Far too often, the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other – it should function as a bridge between them.
History is not, of course, a cookbook offering pretested recipes. It teaches by analogy, not by maxims. It can illuminate the consequences of actions in comparable situations, yet each generation must discover for itself what situations are in fact comparable.
In the hands of a determined Secretary, the Foreign Service can be a splendid instrument, staffed by knowledgeable, discreet, and energetic individuals. They do require constant vigilance lest the convictions that led them into a penurious career tempt them to preempt decision-making.
I don’t stand on protocol. Just call me your Excellency.
I don’t consider China a communist state, no. I know that sounds paradoxical, but it’s my view.
A nation riven by factions, in which the minority has no hope of ever becoming a majority, or in which some group knows it is perpetually outcast, will seem oppressive to its members, whatever the legal pretensions.
Diplomats operate through deadlock, which is the way by which two sides can test each other’s determination. Even if they have egos for it few heads of government have the time to resolve stalemates, their meetings are too short and the demands of protocol too heavy.
Jews were segregated from 1933 on. We could only play against other Jewish teams. This wasn’t just social segregation; this was the beginning of the extermination of the Jews. That’s why my family left Germany in 1938.
No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.
An expert is someone who articulates the needs of those in power.
Countries do not assume burdens because it is fair, only because it is necessary.
I have great respect for the Taiwanese. They have done an extraordinary job. But it was not a sustainable position to say that the legitimate government of China resides in Taiwan, which at that time didn’t have much contact with the mainland.
When you travel as secretary, one problem you have is that the press comes with you and wants an immediate result because it justifies their trip. And sometimes the best result is that you don’t try to get a result but try to get an understanding for the next time you go to them.
Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided; more often it is a crisis invited.
Committees are consumers and sometimes sterilizers of ideas, rarely creators of them.
John Paul II was one of the greatest men of the last century. Perhaps the greatest.
Henceforth the adequacy of any military establishment will be tested by its ability to preserve the peace.
Certainly not a party of the workers and the peasants. In fact, Jiang Zemin in recent weeks has officially said that capitalists and the entrepreneurs should be enrolled in the Communist Party.
History knows no resting places and no plateaus.
We must learn to distinguish morality from moralizing.