Henry A. Kissinger Quotes
We are making remarkable progress toward an agreement—and toward a nervous breakdown. It's going to be a race to see which we achieve first.
Commenting on Middle East peace negotiations:
Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State (Republican), U.S. National Security Advisor, Quoted in Time, September 8, 1975
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Erecat was expressing his frustration with the peace negotiations and the lack of progress.
DeKlerk had just become president of South Africa which was enmeshed in a brutal system of apartheid—racial separation with the 10% white population controlling the 90% black majority. The black political parties were illegal and net even recognized and there was no negotiation at all. The country was a world pariah, boycotted by many in the world including much of the Untied States. When De Klerk became president no one had any idea that he would make such a radical break with the past. However, he announced the lifting of the ban on the Black political parties, and the release of Nelson Mandela who had served 26 years in prison, and then made this famous statement which led to the modern state of South Africa. DeKlerk and Mandela shared the Nobel peace prize for their remarkable achievement.
Both delegations put larger issues on the table which led to the success of the negotiations.
Henry Alfred Kissinger KCMG is an American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and U.S. Secretary of State in 1973. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances, with two members of the committee resigning in protest.
