THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2024 61 Our talk turned to Chancellor Adenauer, whom Kissinger admired, in part because of the old chancellor’s judgment (directed at Franz Josef Strauss, the Bavarian paladin) that “one should never confuse energy with strength.” He told of a memorable episode with Adenauer: e two had once had a conversation in which they concluded that the breach between the Soviet Union and China was widening. When Adenauer later made this same point to President John F. Kennedy, adding that “your own adviser Kissinger agrees with me,” JFK expressed his displeasure that his own adviser was not sharing his insights with him. Kissinger told the story without the consternation he must have felt at the time—and with a bit of satisfaction that, after all, the insight had been correct. He called JFK “charismatic but super cial,” adding that “Nixon was better equipped but then obsessed with Kennedy.” For Kissinger and me—indeed, for all Americans then in Berlin—Kennedy remained a presence, almost spiritual, because of his passionate expression of solidarity with the city. Recalling my earlier days as a student at Bonn University, I mentioned a remark by Adenauer that I remembered every time I glanced at the Rhine. e di erence between European and American civilization, Adenauer once said, can be traced back to their river systems: e rivers of Europe ow south to north, bringing civilized habits with them; in contrast, the rivers in the U.S. ow north to south, without the same nourishing e ect. Kissinger was intrigued by the geographical principle but did not accept its universal validity. Instead, we agreed, Adenauer’s remark said more about him—as a Catholic soul with a Rhenish heart who served as mayor of Cologne and chancellor in Bonn—than about cultural determinants. As for current German leaders, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the Social Democrat, and the up-and-coming Angela Merkel, the Christian Democrat who had just become her party’s head, Kissinger asked the same questions: What was their understanding of history? eir seminal experience? eir generational imprint? What did they know of the U.S.? Did they feel an emotional bond with Americans? Answers to such questions, he believed, o ered a window on their psychology, a foundation stone of their politics. In neither case was he sure of the answers. He had come to Berlin for a closer look. A Generational Divide Kissinger’s writings make clear that he viewed the return of Germany after World War II to the community of nations as one of the greatest successes of American diplomacy. Now he was troubled, however. A new generation was rising in German politics. eir historical knowledge seemed limited, their political orientation uncertain. e generational prism was a main lens for Kissinger. Judging by his April 6, 2000, thank you letter to Ambassador John Kornblum, Kissinger was most taken by a small luncheon: “ e opportunity for candid discussion with such a group of young leaders was extremely helpful to my understanding of some of the issues and trends that will be dealt with in the coming years. I greatly appreciated the time with them.” ere was always the old guard. At the Adlon Hotel, Kissinger rendezvoused with former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Kissinger was also eager to see his old friend, Grä n von Dönho , a wonderfully cultivated German from an earlier cultural epoch, a woman who was, as I knew from her memoir and mentioned to her in the Adlon lobby, only two degrees of separation (or, as the Germans say, two handshakes) from Wolfgang von Goethe. Kissinger and I reminisced about his hometown of Fürth, which I had once visited by bicycle, riding around looking for Kissinger’s boyhood home. He recalled his return to his native Germany during World War II, this time wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army. He related one of his assignments, sitting outside an o ce and trying to detect former Gestapo types solely by their appearance, commenting that it was a bit preposterous. Kant and Spengler At one street corner, he spotted a poster announcing the Ninth Congress on the German philosopher of the Enlightenment Immanuel Kant, a conclave that overlapped with his own visit in Berlin. at brought a gleam to his eye. “Kant!” he said, A control officer does not have the authority of, say, a jockey over a horse; I was more of a stable-hand, helping the real rider into the saddle.
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