a nuclear doctrine that contemplated the destruction of the world, he devised alternatives. When faced with a conflict in the Middle East that could have ignited the world, he promoted an effective mix of deterrence and diplomacy. On issues of enormous complexity and controversy, he has always sought solutions. That includes the issue he addresses here this afternoon. Though he joked that President Nixon took a gamble by sending him on his own to China, remarking, "For all he knew, I was going to sell Alaska," it was, in truth, no gamble at all. For Dr. Kissinger went with a hope that was ambitious yet clear and realistic that our two countries, with all their differences, could start what he called a "historic evolution." It is an evolution that continues to this day. So, Dr. Kissinger, on behalf of all the

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China specialists from across our Intelligence Community, it is my great pleasure to welcome a scholar, author, and teacher, a trusted advisor to Presidents, a master of public diplomacy, and a friend to all who seek a stronger and safer America. I know you will all join me in welcoming Dr. Henry Kissinger.

**Dr. Kissinger:** George, and ladies and gentlemen, I usually make some smart-alecky remark after I hear such a fulsome introduction, but what I want to tell you is how touched I am by what you said, and how glad I am to be here. Above all I'd like to thank you all for what you're doing for the Country, for what you have done for me when I was in Government service. This was the group to which I could always turn to get a fair and objective assessment. There were occasions that I didn't agree with the assessment, but I always benefited from it. And, on the few occasions that I didn't agree, when I sat down with the analysts, we could generally achieve a common view. But those occasions were very rare.

I relied heavily on the work of this building, and I felt for you during the abuse that some of you suffered every decade, because I knew the motives that had involved you. Very often the CIA was given assignments precisely because none of them fit any of the existing categories, and therefore none of the existing agencies could, or would, carry out missions essential in the national interest. For example, why was the CIA in Laos? Not because it likes to conduct wars in far-off territories, but because there really was no existing category within which to do what was needed in that particular situation. So every decade, I have observed that investigations on topics like that start, and I have always felt great compassion for what you all went through mostly unjustly. So I'm very happy to be here, to be able to thank you for what you have done over the years that I have been able to observe your work.