Majesty, Poetry and Power

By Hugh Sidey

The Presidency/Hugh Sidey

The best a statesman can do is to listen to the rustle of God's mantle through history and try to catch the hem of it for a few steps. --Bismarck

When he was a student in the dusty stacks of world affairs, Henry Kissinger discovered Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who used power ruthlessly and successfully for peace, yet despite his immense ego, sensed his own insignificance.

Kissinger has pondered Bismarck's observation during his own journey through the corridors of world power. Not surprisingly, he has formed some ideas about leadership, ones that could help measure the men running for President.

"The task of a leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been," says Kissinger. "The public does not fully understand the world into which it is going. Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision. Those leaders who do not are ultimately judged failures, even though they may be popular at the moment."

The requirements of office foreshorten the opportunities for learning, argues Kissinger, "Presidents learn how to get on the nightly news to influence people and how to make decisions. But it is a myth that the presidency ennobles a person, that he can learn something mystical once he is in office. He cannot learn the substance on the job. If a President arrives an empty person, he leaves as one."

Worthwhile leaders, believes Kissinger, may quail before the Deity in their prayers, but on the job they never flinch. "To assume on your shoulders the responsibility for the people is an act of arrogance in itself," declares Kissinger. "Most action must be taken when a leader cannot see his way clearly to the end. What is needed is a curious combination of egomania and humility. If he is too much impressed with the size of the challenge, he does nothing. If he is too little impressed, he gets into trouble."

Much must rest on a "sense of history," says Kissinger, citing Harry Truman. When asked what he considered his greatest accomplishment, Truman told Kissinger: "Totally defeating our enemies in World War II, then reintroducing them into the family of man." Truman realized the necessity of imposing total defeat. "So many leaders think they can take away the curse of hard decisions by doing things hesitantly or by half measures," says Kissinger. "There is no reward for losing because of moderation.

"The most important quality of a leader is courage. He must act in risky situations on the confidence in his own judgment. He has a responsibility to society not to overstrain its fabric, but he must push it to the limits. He must define that margin where he can influence events. If he exceeds the margin he may bog down. If he goes below the margin he may become irrelevant. If he allows it, the public will project its own insecurities on a leader. Politics is the management of people. It is important to understand the psychology as well as the symptoms of problems."

The search by some modern leaders for the quick fix has often magnified the problems, insists Kissinger. "The effective use of governmental power today is an accumulation of nuances. It is a hundred things done a little better; failure is a hundred things done a little worse. Power is not one big breakthrough."

Leaders must believe in power, he says. They must have a sense of majesty, possess dignity, a touch of poetry and at the same time a tolerance for what is imperfect. "Too often these days we have developed self-hatred because we have had to act imperfectly.

"Leadership is not something you do just as a job," says Kissinger. There must be a clear call, a special spirit that binds men to their times. "We are losing the relationship between men and events," he says. "We must find those who can bridge the gap between experience and vision."

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