Kissinger and his statesmen

Isn't it extraordinary that a book written by someone who has just turned 99, has the excellence that

shows , both in his opinions and in the description of the facts that mark his six favorites in the world nomenclature?

In this recently published book, Henry Kissinger singles out six statesmen he says are his favorites: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Anwar el Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, and Margaret Thatcher.

With the exception of Nixon, who does not have to be part of that conglomerate after the frauds he caused (but, let's not forget that this president took Kissinger out of Harvard, where he taught history, and appointed him an adviser to the presidency of the United States , to which Kissinger owed his enormous popularity).

The book is superbly written and the reasons Kissinger evokes in choosing his six statesmen are compelling.

Also the reasons why he has chosen these six statesmen and not other western leaders.

One of the mysteries of the appearances in this book is that of Lee Kuan Yew, the true creator of the island of Singapore, which has the highest standard of living in the world and was "fired" by Malaysia, since it was considered a hindrance. For their develpment.

His case is truly tragic for the poor Malaysians.

This history is extraordinary, especially considering that its development and modernity are due exclusively to the efforts of its inhabitants, which has allowed the inhabitants of that island to embody one of the most advanced countries in the world.

(According to some statistics, it is the most advanced in the world).

The criterion that Kissinger follows to choose his favorite "statesmen" —he explains it very well in his book—, is the importance that the whole world gave them and what they achieved in terms of food, work and standard of living, something that makes Singapore a very special case: going from being one of the poorest countries to becoming an island where everyone works and earns high wages and which, furthermore, constitutes a paradigm that the poor countries of the world would like to imitate, justifies totally the choice of Lee Kuan Yew among this sheaf of excellences that constitutes the bulk of

.

Here is how that miracle happened, and, among other things, the extraordinary vision of its leader, taking advantage of the island's situation and turning it, little by little, into a safe paradise where the best businessmen in the world could locate their assets.

The key word is “honesty”.

The severity of its laws has to do with the prestige of that island, which has known - it was the most difficult thing - to play to be accepted as one of the most effective achievements of our time, as one of the nations that has taken to its extremes development and pre-eminence in the living standards of its population.

General De Gaulle appears as the one he was: a being out of series (and of the time), who, despite the hostility he always had against England —he opposed this country for so long until he succeeded— turned England into France during his mandate in a privileged country, to which all the others made concessions and gave prerogatives.

De Gaulle only defended the interests of France, something that was unusual, since all that happened when what counted was the disappearance of "nationalities" and the countries renounced this old symbolism for the constitution of groups, such as NATO and the European Union. European Union, which tend to replace the historical nations with supranational groups.

The Egyptian leader, Anwar el Sadat, who appears here with his patient and painful biography, has the great merit of having radically changed Egypt's appreciation of Israel, with which he established an effective collaboration, the first Arab country to do so , something that, although until now it has been more of a formula than of content, lends itself, in the future, to serving as an example to other Arab countries, of having a good relationship with Israel.

Although all the essays show a high level of writing —and the appearance of Henry Kissinger, sometimes receiving and giving his opinion together with these leaders— gives them additional interest, the best essay, and surely the one with which he most identifies himself, is the one dedicated to Margaret Thatcher.

That text is a true delight, and without a doubt it is the best of the series.

There it is, in great detail, the entire professional life of Mrs. Thatcher, who, in her beginnings, was just an honorable chemistry student at Oxford University, and who managed to rise to be the first woman to occupy the leadership in England, coming to accumulate a power out of series, and that managed -for the first time- that the conservatives won the English elections three consecutive times.

I am sure that those of us who lived there in those years will never forget the extraordinary verve that Margaret Thatcher spread to England, a country that had become accustomed to its decline, and to which Mrs. Thatcher communicated a bold and remarkable reflection for Europe, something that, with the famous Brexit, he was frustrated (until a similar leader returns to lead English destinies).

It was the first time that a conservative leader like Mrs Thatcher was defeated, in the years when she shone, by a conspiracy of her own party, which has been destroyed thanks to that popular clown, who would have been sad if she led the party again Conservative Boris Johnson.

and to which Mrs. Thatcher communicated a bold and remarkable reflection for Europe, something that, with the famous Brexit, was frustrated (until a similar leader returns to lead English destinies).

It was the first time that a conservative leader like Mrs Thatcher was defeated, in the years when she shone, by a conspiracy of her own party, which has been destroyed thanks to that popular clown, who would have been sad if she led the party again Conservative Boris Johnson.

and to which Mrs. Thatcher communicated a bold and remarkable reflection for Europe, something that, with the famous Brexit, was frustrated (until a similar leader returns to lead English destinies).

It was the first time that a conservative leader like Mrs Thatcher was defeated, in the years when she shone, by a conspiracy of her own party, which has been destroyed thanks to that popular clown, who would have been sad if she led the party again Conservative Boris Johnson.

The profiles of the characters are very well drawn and in the book all the necessary information is given to know them.

But, and in this there is a great merit of the essay, the biographical notes are equally substantial, and the reader can follow, inch by inch, the evolution of their lives along with their works, that is, the designs they tried to achieve, working as they did to change their countries for the better.

All of them had that merit: their country changed its face and profile after their time in power, but, of course, the significance of each one was different, although all of them influenced and changed the situation in which their countries were perceived by the rest of the world.

Mrs Thatcher, for example, changed the perception of England in the rest of Europe.

But, after the recovery of the Falklands, there was a different vision of England and its prime minister, Mrs. Thatcher.

After the chosen ones, Leadership has some pages in which Henry Kissinger explains the reasons why, he believes, those "chosen ones" changed the perception of their countries in the sphere in which they moved.

And his essay insists that those leaderships meant a profound change in the presidential function.

So all of them —except, perhaps, General de Gaulle— profoundly transformed their societies, leaving a mark that has not yet faded.

And all of them remain as leaders who worked with different fortunes, as leaders who, without flinching from the challenges they encountered, were able to acquit them.

And, the best proof, is the mark they left.

© Mario Vargas Llosa, 2022. Spanish-language press rights in Spain and Latin America reserved for Ediciones EL PAÍS, SL, 2022. Spanish-language press rights for other territories and for other languages, reserved for Mario Vargas Llosa c/ o Carmen Balcells Literary Agency, SA.

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