patrick.net

...Kissinger’s bad advice almost cost Israel its existence.

In October 1973, when the combined armies of Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in what became known as the Yom Kippur War, Nixon’s senior advisers, led by Kissinger, urged him not to intervene and not re-supply Israel.

Kissinger told Nixon that if re-supplied Israel, he would risk a larger conflict with the Soviet Union, perhaps World War III.

Sound familiar?

Fortunately Nixon ignored Kissinger and ordered a massive airlift and military re-supply of Israel.

Ben Stein would write that Nixon "saved Israel when it was threatened with annihilation by its neighbors, sending a massive airlift of arms to Israel during the Yom Kippur War."

Nixon decision was bold and right. Kissinger was wrong again.

Israel not only won decisively the Yom Kippur War, but its victory laid the groundwork for Egypt’s leader Anwar Sadat to open a path to peace that led to the Camp David Accords.

Documents released in recent years show that during the Yom Kippur War Kissinger told the Soviets that "my nightmare is a victory for either side."

Kissinger’s unwillingness to confront real evil in favor of the status quo was apparent in policies he created for Nixon, and later, serving as secretary of state under President Ford.

Kissinger was the architect of détente, a policy that called for maintaining positive relations, engagement and co-existence with the Soviets.

Even if the Kremlin was expanding its power in the Third World, Kissinger held it was better never to directly confront the Soviets.

Détente turned out to be a disaster, allowing the Soviets to expand around the world almost unchecked. Détente also sparked the modern conservative movement.

In 1976 former Calif. Governor Ronald Reagan decided to challenge Gerald Ford for the presidency. Reagan’s main grievance?

Kissinger’s détente was a dangerous policy that was helping the Soviets win the global struggle against the West. Reagan lost that primary in 1976, and Ford went on to lose the election to Jimmy Carter.

But when Reagan won the presidency in 1980, he eschewed the Kissinger wing of the party. He discarded détente, taking a more confrontational stance toward the Soviets and their proxies around the globe.

Reagan’s policy of "peace through strength" worked. By the end of the 1980s when the "Evil Empire" collapsed, Kissinger’s policies had been, in fact, seen as a failure.

Today Kissinger is again advocating for a new détente, this time with Vladmir Putin’s Russia.

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