HENRY KISSINGER DIES

The Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell issued  a statement with a personal reflection upon the announcement of the death of Henry Kessinger, the diplomat and former Secretary of State of the United States.  This released a slew of counterarguments and calling the man a war criminal and all sorts of other derogatory names. That’s fine and those people are entitled to their views. He has a complicated legacy and his policies were wrong and with numerous deaths.  The problem is that has nothing to do with his relationship with The Bahamas which was what it was as you see from the statement below from the Minister. So let’s not get the two things mixed up.

30 November 2023

I extend condolences to Nancy Kissinger on the passing of her husband Henry at the grand age of one century. As Lynden Pindling used to say: this was a good innings.

His storied career as Secretary of State of the United States in the tradition of Metternich is so well known, it bears no repeating here. What I acknowledge is he and his wife’s frequent annual visits to Nassau and vacationing at Lyford and having dinner a couple of times. One such visit with Dr Kissinger on one side and Paul Volcker, the central banker on the other.

Later in a chat in the margins of the UN, we agreed that The Bahamas was a favoured vacation spot for the U S northeast establishment which establishment largely had outsized influence over U S policy and therefore gave our country outsized access.

May he rest in peace.

Photo shows Dr Henry Kissinger with Fred Mitchell and Ambassador Stan Smith at the office of Dr Kissinger on 22 August 2016

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