Trump's Folly

"Kissinger, a brilliant, German-born statesman, embraced realpolitik-a pragmatic, power-based approach to foreign policy that downplays morality and ethics. Reagan believed that although realpolitik might be pursued by other nations, the concept was alien to the United States. He thought that it undermined American ideals, which were a source of strength and not a weakness. He promised that if he became president, he would place human rights and the expansion of human liberty at the center of his national-security strategy."

"The New York Times reported at the time that senior Soviet officials complained that "a planned Presidential meeting with Soviet dissidents would be an unwelcome breach of superpower protocol." Reagan's determination to press the human-rights issue in Moscow "loomed as a potentially disruptive issue on the eve of his arrival," the story said. "Moscow has traditionally resented what is seen here as an unwarranted and intrusive American assumption of moral superiority.""

In the 1970s, an ideological struggle within the Republican Party contrasted Henry Kissinger's realpolitik with Ronald Reagan's moral-centered foreign policy. Kissinger favored a pragmatic, power-based diplomacy that downplayed morality and ethics. Reagan argued realpolitik was alien to the United States and undermined American ideals, which he viewed as sources of strength. Reagan pledged to prioritize human rights and the expansion of liberty in national-security strategy. He called the Soviet Union an "evil empire," framed the Cold War in moral terms, and met with over 100 Soviet dissidents in 1988 despite Soviet objections.

Read at The Atlantic