Tue Apr 7, 2020 – 11:57 am EST
NEW YORK, April 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― A Nobel-winning American foreign policy expert has warned that the United States will have to join a global program to overcome the damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Henry Kissinger, 96, was the national security adviser and secretary of state for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. For the rest of his long career, he has served as an adviser to political and business leaders. The Wall Street Journal published the iconic political thinker’s response to the international health emergency on Friday, April 6.
Kissinger stated that “the world will never be the same after the coronavirus” and that the United States government will have to sustain “the public trust.”
“In a divided country, efficient and farsighted government is necessary to overcome obstacles unprecedented in magnitude and global scope,” he wrote.
“Sustaining the public trust is crucial to social solidarity, to the relation of societies with each other, and to international peace and stability.”
The former official stated that the current U.S. administration has done “a solid job in avoiding immediate catastrophe” but that its “ultimate test” is stopping the virus and maintaining “public confidence in Americans’ ability to govern themselves.”
At the same time, Kissinger called for the government to launch “a parallel enterprise for the transition to the post-coronavirus order.”
Coping effectively with the political and societal damage will take international collaboration, he warned.
“Leaders are dealing with the crisis on a largely national basis, but the virus’s society-dissolving effects do not recognize borders,” he wrote.
“While the assault on human health will — hopefully — be temporary, the political and economic upheaval it has unleashed could last for generations,” he continued.
“No country, not even the U.S., can in a purely national effort overcome the virus. Addressing the necessities of the moment must ultimately be coupled with a global collaborative vision and program. If we cannot do both in tandem, we will face the worst of each.”
However, Kissinger hinted at American leadership in this global endeavor by citing both the Marshall Plan, which helped to rebuild western Europe after its devastating by World War II, and the Manhattan Project, which beat Nazi Germany in the race to produce the first nuclear weapons.
“Drawing lessons from the development of the Marshall Plan and the Manhattan Project, the U.S. is obliged to undertake a major effort in three domains,” Kissinger wrote.
“First, shore up global resilience to infectious disease,” he continued.
“We need to develop new techniques and technologies for infection control and commensurate vaccines across large populations. Cities, states and regions must consistently prepare to protect their people from pandemics through stockpiling, cooperative planning and exploration at the frontiers of science.”
Kissinger next directed the USA to “strive to heal the wounds to the world economy” which he noted are “unlike anything ever known in history.”
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“The historic challenge for leaders is to manage the crisis while building the future,” he concluded.
“Failure could set the world on fire.”
