Henry Kissinger: Relevance at Age 100

By Shlomo Maital

       Earlier this year, I wrote a blog about the amazing Henry Kissinger.  “Kudos to Henry Kissinger,” I wrote. “Next May 23 he will be 100 years old.  And his mind is still active and bright, and he is still writing books. His latest is: Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.

        Henry Kissinger passed away the other day.  He was 100.  A full century.  And he was active to the end.  Foreign Affairs magazine noted that Kissinger was “the only American official ever to have held all of the levers of foreign-policy making—for two years he served simultaneously as national security adviser and secretary of state—he has no peers in the history of U.S. foreign relations in the superpower era.”

         For me, Kissinger is personal.  He came to his adopted country as a Jewish immigrant from Germany,  and served in the US Army.  What Kissinger taught me was the right and obligation of us seniors to fight to remain relevant.  When Kissinger no longer travelled the world, he remained relevant by writing, sharing his insights and wisdom.

      It is widely said about him that he had strategic insights and wisdom – and moral failings (because of the shady countries and leaders he did business with).  Given the proliferation of world leaders who only have moral failings, with no compensating pluses, maybe we should be more appreciative of Kissinger.

      Kissinger left the sleepy halls of Academe (Harvard) to change the world.  I took early retirement from Academe in 2001, and went out to work with startups for a decade.  Like Kissinger, I perceived the enormous gap between the theories of Academe and the practical realities of the world.

      I just turned 81.  I will try, as Henry Kissinger did, to remain relevant, by sharing in words whatever insights I’ve picked up over the years.   The historically black colleges used to have a fund-raising slogan: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.  There are lot of us senior minds – I call us ‘snow topped idea volcanoes’ – who tend to be ignored by the world.  Fight back.  Your minds, wisdom, knowledge, ideas,  must not be wasted. The world can’t afford it.

           Rest in peace, Henry.  Our appreciation for your legacy can only grow.