Few of those present on the dais at the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner last autumn will forget the sight of the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, sharing a plate of pasta with Henry Kissinger. One of the principal reasons for the warm friendship that developed over the years between the two men was their mutual knowledge and love of history.
When invited to pen a reflection at the celebration of Dr Kissinger’s 100th birthday in 2023, Cardinal Dolan wrote: “The art of diplomacy requires precision in certain areas – economics, military readiness, geography – and a keen sense of the expectations, motives and goals of the other party. In saluting Henry Kissinger on his 100th birthday, we hail a consummate diplomat, one in the pedigree of a Metternich or Ercole Consalvi, and a master of these skills just mentioned.
“Sound and fruitful diplomacy also requires two more talents, however: a grasp of history and an appreciation of culture. I laud Dr Kissinger for his insistence that diplomacy is only mediocre if it lacks an embrace of both.”
Cardinal Dolan would frequently pop into Kissinger Associates’ Park Avenue offices – just round the corner from the his home on Madison Avenue – for informal conversations. On a recent occasion, Kissinger commented: “How can anyone understand Russia if he has not read Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, savoured Tchaikovsky and studied the Russian Orthodox Church?”
As Cardinal Dolan observed, it was a plea for history and culture to recover their centrality in international discourse. This conviction was a guiding force in Kissinger’s own exercise of statesmanship and is reflected in his last public speech at the Alfred E Smith dinner, an edited version of which follows. These twin principles lead to his outline in that speech of the role of leaders and US leadership in chaotic times.
Recently, Kissinger became obsessed with the revolution in artificial intelligence and its impact on society. While he hailed its potential benefits, he also saw its potential for destruction when applied to modern weaponry: “Our technology has outrun our understanding.”
Cardinal Dolan pointed out in his birthday tribute to Kissinger that while the term “history” is clearly understood, the term “culture” is more elusive. He explained that culture includes core characteristics such as value, faith, language, poetry, art, music, family and homeland: “Simply put, to engage is the noble art of furthering peace and security among countries without a knowledge of and reverence for culture, could only be half-hearted.”
When I spoke to Cardinal Dolan at the end of last year, he revealed many little-known aspects of Kissinger‘s character. He was fascinated by the Catholic Church and in awe of Pope John Paul II. We should not be surprised, he continued, that the chant “We want God” greeted the Holy Father when he returned to then-Communist Poland for those “nine days that changed the world” in June 1979.
In the same vein, he added, it was no surprise the subsequent revolution, which led to the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, would be led by a worker from Gdansk, Lech Wałęsa, wearing an icon of the Black Madonna, the “Queen of Poland”, on his lapel. Kissinger also spoke with affection for Benedict XVI, whom he had known well before his election as pope.
Perhaps surprisingly, Cardinal Dolan found his friend to be very humble, interested in asking questions of his interlocutor rather than making pronouncements. His wit and humour met its match in the cardinal himself, a key factor in their friendship over the years. On the specific issue of China-Vatican relations, Kissinger seems to have supported the controversial overtures to China made by the present Pope and lauded the underlying conciliatory approach that it reflected.
In 2014, at the invitation of Cardinal Dolan, Kissinger visited St Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, the seminary for the Archdiocese of New York, for a discussion moderated by the cardinal. Kissinger’s opening presentation was brief, and the rest of a long illuminating evening was spent in answering questions from the seminarians.
It may come as no surprise that Kissinger lamented “cancel culture”, which he viewed as oppressive and toxic, and something from which society needs to be “awoken”. He articulated that what America and the world needs is leaders who are “statesmen and prophets”.
In his concluding remarks at the Alfred E Smith Dinner, Kissinger quoted Benedict XVI’s observation that “diplomacy is the art of hope”. This is equally true of leadership, he said: a great leader is the giver and protector of our hopes. To the very end, “from the vista of his century”, Kissinger expressed the belief in his final public utterance that the United States “will call forth leaders of courage and character to continue the American journey”.
<em><strong>Henry Kissinger's speech at the 2023 Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner</strong></em>
"I last addressed this dinner nearly a half-century ago, in 1974. On that occasion, I suggested that 'a society thrives not on its victories, but on its reconciliations'. That sentiment is still applicable today, amidst international tension, domestic division and breathtaking technological change. We should remember Al Smith and his enduring spirit of reconciliation. 'The flag stands for equal opportunity,' he declared, and his life was a testament to constructive patriotism.
"National renewal in our time requires leaders who can channel the crosscurrents of America as Al Smith did. In that spirit, let me say a few words about leadership. Leadership lifts people from where they are to where they have never been. On that quest, the leader must harmonise society’s past and its future, its experiences and its aspirations.
"The first stage on that journey is for the leader to seek to fulfil a society’s best sense of itself. No people can remain great that concentrates on impugning its own historical self-image. Smith’s was not a policy of grievance, but of achievement and prospect.
"A leader must balance fidelity to history with analysis of the present and intuition for the future. The leader weighs those elements of reality which offer opportunities for vision, those which must be managed, and those which steel society for its tests. The true leader discerns society’s vital interests and devises a strategy for attaining them. In turn, strategy is formed by its objectives, the markers along the way to accomplishment. Transformational leaders respond to their societies’ failures by appealing to their peoples’ most basic values – which in our society are freedom, hope, transparency of government, and equality.
"The leader achieves consensus by affirming a clear sense of purpose. A view of the future is the only inducement to shouldering the sacrifices that greatness demands, but we need a combination of the visionary and the tactical. Few of our foreign policy challenges will lend themselves to purely visionary solutions. Paradoxically, if we are to avoid permanent conflict, most of them require a gradual approach and sustained effort.
"In China, the United States for the first time encounters a country with resources potentially comparable to its own. Each country thinks itself exceptional, but in different ways. China expects that its civilisational continuity and magnitude will command respect. America acts on the conviction that its values are universally applicable. The key test is whether these concepts of national greatness can coexist. Equilibrium will not supply its own momentum; it must be constantly nurtured and sustained.
"With Russia, the challenge is whether that country can be brought to reconcile its mystical vision of itself with the independence of its neighbours. In Ukraine, the Russian insistence on security through domination has to continue to be resisted. But ultimately, Russia must be part of a final settlement. Only in this manner can Ukraine and the West build on the victories that they have already won and secure the freedom of Ukraine, the reduction of Russia’s conventional threat, the affirmation of Western values, and the revitalisation and expansion of NATO. The test of a post-war system will be whether it can eventually incorporate Russia into an enduring European order.
"In the Middle East, a barbaric attack by terrorists has redefined the problem for Israel and its allies. Past progress in the region has always depended on direct and active American diplomacy, and the United States must revitalise its historical role over time. But that requires America to recognise that, while Jerusalem renews its contribution to a lasting regional order, there will be no durable peace so long as Iran surrounds Israel with tens of thousands of advanced weapons. The immediate question is whether the Jewish state can fulfil its aspirations for freedom in the face of these accumulated arms, and the seemingly implacable hostility to Israel of some Palestinians that produced this latest disaster.
"The backdrop of all these challenges is the revolution in artificial intelligence. In its scope and potential, the advent of AI grows out of the invention of the printing press. Just as the printing press spawned the Enlightenment that enabled universal literacy, AI upends analytical reasoning by providing instantaneous answers to questions in search of explanation. But while AI promises many benefits, its application to advanced weapons creates a dangerous disjunction between the power of modern arms and the purposes of nations. Our technology has outrun our understanding.
"During such a revolutionary period, leaders will be tempted to await events. But as the scope for decision-making narrows, merely managing the status quo can be the most perilous course of all. As the prophets of AI drive technology inexorably forward, statesmen must emerge to reconcile AI and its fruits to ourselves, our societies, and the cause of World Order. Transformational times require statesmen with the vision to build toward a better future.
"Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed that 'diplomacy is the art of hope'. The same is true of leadership – a great leader is the giver and protector of our hopes. Tonight, as I observe the present from the vista of my century, I remain hopeful that the nation that produced Al Smith will call forth leaders of courage and character to continue the American journey."
<em>This is an edited version of Henry Kissinger’s address to the Alfred E Smith Dinner in New York on 19 October 2023, his last public appearance before his death on 29 November.</em><br><br><em><strong>History of the Alfred E Smith Dinner</strong></em>
The Alfred E Smith Foundation Dinner, commonly known as the Al Smith Dinner, was founded by Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1945, the year after the death of Alfred E Smith, the four-time governor of New York and, in 1928, the first Catholic to be nominated as Democratic candidate for a US presidential election. Proceeds from the annual dinner go to support the charities of the Archdiocese of New York.
The first gala of its magnitude held in the US, this formal occasion has become a key ritual of American politics. Held on the third Thursday of October since 1960, when John F Kennedy ran for president against the then vice president, Richard Nixon, it is traditionally the last event at which the two presidential candidates share a stage before the election.
The dinner’s first honoree to give a keynote speech was Sir Winston Churchill in 1946. Over the years, speakers – apart from the presidential candidates – have included King Umberto II of Italy, Sir Tony Blair, Clare Boothe Luce, Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Lee Iacocca, Tom Brokaw, Nikki Haley, James Mattis, Admiral Mike Mullen (chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and many other prominent civic, military and business leaders.
George W Bush spoke twice: first as a presidential candidate in 2000 and then in 2008. Only Henry Kissinger, however, was honoured twice: first in 1974 and later at the 78th dinner on 19 October 2023.
It would be his last public appearance before his death, at the age of 100, just over a month later.
<em>This article first appeared in the February 2024 issue of the </em>Catholic Herald<em>. To subscribe to our multiple-award-winning magazine and have it delivered to your door anywhere in the world, go <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/"><strong><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">here</mark></strong></a></em>.
