Skip to content

Four Decades After Secret Bombings, Kissinger Cool With Drones

Henry Kissinger, cold warrior extraordinaire, is unimpressed with Sen. Rand Paul’s concerns about drone warfare.

The former secretary of State and national security adviser to President Richard Nixon, who helped guide Nixon through many a decision on the Vietnam War and its many bombings, watched the Kentucky Republican’s filibuster last week and dismissed Paul’s worry that the U.S. government would take out one of its own citizens on U.S. soil as ridiculous.

“Having seen many of these wars, I sympathize with President McCain,” he said.

“Sen. [John] McCain, [R-Ariz.], sir?” we asked, not sure if we misheard or he misspoke. The noise level at the West End’s Ritz-Carlton art gallery was loud.

“Yes, Sen. McCain.”

On this week in March 1969, Nixon and Kissinger began Operation Breakfast, the first of the secret Cambodian and Laotian bombings during the Vietnam War.

So, after the public outcry over those secret bombings, does Kissinger have any mixed emotions as he witnesses the American public’s support of the U.S drone program?

“I support the drone program,” he told us. Then he paused. “This is not an appropriate place for this.”

Then he turned his head to answer a guest wearing a white dress, adorned with silver sequins, who stuck her head between HOH and the gentleman.

And with that, Kissinger went back to the business of the evening, feting another cold warrior, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, with the National Defense University Foundation’s first International Statesman and Business Advocate Award.

Scowcroft, the man of the hour, shook hands warmly with President Barack Obama’s deputy secretary of defense, Ashton B. Carter.

“The problems we face around the world are not Democratic problems or Republican problems,” Scowcroft told HOH. “The answers are not obvious.”

And, he’s not happy about the split forming within the Republican Party over defense issues.

“Of course, not,” he told us.

Does he have any advice for his party?

“No,” he said, laughing.

 

 

 

 

 

Recent Stories

Trump’s pick to lead FBI identified ‘Government Gangsters’

Help wanted: Spending more time and effort in Congress

How a ‘horror movie kid’ went from Hollywood to working in Congress

Sacks seen bringing ‘on the ground’ experience to AI’s global challenges

Syria chaos could complicate lawmakers’ holiday endgame

NDAA features historic raise for junior enlisted troops