Jeffrey Goldberg breaks into his Sabbath to bring us this gem from the Nixon Administration:
“The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy,” Mr. Kissinger said. “And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”
“I know,” Nixon responded. “We can’t blow up the world because of it.”
Now, as a matter of grand strategy, this happens to be absolutely correct. Indeed, it’s a rather classic statement of Realpolitik of the type for which Kissinger is famous.
But, damn, it’s a callous conversation. Even though we wouldn’t risk thermonuclear annihilation over it, mass murder would an “an American concern.” And there’s no “maybe” as to whether it would be “a humanitarian concern.”
