Financial Times’ well-bred(?) man in DC, Edward Luce, tries to get Kissinger to loosen his tongue on Trump, and fails. a little on Helsinki, not really critical.
however, I liked this bit.
20 Jul: Financial Times: Henry Kissinger: ‘We are in a very, very grave period’
The grand consigliere of American diplomacy talks about Putin, the new world order - and the meaning of Trump
by Edward Luce
I sense that I am losing my battle to get him on to Trump - or failing to detect his hidden message. Is he saying we are underestimating Trump - that, in fact, Trump mmay be doing us the unacknowledged service of calming the Russian bear? Again, there is a pause before Kissinger answers.
“I don’t want to talk too much about Trump because at some point I should do it in a more coherent way than this,” Kissinger replies... “I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences. I doesn’t necessarily mean that he knows this, or that he is considering any great alternative. It could just be an accident.”...
https://www.ft.com/content/926a66b0-8b49-11e8-bf9e-8771d5404543
“I think Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretences...”
Yes the pretences may be given up...but some core realities remain. Take NATO for example. Trump essentially threatens to dismantle it and then all of a sudden the stubborn nations decide to pay up...
They realize, that for whatever reason, they still have a stake in what has been built.