Centenarian Kissinger Does China One More Time!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Over the past month I have made two grueling journey's on passenger airplanes.  I am seventy-five-years-old with breathing issues, and there were times during those journeys when I did not think that I would be able to make it to the next plane - or perhaps even to the next meal.  Airline travel can be insanely hard even for the young and healthy, and for the elderly it can be damned near impossible.

That's why I was so amazed to hear that former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had gotten on a plane this past week and flown to China, a country he first visited in 1971 as he made preparations for Nixon's historic trip - and a country which he had visited many times since as a private citizen who earns a living peddling diplomatic contact and access information to international businesses.  Kissinger owns a private business which profits off of his history and connections around the globe.

The fact that Kissinger chose to make another trip to China was no real surprise.   He is well-liked by the Chinese government and they treat him more graciously than they do representatives of the Biden administration.  And by keeping all of his contacts current in China, Kissinger also fattens the bottom line of his business enterprise.

The surprise was that Kissinger is still able to bounce around the globe at all - you see, he turned one hundred last May!  Heinz Alfred (Henry) Kissinger was born in Furth, a city in the German state of Bavaria, on May 27th, 1923 - the same year that a young Adolph Hitler failed in leading his famous "Beer Hall Putsch," also in Bavaria.  Kissinger was nine when Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany in  1933, and five years later the young German Jew and his family fled Germany, first for London and then to the United States, as Nazi intolerance was on the rise.

In America young Henry picked up multiple degrees at Harvard and went to become an expert in diplomacy.  He became an influencer and adviser to New York Governor (and later Vice President) Nelson Rockefeller, and ultimately landed a job as National Security Adviser in the Nixon administration.  Nixon was able to elevate Kissinger to Secretary of State during his first term in office, and he remained in that position throughout Nixon's time in office as well as during the presidency of his successor, Gerald Ford.

After that Henry Kissinger got into "for profit" diplomacy, a sea of opportunity which he still navigates - even in his one hundredth year.

Henry Kissinger's time in the political world, and particularly his tenure as Secretary of State, was awash in accolades and allegations.  He is credited with opening China to the West (and beginning Taiwan's long march toward the dustbin of history), helping to bring about the official end to the war in Vietnam through the Paris Peace Accords (for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize - an award that was bitterly contested in many quarters).   Kissinger has also been accused of contributing to war crimes and genocide in Southeast Asia, Pakistan, and Chile.

Now Henry Kissinger is one hundred years old - and he is once again visiting China.  Like the energizer bunny, he just keeps running and running - but I'm betting that he doesn't run across any airports rushing to catch planes - and that he doesn't fly coach when he does get to his plane.  Age has a few privileges, but wealth has many more.

Heck, I might even fly off to China if someone would bundle me up, put me in a private jet, and fly me there!   But the meal had better be more than a few lousy pretzels!