Kissinger As An Evil Cartoon

JCO

Dec 1

Henry Kissinger probably calling in another massacre.

Been quite a week for garbage people, and no, the second part of that headline isn't the worst prog band you could possibly imagine.

I can't build much on Adrastos's excellent overview of the awful that was Henry Kissinger. I recommend it as a remedy if you happen upon any of the GIANT OF FOREIGN POLICY HE WILL BE MISSED fawning tributes to a man who once said when asked about the U.S. approval of the Indonesian government slaughtering 200,000 human souls in East Timor:

"Foreign policy is not missionary work."

Helluva fella. My Kissinger memories I will relay today are about two political cartoons that I have spent the week trying to find, but alas, can only find one. I was a very political kid in a very political FDR/JFK/MLK household, and was kind of a weird middle school child in the late 70s/early 80s who loved punk rock and followed politics a lot closer than my peers. So I remember these particular two cartoons related to Kissinger.

The one I found was in response to the October 29, 1980 presidential debate. This featured three candidates, President Jimmy Carter, Dumb President Prototype Ronald Reagan, and the independent, Future Trivia Question Answer John Anderson. Anderson was a liberal Republican (yes, kids, at one time they existed) who shook up the race that year after losing to Ronald Reagan in the Republican primary. This was a key moment in the GOP's long disturbing march to Trumpism. For example, Anderson was booed loudly when he backed gun control during the primary campaign. His independent campaign fell flat, only gaining 6.6% of the vote in 1980.

Anyway, during the debate, Reagan compared Carter to a witch doctor, Carter for some reason replied by talking about his daughter Amy, and Anderson brought the house down by saying "I feel inadequate to compete with little Amy or the witch doctor," drawing a lot of laughs from the audience.

Cartoonist Pat Oliphant marked the occasion two days later with this, taking shots at Carter's always curious pronunciation of the word "nuclear" and Reagan's "secret weapon" in the campaign, being advised by The Evil One:

This stuck with me for whatever reason, especially the image of Kissinger with his Nixon shrunken head and "K" necklace.

The other cartoon I cannot find, but was done by Jeff MacNeilly, another legendary political cartoonist. It was about a moment mostly forgotten: Back in the summer of 1986, the GOP tried to recruit Kissinger to run for governor against Mario Cuomo. Yes, this really happened.

It also was as absurd to a lot of people back then as it must seem to you right now, dear leader. Political cartoonists pounced, and I think the late great MacNeilly had the best one, or at least the one I remember. Since I can't find it on the Interwebs, I will have to describe it.

The cartoon showed Kissinger sitting on an outdoor stage, looking a little dejected after just speaking, with a banner that said something like "THE ALBANY JAYCEES WELCOME REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR HENRY KISSINGER." Most of the seats are empty, except for one guy in a farmer's baseball cap and overalls in the front row, with his head back snoring and holding an empty paper plate. The emcee of the event, also in fairly rural dress, is saying "We'd like to thank Mr. Kissinger for his talk on the economic impacts of New York state policies on central Asian micro-diplomacy or whatever the hell it was he was talking about..."

I think it succinctly destroyed any thought that Kissinger had any chance of reaching the New York State Republican who does not live in or near New York City.

Anyway, Kissinger is finally gone, and I will give the next to last word to a political cartoonist. But given the man lived to 100, I will give the actual last word to Mr. Joel.