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224

Henry Kissinger Letter Lot

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:NA
Henry Kissinger Letter Lot
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Fantastic, museum-worthy lot of letters signed by Henry Kissinger, many specifically relating to his foreign policy ideas and publications. Letters span from July 1955 when Kissinger taught at Harvard until January 1971, with the last letter written upon White House stationery when Kissinger served as National Security Advisor to President Nixon. Lot includes three autograph letters signed, 99 typed letters signed and, upon these letters, five additional autograph notes, two signed. All letters are written to Caryl Haskins, President of the Carnegie Institute in Washington, DC. In most of the letters, Kissinger asks Haskins for his opinion on various foreign policy publications, which Haskins happily obliges through edits to the drafts that Kissinger sends. These drafts include ''The Intellectual and the Policy Maker,'' retitled to ''The Policymaker and the Individual'' when published; an 80 page paper entitled ''Beyond the Summit,'' dated 20 April 1959, possibly unpublished or possibly integrated into Kissinger's book, ''The Necessity for Choice''; a 22 page internal policy paper entitled ''Observations on the Harvard Center for International Affairs''; and Haskins' lengthy edits to Kissinger's breakthrough book, ''Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy.'' Excerpts from a handful of Kissinger's letters include: 7 February 1957 typed letter signed upon Rockefeller Brothers Fund stationery, ''...I am fairly convinced that when the book does appear [''Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy''], some of my academic colleagues will be running amok and accusing me of warmongering. Our period seems to have a peculiar propensity for avoiding its difficult problems by denying that they exist...'' 27 February 1958 typed letter signed also upon Rockefeller Brothers Fund stationery, ''The hysterical phone call about the Bismarck manuscript was not to prod you into making comments, which will be more than welcome...but simply to reassure myself about the existence of the manuscript. The copy which I thought was in the office had disappeared...I do not know whether you are as nervous about manuscripts as I am!...'' Typed letter signed on Harvard letterhead dated 8 October 1958: ''...whatever we do in science cannot be an imitation of Soviet models and that the problem is nothing like so simple as looking for certain categories or specialities [sic]...'' Typed letter signed on Harvard stationery dated 9 February 1959: ''I returned a week ago from my trip to Europe. It was both an exciting and a depressing experience. Exciting on the level of the conference you attended in England - I found an enormous intellectual ferment and a willingness to ask non-superficial questions. Depressing because I am afraid that I had not realized the degree of disintegration of the American policy position...'' Typed letter signed on Harvard letterhead dated 14 August 1959: ''...We are leaving for Bermuda on September 8th...I am extremely depressed by the invitation to Khrushchev...'' Autograph letter signed on stationery from Bermuda, undated though September 1959: ''...The present situation is disheartening, not because the invitation to Krushchev [sic] is a tactical mistake - it is that too - but because of what it reveals about our demoralization...your point about the difference between pre- and post Newtonian outlook is, I believe, very important, and like many important ideas really quite simple once grasped...'' Lengthy 3pp. typed letter signed on Harvard stationery dated 12 November 1959: ''...could it not be argued that one of the crises the West faces is that it has not fully understood the implications of its own modernization?...or the relation of legitimacy to authority in modern society?...I do have some thoughts about the democratic process in new countries...The key problem seems to me to be to what degree it is possible to get self-restraint in new societies...The party system...can not work unless there is some mechanism for dealing with dissent than destroying it...The question then arises how this self-restraint can be achieved. I can think of four levels [Kissinger then presents the four levels with argument]...'' Typed letter signed on Harvard stationery dated 22 November 1963 (the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination though no reference is made of it): ''...I am sending you the issue of ''Confluence'' which contains this article...It is precisely this latent nihilism that he is trying to describe that worries me in Europe today...'' Autograph letter signed upon a postcard from September 1960: ''...The last weeks in America were incredibly hectic but at last the book is finished...'' Typed letter signed upon Harvard stationery dated 1 June 1961: ''...It seemed to me that perhaps my comments about [Harold] MacMillan had been somewhat cynical and sharp. I must say, however, that I take very strong exception both to the substance of British policy and, even more so, to their methods...'' Finally, a lengthy 3pp. autograph letter signed, undated, explaining in minute detail a misunderstanding which, Kissinger states, ''...embarassed [sic] me as much as everything I have ever done...'' Most of the 100+ letters are signed Henry, though a handful are signed ''Henry A. Kissinger''. Copies of Haskins' letters to Kissinger are also included. The lot is in very good condition, with only mild wear to the letters and no significant defects. An outstanding and important lot of letters from the foremost intellectual behind U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century.
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