For many in India, Kissinger’s role as grand vizier Iznogoud to Richard Nixon’s Caliph remains his lasting, souring impression: a man who, during the Cold War, did every trick in the book, including send warships into the Bay of Bengal, to ensure that India did not get too comfy in the orbit of Soviet influence. His boss’ personal dislike towards Indians and Indira was mere fuel to press on his grand chess game. His ‘divide and fool’ communist Soviet Union from its ally China in the form of the great China-US thaw in the 1970s is a case book study of geopolitical orbital engineering. In that sense, he was the Machiavellian Copernicus of a generation: holding strong the heliocentric view with the US at the solar centre of the world system, while manipulating orbits of satellite nations, at the cost of the lives of whole populations in gravitational problem zones like Cambodia and Vietnam.
In his century-long life, Kissinger saw both Watergate’s Deep Throat and AI’s deepfakes, about which he aired concerns. It is no surprise he genuinely admired China, which he saw as his most gifted pupil. Kissinger will be remembered for his single-minded valuation of power. Which is why he should be remembered by Kissingerians without emotion.