Transcripts For CSPAN3 Nixon Administration Foreign Policy 2

CSPAN3 Nixon Administration Foreign Policy July 13, 2024

Foreign policy approach. Reflects on grand strategy and leadership. Mr. Lore describes president nixons relationship with his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger and how it was instrumental in developing Foreign Policy strategies. The Richard Nixon Foundation Hosted this event. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Im with the Richard Nixon foundation. Welcome to the library. Before we introduce our speaker, i wanted to mention a couple of special guests. We have our distinguished speakers daughter here, lisa and her husband, jack wild. And we have betsy huet, the wife of our newly elected president and ceo, hugh huet. Our speaker was to kissinger as kissinger was to nixon. He joined the staff in 968 as special assistant traveling the world on just about every major event in the cold war. He was with him during the grinding talks with negotiators in paris that cull min nated in the paris peace according of 1973. He was with president nixon in moscow during his first president ial trip there in the Historic Arms control treaties in may 1972 and he was there for shuttles after the 1973 war. And he is a quay actor in president nixons historic trip to china in february 1972, known as the week that change d the world. Ambassador lord went to hold such president of the counsel on foreign relations, ambassador to the peoples republic of china and assistant secretary of state for Southeast Asian and pacific affairs. From 2015 to 2016, he conducted several hours of oral histories with dr. Kissinger on behalf of the Nixon Foundation and the interviews cover a variety of subject matter. China, russia, the middle east, vietnam, Leadership Strategy as statesmanship and can be found in this highly readable look. Kissinger on kissinger reflections on grand strategy and leadership. It is available for purchase in our store. Ambassador lord will be interviewed by dr. Frank beggan. Dr. Gannon on tabed his masters after working advertise iing, he worked with churchill to write the definitive biography of sir randolphs father. In 1971, gannon became a white house fellow under rums field in the Nixon Administration anded under ron zeigler. In 1974, he left washington the california aboard air force one following nixons resignation and was a chief Editorial Assistant on rn. He is he has the rare distinction of having interviewed nixon for 38 hours in 1993 which are available at t in digital format at the nixon president ial library. Well see some of these videos tonight. Yesterday our president visited dr. Kissinger in new york city knowing that ambassador lord was going to be speaking tonight. Dr. Kissinger asked hugh to pass on his best wishes to everyone here and watching on cspan and asked us to note that winston lord is an indespinsable partner and very good friend. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce dr. Frank gannon and ambassador winston lord. Well thaupg all for coming and thank you for being r here. Its a great pleasure and honor to end what hugh huet brought fresh from Henry Kissinger. I found one of several references to you in the various kissinger memoirs. I wont read the one about your being a terrible puntster, but this one, he says he, you, became one of my best corroborators, a resident conscious and close friend, more than almost anyone, he was familiar with my views, had a global, not simply a regional perspective. So praise from seize ar is praise. And after the association with dr. Kisonsingekissinger, you we very distinguished career, which could be the subject of another talk but im in a curious position that you have a book, an excellent book. Which is your edition of the number of interviews you conducted with dr. Kissinger. Im in the curious position of asking you to comment. Ill refer to some of the things of the book that are open ended. Its very short, accessible and really interesting, so i would recommend the best thing to do is to buy it and read it. You cant go wrong. Its always also appropriate here here at the library in the genesis of these interviews. First, a few personal notes. Ive been going around the country promoting this book and a scene than this one, that compares with this one in terms of the appropriateness and relevantness for reasons you have touched upon. First because it is the Nixon Library and museum and this is an Nixon Kissinger Foreign Policy. Certainly frank himself conducted 30 hours p president nix nixon, 38 hours, and so in a book thats based on interviewed also very rell rant, not to mention the fact he was in the white house when i was. Thirdly, the foundation has been crucial and im delighted to see this. Im delighted that hugh is the new president. He interviewed me on this book by the way. So the book, we did several interviews first of panels on some of the key events that were in this volume. Then we prevailed upon kissinger to do one interview to reflect back on these events. Its extraordinary. He was 93 when he did the interviews, reflecting on events that were 50 years old and its just amazing we barely touched the transcript. What you read here will be extraordinary for a 30yearold talking about weeks news but for a 92yearold talking about 50 years ago, its really quite extraordinary. The point im making is the foundations together with the National Archives supported these interviews and no one was more indespinsable than jonathan, who ran the videos, who was absolutely essential in the composition and editing and giving other advice. He worked closely for jeff sheppard, whos also involved. And if it wasnt for jonathan and jeff and the foundation, which i mentioned in my acknowledgments, we wouldnt have this book. One last comment i mentioned hughs interview of the book, were looking for ways to make this a best seller. You all certainly can help. But we have another idea that were toy iing with. We put out a press release on the book before it was issued and a good friend of mine, tom, i hate to drop names, but tom saw the press release on his iphone. Saw a very small space and the iphone cut off the last two letters of the book. So tom got you see whats comeing, right . Tom got very excited. Went out and bought 100 copies think iing he was getting a boo kissinger on kissing. So we may change the title. Kissinger on kissing, so we may change the title so it boosts the sales. I have a very short video that was made, about two minutes, that was made for dr. Kissingers 95th birthday which was in new york in may. And this, its a couple of clips from the interviews, so you conducted, was it, six, twohour interviews over a period of several months. Thats right. And so this gives a very brief flavor of what the book is based on. Nixon sort of followed politics, the grand strategy, that Foreign Policy was the improvement of the relationship of countries to each other, the balancing of their self interests, with remote peace, and the security of the united states. And i havent studied any other american president who thought of it in such conceptual and such long terms. While nixon was focusing on objectives, he would talk in terms of the practical experiences that he had had in meeting with leaders. My approach was very similar to his in terms of focusing on objectives, but the material things were historical and philosophical, i thought in terms of aknoll gonalogous to t Current System and the lessons that i had studied and draw from it. The key objective was to prevent the soviet union from becoming the dominant country. The soviet army had just occupied czechoslovakia. And 42 divisions were sitting on the chinese border. So the use of soviet military pressure was a feature of the cold war, where nixon began by opening arms control negotiations on Strategic Nuclear weapons. The plan was to have the summit with the soviet union, to create additional incentives in china, but then the soviet union tried to in effect blackmail us, with the prospect of a summit, and acted on it, so we reversed the project, and we said well go to china first. If you look at what nixon said about china, he addressed the problem of china from the point of view of world order. His view was that by getting china involved in the international system, a whole pattern of International Politics would be transformed, because all other countries would then have to consider the impact of china in terms of the new dispense sation. And he calculated that we then might pursue the situation in which america would be closer to most of the contestants than they were to each other, and therefore have a strong bargaining position. The second or third day in office, i looked at the war plans, and the expected consequences of the nuclear war. Some would say that we will not negotiate, that we will simply let it be, without being able to device a strategy which you could use it in a way that would not destroy civilization, those were the compelling motives. The summit, with bresch nev in 72, occurring at a high point of the vietnam war, demonstrated one of the main themes of the Nixon Administration, we started out, it resulted in the possibility of negotiating agreements forward, and to indicate specific steps towards it, and to combine these two actions in one relatively brief period of time, over months, symbolizes the special nature of the Foreign Policy that nixon conducted. We had all had the point of view, that the great view in negotiations, when one of the arab countries concluded that the soviet military support was not the way to achieve their objective. And during the war, woe managed to establish ourselves as mediators between the arab and the israeli side. The war had to be ended, and we had to do this in conjunction with the soviet union, because the soviet union still had the major influence in the arab world. Somebody had said that were, in a limited period of time, we are going to have a big array of negotiations with the soviet union, after we have opened china, people would have said this is an absolute fantasy. Any leader who has the task of taking a society from where it is, to where it needs to be, and you need courage to walk alone. [ applause ] nixon liked first and he liked to spring surprises, and his announcement of his first two principal advisers ticked all of those box, chief economic adviser was a harvard professor who was a kennedy supporter, and a member of the kennedy administration. And his principal foreign adviser was a harvard professor had worked for his political rival. In your, in the interviews, dr. Kissinger tells you, 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 adviser. The politics breeds strange bed fellows but nixon and kissinger were truly an odd couple. Right. What do you think nixon saw in kissinger and why do you think kissinger said why . First of all, let me thank you for the excerpt that sets up the era and the book itself nicely. It was a strange alliance. And nixon showed great courage in doing this. I mean he was a conservative from the west coast. Distrustful the of the ivy league and harvard professors and here you have a jewish immigrant teaching at hard and working for, harvard and working for nelson rockefeller, it was not forordained. They had once met but not at a social meeting. Nixon had read kissingers books. Nixon wanted to dominate Foreign Policy and he was so well versed and he was so interested in this, and he knew to be able to do that, he needed an able and thoughtful National Security adviser. And so he put politics aside, and thought about the national interests, and also what would serve his interests, in forging a new world order, and so just the shear brilliance of nixon, already exhibited this. Now to get one other aspect, mainly the view of the world, but let me get to henrys acceptance. He himself said shamefacedly, when he was asked by the president , to his surprise, to be National Security adviser, instead of saying yes, immediately, he hesitated. Partly out of misplaced in this case loyalty to rockefeller, partly not entirely sure of what nixon was going to be doing, and he went to rockefeller, who chewed him out and said you got to serve your country, what the heck are you doing, hes taking the chance, not you, by picking you. And henry of course immediately saw that, and henry would have said yes anyway, because his main motive would be serving the national interest. He is someone who would analyze Foreign Policy and history, all his life, and im sure he left it to chance to do something about it, in terms of policy, he had been adviser to jfk, and consulted with johnson and other president s. So these are the main motives, and then what really brought them together, and its in the foreword to the book that henry writes which is the common approach to Foreign Policy which we have seen examples of, namely the strategic conceptual approach that looks at the world and longterm trends that takes into account the impact of what to do in one area, with one country, and others, and does not just react in kneejerk fashion to discrete events but ties them together in a mosaic. So it was clear they each shared this strategic worldview which i think is probably a major reason that nixon chose him as well as the others i mentioned and clearly why kissinger was happy to join him. An they brought digit strengths. Nixon as a congressman, more importantly, as Vice President , and then as private citizen, that traveled the world extensively, and knew many world leaders, and studied Foreign Policy, and was the best that a president ever, for Foreign Policy, kissingers strength was historical, philosophical, conceptual, strategic, they had the same instincts in strategy, but one brought the residence of history and the over brought the immediacy, other brought the immediacy of the knowledge of world affair, so it was a wonderful mix but not foreordained. You mentioned the president , and the president elect, wanted to bring the Foreign Policy apparatus into the white house. You have a very interesting thing that i havent seen before, where nixon and kissinger go out to see the ailing and in fact, dying general eisenhower, at walter reed. And he gives them some very specific advice and Henry Kissinger has also kind of a brush with the former general. Its an interesting anecdote. And whats interesting about this book, that henry not only would call strategies and specific milestone, but he punctuates his recounting with anecdotes. Some revealing. Some amusing. In this case, it was early in the administration, kissinger had the conventional mistaken view that eisenhower was a decent guy but wasnt brilliant, you know, he soon learned differently and by the way i think eisenhower is one of our great president s, in my opinion, so they went out to, as a courtesy, in one sense, but also given eisenhowers interest in national issues, and they just had an meeting on the middle east i think it was, and they went out and greet him at walter reed hospital. The very next day, not because of their meeting, but because of somebody in the nsc, there was a leak in the press about what had happened, the meeting, the very things he told eisenhower about, and eisenhower chewed kissinger out, saying how dare you let this stuff get out in the public you just told me about, and kissinger said, well, im not sure i can control this, and he said, young man, if you cant control these kind of things, do a better job, due deserve, you dont deserve it, and he gained henrys Great Respect as a result of that. That was from the very first weeks of the administration, plagued by leaks and that was, i think they had briefed eisenhower on the most secret plan in the middle east and the next day it is on the front page of the New York Times. Right. Before we get into talking about the book, i want to talk a little bit about you. When you were a high school student, in the early 50s, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up . Secretary of state. [ laughter ] no, actually, i did have an interest in international relations, Foreign Policy, fairly early on, for two reasons. One, my mother was very much in the public service, national cochairman for eisenhower by the way, but she took Eleanor Roosevelts place as ambassador to the u. N. For human rights and she was involved in a lot of international, as well as domestic issues, so we sat around the dinner table, these issues would come up. And then secondly, i did an awful lot of traveling, when i was young. One of my vacations, from yale, was, it was uzbekistan and kazakhstan, you know, just to take a casual example. So these two forces suggested i wanted to go into these field but i wasnt quite sure how, and so i made sure i took a broad education, english major, at yale, so i think writing is important no matter what, took a lot of Political Science and history courses, and then went to the graduate school, where i met may wife, at the fletcher school, she took extremely good notes in economics class, and that was my weak subject, so i decided to become her friend, so thats how we got going on that. So you were an english major who became a diplomat. She was an economicing may, economics major who was a best selling novelist. She was originally a chemistry major and blew up the lab and said she better go into some other discipline. Its really true, by the way. And you also, you had, to put it mildly, a very distinguished academic career. What was the path that led you to the kissinger . It was really by chance. I grown up in the Foreign Service to the defensive Department Policy planning st

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