Winston lord talks about the Nixon Administrations Foreign Policy approach. He is the author of kissinger on kissinger reflections on diplomacy, grand strategy, and leadership. Mr. Lord describes president nixons relationship with his secretary of state Henry Kissinger and how it was instrumental in developing Foreign Policy strategies. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Nixonith the richard foundation. Before we introduce our distinguished speaker this evening, i wanted to mention a couple of special guest. Distinguished speakers daughter here and her husband. , the wifetsy hewitt of newly elected hugh hewitt. Our distinguished speaker was to dr. Kissinger as dr. Kissinger was to nixon. He was with dr. Kissinger during the peace accords in 1973. He was with president nixon in moscow during his first president ial trip there. He was there for kissingers shuttles between arabs and israelis. He was a key act your and president nixons historic trip to china he was a key actor in president nixons historic trip to china. He was state Department Director of policy and planning, ambassador to the peoples republic of china and assistant secretary of state for South East Asia and Pacific Affairs part he conducted several hours of oral histories of dr. Kissinger on behalf of the Nixon Foundation. It can be found in this highly readable book called kissinger on kissinger reflections on diplomacy, grand strategy, and leadership. It is available for purchase at our museum store. Ambassador lord will be interviewed by dr. Frank gannon. He obtained his masters degree at the London School of economics and doctorate at oxford. He worked with churchill to biographydefinitive of his father, winston churchill. 1974, he left washington to california aboard air force one following president nixons resignation. He is the rare distinction of having interviewed present nixon for 30 hours he has the rare distinction of having interviewed president nixon for 30 hours. We will see some of this video these videos in the presentation tonight. Yesterday, our president visited dr. Kissinger in new york city knowing that ambassador lord would be speaking tonight. Dr. Kissinger asked hugh to pass on his best issues. Winston lord is an indispensable partner and a very good friend. [applause] applause]d well, thank you for coming. Thank you for being here. It is a great pleasure and honor. I found one of several references to you in the various kissinger memoirs. I will not be the one about you being a terrible punster. You became one of you became a good friend. He had an original perspective. Praise from caesar. You went on to a very distinguished career, which could be the subject of another talk. I am in the curious position, you have an excellent book, addition of the number of interviews your edition of the number of interviews. I will refer to some of the things in the book that will be openended. The book is very short, very accessible, interesting. The best thing to do is to buy it and read it. You cannot go wrong. Appropriate, if you are here at the library, the Nixon Foundation played a part in the genesis of these interviews. Ambassador lord i have been going around the country promoting this booklet. No other scene compares with this one. It is the Nixon Library and museum and this is about the nixonkissinger Foreign Policy. Conducted 30 hours of interviews with president so, that isurs, and also very relevant. He was in the white house when i was. Crucial and i is am delighted that hugh is the new president he interviewed me on this book, by the way. Interviews. Al the keyanels on some of references and we prevailed on kissinger to reflect back on these events. It is extraordinary. Events 50 years old. Would beread extraordinary for 30yearold talking about last weeks news. The point i am making, the foundation, together with the national archive, supported the interviews and no one is more than jonathan, who is essential in the editing and video. Tion of the if not for them, we would not have this book. One last comment, i mentioned hugh interviewing me for the , youin my moving around we havethis afterwards, another idea we are toying with. Onput out a press release the book before it was issued sawa good friend of mine the press release on his iphone and the iphone cut off the last two letters of the book. You see what is coming, right . Kissinger on kissing. Title to boosthe the sales. Video,ave a very short about two minutes, that was made for dr. Kissingers birthday which was in new york in may. This is a couple of clips from the interviews. Six interviews . Flavorves a very brief of what the book is based on. Nixons Foreign Policy, grand strategy. It was the improvement of the relationship of countries to each other, the balancing of their selfinterest would the security of the united states. I have not studied any american he did so in terms of practical experiences in meeting with leaders. My approach was very similar to his in terms of focusing on objectives. Historicalerial was and philosophical. Aw the world in terms of that i had studied. Our strategic objective was to prevent the soviet union from becoming the dominant country. The soviet army had just occupied czechoslovakia. The soviet military pressure was a feature. Nixon began by opening armscontrol negotiations of Strategic Nuclear weapons. The soviet union tried to blackmail us. We said, we will go to china first. Nixon faced the problem of china from the view of world order in his view was world order. His view was getting china involved in the international whole fathom of International Politics would be transformed. Consider theve to impact of china. And he calculated that we might produce a situation in which rica would be closer to then they would be to each other. I looked at the war plans and the expected consequences of nuclear war. Those were the compelling moments. Occurring at the high point of the vietnam war. It was one of the main themes of the Nixon Administration. We saw the possibility of and toting agreements indicate specific steps towards it and to combine these two actions in one relatively brief period of time. We always had the view that the breakthrough in negotiations would calm when dashwood, when of the arab countries would come that one of the arab countries concluded that the we established ourselves as mediators between the arab and israeli side. Conjunction this in with the soviet union because in soviet union still had the arab world. People said this is madness. Society fromaking where it is to where it has never been. To walk alonege part of the way. [applause] nixon liked to spring surprises and his announcement of his first two principal advisors checked all of those boxes. His Economic Advisor was a harvard professor who was a kennedy supporter and a member of the Kennedy Administration and his foreign advisor was a harvard professor who worked for his political rival. In the interviews, after kissinger says to you, if you consider that i spent 15 years of my life trying to keep him from becoming president , it remains astonishing that he chose me for his security advisor. Politics breeds strange bedfellows. What do you think nixon saw in kissinger and why did kissinger say yes . Ambassador lord i want to thank you for that excerpt. It sets up the year and the book very nicely. Andas a Strange Alliance nixon showed great courage in doing this. He was a conservative from the west coast, distrustful of the ivy league and harvard professors. Immigrant jewish teaching at harvard and working for nelson rockefeller. They had actually never met, maybe once at a social meeting. He read kissingers books. He knew to do that he needed a very able, thoughtful National Security advisor. Heap politics aside and thought about he put politics aside and thought about the National Interest in what would serve his interest in following forming a new world order. One other aspects let me get to henrys acceptance. One otherwhen he was asked by te president to be National Security advisor, instead of saying yes immediately, he hesitated. Partly due to loyalty to rockefeller and uncertain about what nixon was going to be doing. Rockefeller chewed him out, you have to serve your country. He is taking a chance, not you. Henry immediately saw that. Have said yes anyway because his main motive was serving the National Interest. I am sure he left at the chance at theomething leapt chance to do something about it. He consulted with johnson and other president s. These are the main motives. What really brought them , common approach to Foreign Policy. A strategic conceptual approach that looks at the world and longterm trends. It isdo to one area not just not just to react in kneejerk fashion. It was clear they each shared strategic worldview, which was a major reason he was chosen. And clearly why kissinger joined him. They brought different strengths. Traveled the world extensively and knew many World Leaders and studied Foreign Policy and was the best prepared president ever for Foreign Policy. Kissinger strength was. Istorical, philosophical they had the same instinct on strategy. It was a wonderful mix. Mentioned the president elect wanted to bring Foreign Policy apparatus into the white house. The interesting thing i had not been before, were mixing and kissinger where nixon and kissinger go out to see the dying general eisenhower at walter reed. He gives them some specific advice. Brush withnger has a the former general. Ambassador lord henry not only recall strategy and specific milestones but he punctuates the copy with anecdotes. In this case, it was early in the administration, kissinger had the conventional mistaken view that eisenhower was a guy. T i think eisenhower was one of our great president s. And went out as a courtesy given eisenhowers interest in National Issues and they had a meeting with the middle east and they went out to walter reed hospital. The very next day, not because their meeting but because they told eisenhower about an eisenhower chewed kissinger out. How dare you let this stuff get out in the public. Kissinger said, i am not sure i can control this. He said, young man, if you cannot control these things, you do not deserve it. From the very first weeks of the administration, plagued by leaks. Before we get into talking about the book, i want to talk about you. When you are a High School Early 1950s, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up . Ambassador lord secretary of state. [laughter] ambassador lord i did have an interest in Foreign Policy early on for two reasons. Much intowas very National Culture and voted for eisenhower, by the way. She was involved in lot of international and domestic issues. We sat around the dinner table and these issues would come up. I did all sorts of traveling when i was young. Wasof my vacations uzbekistan, as a casual example. How. Not quite sure yale. H major at scienceot of political and history courses and went to graduate school, where i met my wife. She took extremely good notes in economics class and that was my week subject. I decided to become her friend. That is how we got going. You were ending this major who became you were an aglish major who became diplomat. And she was an economics major who became a bestselling author. Distinguished academic career. What was the path that led you to kissinger . I had gone from the Foreign Service to the defense department. And i worked for a brilliant young person named talbert, suingt, who ended up kissinger later. I will not get into the details. Join the staff a month after i started. We should not spend too much time on me. We ought to spend it on kissinger and nixon. It was a great opportunity. I had to have , a 15 minute interview. Treasurytary of the was on the phone. Debate and int want disagreement, good intellectual exchange for my staff. To Foreign Policy, i want you to carry it out loyally. The point is, the first year i was not in the front office. I was sitting across from the eisenhower office. Send kissinger memos. Devils advocate, challenging. I wrote several memos that were critical about some of the things nixon and kissinger were doing. Men ornot like the yes yes women. As long as you argued intelligently, he respected that. This was a good example of someone who encouraged debate. He is a legendarily difficult boss. Some of the stories have to be where there is smoke, there is some fire. True or untrue . Ambassador lord true. He was one of his top assistants. Theye in the middle were in kissingers office. I was not there. I am not sure it is true but it is a good story. He stepped over the guys body to get to the phone. I will give you another example. Unbelievable respect and affection for henry. Even if you dont to him the transcript of this meeting even if you do not send him the transcript of this meeting. He was not perfect, like some of us here this evening. Myould like you to read eward. Ord. He stretched my nerves and stretched my horizons. I have always been appreciative of the climb as well as the view. Writewriting, i can fairly well, nowhere near like my wife. She does fiction and i do nonfiction. I did speeches for henry. It would go Something Like this. The timing would be just before the redskins kicked off before the cowboys. Work on the to speech so that was pretty annoying. One reason i quit about once a week. About 90 true and it gives you the flavor. You a topic to write a speech and i would come in two days later with a draft and he called me in his office the next day and say, is this the best you can do . Henry, i think so. I will take another whack at it. Best youure this is can do . I thought so, henry. This goes on for six drafts and i am getting annoyed. , henry, i have looked at every sentence and i have tweaked every and;, i cannot improve this speech. He said, in that case, now i will read it. [laughter] onthe way, he would push me writing memos to the president for him. Another staff member might be good on research. He had a sense of where to push and were not to push. You recommend reading your fr eword. It is not only edited transcripts of dutch unedited transcripts of interviews. It is not only unedited transcripts of interviews. Ambassador lord i framed the chapters. It is not uninterrupted it is not at all uninterrupted reading of transcripts. In the book, he has an interesting assessment of the sion. Strategic vi he was interested in the conceptual aspects of Foreign Policy. He says to you, nixon was, except for the founding fathers, the american president who. Hought of Foreign Policy in a way that the balancing of their self interest would promote peace and the security of the united states. He thought about that in relatively long range terms. Is that the way you think of nixon . Ambassador lord absolutely. Centristlast remaining in america. I am a flaming centrist. Was a political appointee of reagan and clinton. Of the seven president s i have served, nixon was the most formidable in Foreign Policy. A relativelyg from objective he is in a class by himself. Thecannot take away strategic approach. Theye reason why approach things the same way. Things hele of knew exactly how to work with kissinger. He struck a beautiful balance. Some president s micromanage. Determineer used to who could play on the tennis court. Some others would delegate completely. Had to make the courageous war,ions with the vietnam china, going to the middle east. He had to back up kissinger and he had a strategic approach. Then he left it to henry to do the actual negotiations and tactics and never secondguessed him and henry always had the confidence that he would be backed up by the president. China, before the historic october, the chinese presented a totally different approach from what nixon had approved. There was no weight to communicate back home no way to camino kate back home. There was no way to communicate back home. He agreed to the chinese approach, which proved to be successful. It shows you how they work together. To the longterm grand strategic vision, there is an axiom that dr. Kissinger quotes at least three or four times in the book about no half measures. Payssador lord you have to a price when you go halfway. The china visit was carefully set up. Bold move to send the National Security advisor secretly to china. He could not know how the reaction was going to be back home. That, went full board on taking a chance on negotiating in the middle east. The soviet influence. , only the moscow summit launched a major offensive against South Vietnam. The president ordered a very even though he thought it might jeopardize the summit. He had major arms control agreements t up. Teed up. By the way, kissinger and i and this is correct in terms of policy in vietnam which will probably sink the summit. I went to camp david to write the speech. Nixon said, the soviets will go ahead with the summit. They have too much selfinterest, and he was absolutely right. Moscow, i was in moscow, i was in charge of the president s briefing books and we were sitting in an office near the kremlin or in the kremlin and there was an agreement being signed by president nixon and they were going to take a break for half an hour and we were all going to go out in a motorcade to talk about vietnam. Even though they agreed to have us come when we were bombing the , theyut of their allies had to show they were loyal. Leaving me behind with the briefing books. Knowing henrys temper, i thought he was going to be mad even though it was not my fault. Ta