MEMORIES

I am an atheist more out of a lack of conviction than out of conviction, and so I am always looking for evidences either of the existence or nonexistence of a good God. My latest evidence, I am afraid, is of the nonexistence of a benevolent deity: Henry Kissinger has just turned 100. I mean really, there was no need for that

 

I knew Kissinger 65 years ago when I was a young instructor at Harvard and he was a somewhat older assistant professor. He was ambitious, condescendingly scornful of those of us who were terrified by the dangers of nuclear weapons, not very bright, but ominously skillful at advancing his career.

 

I only actually met Kissinger once and then, I am pleased to say, I was able conversationally to slip a shiv into him.  It happened like this. A number of us at Harvard were doing everything we could to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons. At one point, Kissinger wrote a letter to the Harvard Crimson in which he undertook to explain to us that “this is a very serious subject.” Not long afterward, he invited me to make a presentation to the seminar he gave each year on international relations in which he postured and preened before the young men who had come to Harvard from various third world countries and would go on in later years to be important figures in their home governments.

 

Kissinger asked me to make a presentation about The Strategy of Conflict, a splendid book by Thomas Schelling that had just been published. When I stop by Kissinger’s office before the class, I asked whether there was a blackboard in the room where we would be meeting. Kissinger asked why I needed one, and I said that I wanted to put up some mathematics as part of my discussion of Schelling’s book. Kissinger got a rather squirrelly look. It was obvious to me that he did not have a clue about game theory or anything associated with it and was afraid of being shown up for the poser he was. I looked at him seriously and said, “Well, Prof. Kissinger, it is a very serious subject.”

 

So much for fond memories. Later today I shall address the comments on my post of yesterday.