Nonnegotiable

Editor’s Note: Our old friend Michael Ledeen wrote this piece in 2007 that illustrates one of the fissures in conservative strategic thought that Kissinger and his critics on the right litigated.

Just before Thanksgiving, Henry Kissinger addressed the Iran question in the traditional language of realpolitik, and I’ve been procrastinating on my response. I’m always reluctant to disagree with him, in part because he is so very smart and experienced, and in part because I am most grateful for his many acts of kindness to me, and because I like him so much personally. Whenever we’re together he tells me I’m totally right about the war and above all about Iran, and consequently when he writes something that is pretty much totally at odds with what I’ve said, I suspect I’ve misunderstood him.

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Michael Ledeen

Editor’s Note: Our old friend Michael Ledeen wrote this piece in 2007 that illustrates one of the fissures in conservative strategic thought that Kissinger and his critics on the right litigated.

Just before Thanksgiving, Henry Kissinger addressed the Iran question in the traditional language of realpolitik, and I’ve been procrastinating on my response. I’m always reluctant to disagree with him, in part because he is so very smart and experienced, and in part because I am most grateful for his many acts of kindness to me, and because I like him so much personally. Whenever we’re together he tells me I’m totally right about the war and above all about Iran, and consequently when he writes something that is pretty much totally at odds with what I’ve said, I suspect I’ve misunderstood him.