On June 2, government-aligned expert Zaal Anjaparidze, while commenting on U.S.-Georgia relations, quoted Henry Kissinger, “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.” Anjaparidze’s post was covered by pro-government media outlets Marshalpress, Reportiori, and Kvira.
Henry Kissinger’s quote is being circulated without its full context. The quote appears in a book by American writer and political commentator William F. Buckley and, according to Buckley, is related to the Vietnam War. In the book, Kissinger is quoted as saying that if South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu met the same fate as South Vietnam’s first president, who was killed during a coup, the world would conclude that it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy but fatal to be its friend. Thus, the quote refers to a specific situation and the possible perceptions around it, rather than reflecting Kissinger’s general view of friendship with the United States.
The quote mentioned by Zaal Anjaparidze appears in William F. Buckley’s book “United Nations Journal: A Delegate’s Odyssey.” In the book, Buckley recalls a conversation with Kissinger about the Vietnam War. According to the book, Kissinger made this statement during that conversation.
Buckley writes that in November 1968, after U.S. Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford criticized South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu’s position in the Paris negotiations, Kissinger called Buckley and noted that Clifford’s apparent goal was to remove Thieu from power before Nixon’s inauguration. (South Vietnam had initially refused to participate in the Paris talks.)
William F. Buckley: “I still have the notes I took. ‘Nixon should be told,’ Kissinger said, ‘that it is probably an objective of Clifford to depose Thieu before Nixon is inaugurated.’ Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
From the full quote in the book, it is clear that Kissinger was trying to warn Nixon that the removal of Thieu, leader of a U.S.-allied country, would harm the United States’ reputation.
Ngo Dinh Diem was the first president of South Vietnam. During the Cold War, South Vietnam was a U.S. ally and part of the Western bloc. Diem was killed during a coup in 1963. According to the U.S.-based research institution, National Security Archive, declassified documents from 2020 indicate that President Kennedy was disposed to support the removal of Diem.
In 2022, the same Kissinger quote was used, again without context, by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian to criticize the United States. His comment was later covered by Kremlin propaganda media.
Archive: Zaal Anjaparidze, Marshalpress, Kvira
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