Word: metternichs
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...former Harvard professor's strength is his abhorrence of sloganeering in world affairs and his knack for breaking complex problems down to their more specific and manageable components. At one and the same time, claims one White House observer, he is "Richard Nixon's Richelieu, and his Metternich...
Twenty years ago, only a Metternich might have appreciated Dean Acheson, that rarest of all Americans, the model diplomat. Excessively sharp of mind and tongue-and not at all afraid to show the biting edge of either-Acheson was not destined for public popularity as Harry Truman's Secretary of State, particularly in an era when careers could be smashed overnight by little more than whispered innuendoes of "Communist" or "leftwing" sympathies. Present confusions and elapsed time, however, have created new perspectives on the diplomatic problems and achievements of the Truman Administration...
...public, as the years from 1882 to 1935 -- years of almost constant musical detonations. The main crisis was that the girdling shadow of the colossus Wagner had to be escaped. The entire community of Europe agonied in the punishing ascendency of the magnificent nineteenth century figures: Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms, Metternich, Bismarck, Darwin. Music was caught in a vortex of gigantic, lavish attempts at the final romantic masterpiece. Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Richard Strauss's Symphonia Domestica and Alpine Symphony, Schoenberg's Pelleas and Melisande and Gurre-Lieder, Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy were all part of an increasingly grotesque effort...
...examples given by Kissinger of Metternich, Castlereagh and Bismarck do not prove the excellence of their mastery of an imaginary "axiom." Nor does the mention of the Congress of Vienna, in which England did not really participate directly and which was mostly a declaration of Christian faith and defense of the monarchies and their protection. It was imposed by Emperor Alexander of Russia. As for Bismarck, he structured and strengthened his country and by imperialistic military victories imposed his will over Europe...
They were all reactionaries who stood in the way of republicanism, to be sure, but Metternich and Castlereagh particularly understood the need for "legitimate" political structures, for satisfying national (if not popular) aspirations, for balancing the powers of their day. Says Kissinger: "An international order, the basic arrangements of which are accepted by all the major powers, may be called 'legitimate.' " The world conceived in the Congress of Vienna ultimately crumbled, but only after a century of relative peace. The Germany constructed by Bismarck blundered into a fate of blood and new division, but only after the Iron Chancellor lost...