WEBVTT - Part Six: Kissinger 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.800 Hi everybody. Robert Evans here and my novel After the 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.800 Revolution is available for pre order now from a k 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:08.440 press dot org. Now, if you go to a k 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:10.840 press dot org you can find After the Revolution. 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Yeah, 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.600 really meet me from eight hours ago, buddy. It's like 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.520 when Bill and Ted meet each other halfway through and 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.840 they don't another journey they're about to go upon. Yeah, buddy, 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.760 le up. So the things the thing that Kissinger gets 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:05.880 the most credit for that we haven't mentioned. We we've 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:07.479 talked about a bunch of the things that he gets 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.800 credit for is bringing peace to the Middle East. Um, 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.880 he does get credit for being that guy. Obviously he 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.119 did not do that, but he did play a significant 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:19.760 role in stopping what had been a decade's long cycle 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.160 of wars between Israel and the Arab nations around it. Now, 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.600 to call that bringing peace would be ignoring a tremendous 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.080 amount of ongoing violence against the Palestinian people. But Kissinger 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.000 did help ensure Like you know, there were all these 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.440 different like everyone would invade, YadA, YadA, YadA, there'd be 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.680 a bunch of fighting. That doesn't really happen anymore. And 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.200 Kissinger is part of why that doesn't happen anymore. The 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.320 gist of it is that on October sixth, nineteen seventy three, 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.160 on Yam kapoor Um, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.840 assault on Israel that for a time threatened the state's 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.440 very existence. Kissinger had not spent much of his time 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.600 working on Mid East related stuff up to this point. 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.240 This was partly because Nixon thought having a Jewish man 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.560 negotiate with Arab countries would be a had idea. UM. 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.200 It was also because Kissinger was kind of buried in 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.320 Vietnam stuff right. But by October of seventy three, negotiations 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.120 with Hannoi had been concluded, US forces had stepped back 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.679 from an active role, and Kissinger had been awarded a 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:20.480 Nobel Peace Prize with his Vietnamese counterpart Le Ducto. Absolutely now, 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.280 I can't. There's no counter argument. Absolutely no, he he 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.720 nailed it. Um, I mean now, Nobel Peace Prize. It 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:30.040 really doesn't. I mean, they must hit sometimes. I'm just 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.560 familiar with a lot of the nose, though it seems 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.480 mostly to be misss in my experience. When he got that, 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:41.560 that's called the no. Yeah. And you know who felt 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.640 that way, Gareth Lee Ducto, who was also awarded the 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.519 Noble Peace Prize with Kissinger. I don't want mine. I 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.880 don't want mine. Yeah. He literally was like, no, I'm 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.200 not going to take it. The war isn't over yet. 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.760 Like all he's done. All we've done is negotiate the 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.480 US no longer murdering people on the scale they had been, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.520 and he's in charge of it. Yeah. And its specifically, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.520 he was angry because right before the armistice was signed, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.840 in order to like try and force Hannoi to agree 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.640 on some points, Kissing Your orchestrated a massive nighttime bombing 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.760 campaign on Christmas of Hanoi. Um, they didn't bomb on 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:18.720 Christmas Day, just the day before, in a bunch of 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:20.760 the days after. But it gets called the Christmas bombing. 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:27.240 We're worried we'll hit center. Jolly blood on my hands. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.680 So Lee Docto was like, I don't I'm not going 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.760 to take an award for peace with this guy. Suck him. 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:42.520 So Kissing Your accepted it alone. Oh my god, he's 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:47.240 such a cool dude. He's such a cool dude. More 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.480 credit for me. I can't believe I'm the only one 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.240 who go out that this year. I must be really 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.120 good at this stuff. So yeah, he's like the con 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:02.040 wet Kanye of the Nobel Peace Price. Right right right, Sorry, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.640 you did great, But Kissinger had the best water of 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.360 all time, of all time. It would have been really 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:12.080 funny if Henry Kissinger had like shoved Taylor Swift off stage. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.680 You have the great, great piece, but come on talking 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:22.640 about the baby. So by October of seventy three, Kissinger 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.640 is free and clear and ready to get it on 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.320 in the Middle East. And this actually went better than 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.400 you might think. Weirdly enough, Henry Kissinger was probably one 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.839 of the fairest negotiators the United States ever sent into 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.599 that conflict. In fact, he was more or less in 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.400 constant tension with Israel because he would do stuff like 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.360 try to halt arms shipments there, like during the Okimpor War. 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:46.800 Right Israel's on a backfoot, They're in real danger of 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.279 being overrun. They want US weapons and like US arms 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.400 and a bunch more F four Phantom planes, and Nixon 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.560 agrees to give them to him, but Kissinger's like, we're 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.640 not giving them anything until they can arrange for commercial 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.159 flights to ship the weapons to them, because I don't 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.520 want I'm trying to negotiate with UM, with Syria and Egypt, 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.919 and if they see US military aircraft landing in UM 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.200 Jerusalem to give the Israeli's weapons, that's gonna funk up 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.800 my negotiations. So like, he's actually really unpopular with a 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:16.960 lot of folks in Israel because he does stuff like this. 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.159 UM And in fact, Kissingers and obviously like every US 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.200 negotiator in this conflict, Kissinger is more on israel side 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.520 than anyone, but he's it's probably fair to say he's 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.719 less on Israel side than any other negotiator we ever 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.640 put in there, which is like some weird It sounds 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.200 like he's the most progressive because I mean, like obviously 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:37.560 we had we could give a funk. You know, he's 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.760 not a Zionist. For one thing. He doesn't have like 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.880 there's not a you know, he's Jewish, but he's not 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.839 really that. Like there there is some amount of, like 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.640 as a Holocaust survivor. He believes strongly that, like you know, 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.440 Israel needs to exist, so he does have that going 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.239 for him. Again. He eventually agrees to ship them weapons 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.560 on US planes after it becomes enough of an issue, 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.080 but he like still moment of principles. The fact that 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.239 there's like any of that at all is weird. Yeah, 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.000 I mean like he probably had like a little Nixon 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:06.880 on his shoulder, who was like, I know, you're just 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.120 gonna be a jew about them, and he was like, no, 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.920 I will not not devil Nixon. It's weird how plugged 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:22.480 in you are to how Nixon reacts to everything exactly. Yeah, 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:27.920 oh man, So Kissinger's best relationship in the Middle East 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.200 wound up being with anwar Sadat the president of Egypt. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.440 The two like we're legitimately good buddies. They would kiss 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.159 each other on the cheek like they liked each other. 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:43.560 They found the one. Yeah. Meanwhile, Kissinger and Gold of 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:45.359 My Ear, which was the leader of Israel, had a 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.920 really contentious relationship. Um. At the end of the day, 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.080 Kissinger again would always side with Israel on existential issues, 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.440 but he wound up giving them a lot more ship 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.640 than you might expect. Now. The fact that the US 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.560 eventually sends in arms turns the war around for Israel, 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.440 which allows them their forces to deal decisive blows to 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.440 Egyptian and Syrian militaries. But once Israel was out of 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.120 kind of the period of most risk for them as 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.240 a state, Kissinger starts to push back on them even harder. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.280 He's particularly enraged at the fact that they kept attacking 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.480 while he was trying to negotiate a ceasefire. Um. And again, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.320 his main concern here this is not because he just 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.160 wants to stop the blood letting. It's really important to 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.360 him to negotiate a peace and it be seen as 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.080 Henry Kissinger brought peace to the Middle East, So he's 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.080 pissed that they're fucking over his negotiations. And he cares 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.840 more about his reputation than he does about Israeli military 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:38.600 success forgetting about the people of Kissinger. Yes, exactly, the 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:45.680 real chosen people. So when Israeli forces surround the Egyptian 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.800 Third Army and encircle it, violating a ceasefire, Kissinger is 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.320 livid um and he's particularly angry. We're not getting as 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.840 much into this aspect of his beliefs, but his whole 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:56.840 thing in this period, the reason he organs like as 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.160 we talked about in our China episode, and this like 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.320 three way to a messy thing that he deals with 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.800 China and the Soviet Union. Um, he wants what's called 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:06.920 a balance of power. That's his whole thing. He's he 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.520 gets a he's a he's a big cold warrior. Obviously 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.320 he overthrows a lot of communist governments, but he's not 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.440 one of these people who thinks we can eliminate communism. Instead, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.840 he really wants like this balance of power, and he 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:19.880 wants a balance of power in the Middle East between 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.160 Israel and her neighbors too. And he's lived about in 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.680 part that they violated the ceasefire. But he's also worried that, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.320 like well, if the Israelis wipe out the Egyptian third Army, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.600 that's going to mean Egypt is humiliated. And if they're humiliated, 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.080 Sadat can't actually make peace and there's going to be 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:36.960 another war. And I want to try and stop the 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:43.040 next war. Which but he is like broadly on the 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.280 right side of this um. Yeah. Over the course of 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.520 several chaotic days, he makes numerous trips between each of 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.400 the belligerent nations in this war, negotiating with their heads 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.880 of state, and one of his primary tactics is to 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.280 mock whoever he'd just been talking to when he's in 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:04.400 front of the next person. So like that guy, yeah, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.080 when he's so when he's dealing with Hafes asad Or 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.880 and Sadat, this means talking shit about the Israelis and 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.680 often Jewish people in general to get on their good side. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.320 So when Israel violates that ceasefire, he has heard to 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.640 complain at a meeting quote, if it were not for 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.520 the accident of my birth, I would be anti Semitic. 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:36.800 Oh my god. On another occasion, he says, quote, and 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.839 I need to remind you, this is a Holocaust survivor 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.200 saying this, boy, any people who have been persecuted for 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.199 two thousand years. Must be doing something wrong. Jesus Christ, 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.120 he fucking said that. Holy sh it, man, we are 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:58.560 just we are just such fucking assholes. I'm on fire, 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:04.880 I'm just now is so good down he kills at 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:11.000 the clubs in Damascus, And yeah, he is actually like 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.840 really popular with not all because there are other we 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.280 have quotes from other like people who are like particularly 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.959 other Egyptian military leaders under Sadat who are like well, 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.880 Sadat's fallen forward. He's obviously just saying whatever he thinks 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:24.920 will make us like him like he doesn't. Clearly he 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.400 can't believe this ship. He's just trying to like. There 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:29.840 are people who see through it, but he he's able 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.880 to trick The folks who matter, which is in this 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.200 case are Sadat and and hafez Um. So all that aside. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.640 This period is again, broadly speaking, the one where Kissinger 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.760 does the most actual good. But it's worth noting that 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:44.719 even when he's on the right side of things. I 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.680 think negotiating an end to a war is generally the 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.760 right thing to do when there's a war, um. But 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:52.560 even when he's on the right side of things, his 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.080 ego plays a massive and often toxic role in how 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.760 everything shakes out. See, well, all this is going on, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.200 Nixon is barreling towards impeachment, and a big part of 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.520 why he's constantly over there, Like while all of the 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.200 big milestones in the Watergate case hit, Like when when 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.720 Nixon is like ordering the cover up and ship and 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.000 doing the things that will get him impeached, Kissinger is 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.439 always away, Like he's like very studiously as soon as 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:17.560 the story breaks, like I need to be overseas as 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:21.360 much as fucking possible. So is it possible. He's competently 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.640 trying to negotiate Middle East piece because he's trying to 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.640 save his own ass and does Yeah, that is literally 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.439 what's going on. Because he's he's not a dumb man. 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.760 He sees that Nixon is fucked, and he doesn't like 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.400 when I can't just be doing nothing. Yeah, and why 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.480 don't I actually try to make this work? I guess 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.040 I'm in another trouble domestically. Yeah, I mean that's it. 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:42.800 Like he wants to because part of it is he 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.040 doesn't want to be near Nixon because Nixon's toxic, and 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.079 part of it is like, well if if the last 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.520 thing everyone remembers about Henry while Nixon is going down 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.880 is that he ended war in the Middle East. I'm 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.520 gonna keep being Secretary of State. You know. There's a 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.680 friend of mine who had this theory when he was 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:58.800 like he said, when it might even be a bit 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.800 I don't remember. When he's in like a ride share, 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.400 he won't talk, and then the last two minutes he'll 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.800 just take great interest. So he leaves on a real 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.640 high note. And so it's like he's kind of like 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.840 distant and not really doing much, and then the last 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:14.880 two minutes and be like, oh that sounds great, well, 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.240 good luck with your family. And then so that's kind 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.160 of like he's just trying to leave, like leave on 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:21.839 a high note. So the last thing he's going to 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.960 try to do is actually decent after a bunch of bullshit. Yeah, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.200 when I when I enter a party, I set off 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:28.920 an I e ed at the start of it, so 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.360 everyone's really like shaken up. But then at the end 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.199 I handle it a six pack of beer, and right 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.600 that means everybody is like, you know, that was the 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:38.600 guy who dropped the idea, Oh, come on, he's the 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.600 six pack guy in my opinion. That's who that guy is. 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:47.760 That is how Henrica Securr handle everything. So yeah, now again, 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.520 but here here's the thing. The fact that like this 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.079 is all existential for Henry right, ending the war in 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.959 in between Israel and in her neighbors is like he 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.440 knows he has to do this or he's not going 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.480 to keep his gig um. So not only is he 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.199 trying to negotiate peace, but he can't let anyone else 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.680 play a role in bringing peace to the Middle East, right, 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.160 because this is how this is his job interview and 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.920 you know how Henry kissing your treats job. You've seen 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.640 what he'll do for a job interview, right, he won't 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.240 do to get a job. I'd like, I can see 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.840 that list. So this becomes a problem when while this 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.679 is all going on, this Egyptian and Israeli general, you've 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.160 got this massive encircled Egyptian army, the Egyptian general in 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.040 charge of that in the Israeli general like meet each 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.480 other in the field between their armies and like sit 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.720 down and start negotiating a ceasefire and figuring out how 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.120 to pull like they start like talk like people like 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.319 it's one of these weird moments in military history where 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.400 these guys are like, I think we can work something out, 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:52.640 Like we don't need to be doing this anymore. Shoot 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:58.000 the bit, kill them quick. So Henry is enraged when 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:04.600 he hears this happening, and he's still and he starts again. 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.240 All these people who, like in any other situation, neither 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.200 like in Israeli general or in Egyptian general in the 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.760 nineteen seventies, not guys you would expect to be the 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:19.840 voices of reason, but because his kissingers in the story. Yeah, 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.640 so he starts maneuvering to make these guys shut the 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.600 funk up. Um. He sends a letter to the Israeli 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:29.960 ambassador asking what does Yarev? Yarev's the Israeli general selling here, 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.840 tell him to stop. Suppose Yahrev comes out a great 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.120 hero on disengagement, what do you discuss on December eighteenth, 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:40.720 which is the next round of negotiations. I mean, he's 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.040 such yeah, I mean, it's just what a heinous asshole. 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.840 I mean, I feel like he could still tell the 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.400 credit towards him, but he's like, I love my fingerprint, 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.680 sole I don't want to like get too into like 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.680 what might have happened. Because I'm not an expert on 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.040 either Egyptian or Israeli military history, but you have to 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.920 think maybe it would have and good if like an 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.960 Israeli general and an Egyptian general had like brought peace 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:06.280 to the conflict, and like maybe that had been part 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.240 of the military legacy in the area. Might have been nice. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.000 I don't know. We're staring down the battle of a 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:21.800 tragedy right now not recognized as the one so Kissinger 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.480 A biography continues the story quote at Kissinger's behest, both 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.640 Sadat and my year reigned in their generals at the 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.000 kilometer one on one talks that's like where this army 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:34.000 is encircled. The Israeli ambassador, although a Kissinger partisan, felt 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.560 that it was largely a matter of ego. Kissinger's view 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.360 was that if any concessions were to be made, they 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.040 should be made by him. Then it's recalled. He was 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.040 very upset when he found out that things were actually 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.320 being settled by the general's at Kilometer one on one. 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.080 We had to make them stop. Ego was a weakness 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.160 of his, but it was also the source of his greatness, 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:56.600 which I might with the weakness is understating, yes, I'm 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.480 in an air strike. Can we can we kill both generals? 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.240 And if we're going to find no generals, these guys 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.240 are getting a long way too well. And I didn't 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.320 I wasn't there. Listen, Dick, I know the Watergate stuff 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:18.360 has you, but can we invade both countries? Come? So 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:23.040 to his sort of credit though, the piece that Henry 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.200 helped negotiate into the Yom Kipper War would prove to 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.240 be durable, and it's set up diplomatic relations between Egypt 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.120 and Israel for the next time. There's this very powerful 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.840 moment when like gold of my Year, because like Sadak 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.040 still can't talk directly to Israel. There's a whole like 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.600 diplomatic thing going on. But he tells Kissinger to tell 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.280 her like I'm taking off my military uniform and I'm 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:45.840 never going to wear it again, basically like things do. 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.960 Like this is a really like good move in a 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.160 lot of ways. Obviously that you could say this also 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.760 like paves the way for nobody ever coming to help 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.880 the Palestinians again, which is worth noting, but it does 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.040 bring it into this series of like constant wars um. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.840 So yeah, what an amazing risk to take the to 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.680 be like you guys, stop, We'll do my version. We 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.359 gotta do it my way, Yeah, the Franks then of 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.080 Middle East peace negotiations. That is kind of the reputation 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.480 he gets because obviously this plays incredibly well for Americans, 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.080 and so Nick's Kissinger is seen as still this like 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.879 massive hero, even while this is a big part of 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:26.600 why he's so popular, even as the rest of the 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.560 Edmund goes down in flames. Now, this inaugurates a period 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.200 of what comes to be known as shuttle diplomacy. That's 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.120 a term you'll hear associated with Kissinger all the time, 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.440 and it's him flying all these different countries in the 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.760 Middle East and in Africa, him flying from like capital 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.200 to capital for weeks on end, doing these negotiations where 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.640 he's always the man in the center of things. Um 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.520 Henry actually kind of grew addicted to throwing himself in 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.200 the middle of international crises and flying NonStop between capitals 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.560 to do these negotiations. It was this and the popularity 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.600 he earned from being seen as a peacemaker that arranteed 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.639 him to keep his job in Ford's cabinet. One of 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.480 the few upsides to Kissinger's career prior to the seventies 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:08.600 is that he hadn't really fucked with Africa to any 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.800 appreciable degree. Now this is not because Henry Kissinger would 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:13.960 have an issue with fucking with Africa, but it is 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.760 because the US, like, we didn't have a huge footprint 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:18.879 and the continent until the sixties. You know, that's just 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:26.800 there's so many to ruin. Yeah, yeah, this is like 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:31.560 him learning Spanish. He just never found the time. Anyone. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.439 I'm a little older than I get the times I 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:39.080 can ruin. So um. Yeah. The the US footprint in 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.280 Africa started up when the c I in like the 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.720 early sixties. I think when the CIA murdered or allowed 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.560 other people to murder. It's a little unclear. Patrice Lamumba, 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.119 the left wing democratically elected leader of the Congo. The 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.399 US backed a right wing general. Well even calling like 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.199 right and left are less useful terms of this, but 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.240 we back a general called Joseph Mubutu, who proceeded to 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.679 spend the next couple decades robbing the country blind. It 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.760 seems like a pattern. Yeah, it happened. It's it's weird 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.680 that it keeps happening all the time. UM. While there 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.159 was other U S factory in Africa throughout the sixties 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.440 and early seventies, it stated a fairly low EBB until 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.520 April of nineteen seventy five, when Saigon fell to North 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.560 Vietnam now known as just Vietnam. Nineteen seventy five was 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.639 known by some in the media as the Year of Intelligence, 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.960 not because any particularly good decisions were being made, but 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.239 because Congress was investigating the presidency over Watergate, and there 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.560 was this big flood of public questions about clandestine foreign 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.480 actions carried out under the ages of Cold War politics. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.000 A lot of the stuff we were talking about in 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.920 episodes like two, three, and four had started to leak 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:45.119 by this point, and so people are like, there's this 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.560 big national discussion about like what the what should we 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:50.600 be doing? All the should we have like a CIA, 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.640 like should we maybe? And there are like the CIA 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.840 gets like the there's a reforming of the CIA that 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.520 occurs in this period. You can, yeah, you a question 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:04.600 the degree to which it mattered. M Yeah, it may 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.879 have made them less good at doing the bad things 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.399 that they did, um, but not for lack of trying 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:13.200 hard to imagine it's the reform in the CIA is 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.560 the difference between overthrowing salvador I end and those like 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.680 us guys pissing themselves in Venezuela after getting like arrested 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:29.119 by fishermen. Um. For Henry Kissinger, though, the Year of 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.120 Intelligence was a year where he spent trying to reorient 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.720 the United States towards a new anti communist conflict. His 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.800 target this time was the nation of Angola. Now, Angola 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.800 is a mid sized African nation located on the southwest 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.800 coast of the continent, directly under the Congo and directly 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:48.919 above Namibia. It's close enough to South Africa to get 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:50.879 fucked with, but not so close that they can just 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.760 send troops right over the border. You know, which is 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.960 a better place to be than directly bordering South Africa 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.920 in this period. In nineteen sixty one, the people there 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.280 are decided to have themselves a good old fashioned war 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.840 of independence which lasted thirteen years, killed tens of thousands 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.240 of people, and only ended when a coup overthrew the 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.720 dictator of Portugal. Now this coup was, by the way, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.880 very weird. Most sources will describe it as a left 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.400 wing coup against the dictator. The reality is a lot 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:19.399 more muddled. The guy who winds up in charge of 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.200 Portugal on paper is a monocle wearing general um who's 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:30.280 like him already yeah yeah, and he's not really leftist, 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:32.880 but the powers behind him are some very left wing 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.840