2023-12-04 18:15:43
EDITED – These could have been the last words of Henry Kissinger, who died on November 29, 2023 at over a hundred years old.
In any case, in his place, that’s what I would have said, just to end with a witticism. A good word sounding like an epitaph which is 100% in line with a long career.
Indeed, firstly, the expression “Hello from Alfred!” means “I have to go ! “ (1), secondly, Alfred is Henry Kissinger’s middle name, and, thirdly, an absolute master of diplomacy recognized by his peers, using the address towards him is essential.
Diplomacy, this precise subject of exchanges between States could not be more singular, since it consists (often) of trying to make two parties torn apart by generally bloody conflict converse, with infinite respect… And it is also the The art of politely telling each other abominable horrors, orally and face to face, between heads of state!
And I add to this that the Dictionary of unconventional French by Jacques Cellard and Alain Rey (2), indicates that, for a taxi driver, a waiter, a delivery man, etc., “getting hello from Alfred” consisted of dealing with a stingy or unhappy customer who does not let of tipping.
Thus, the formula corresponds well to the career of the “nice” Henry Alfred Kissinger.
Kind in quotes, because if among the leaders of NATO member countries, or attached to this supranational military organization, Mr. Kissinger will remain, in memories and history textbooks, as a man who throughout his life worked for peace, in the team opposite, it is more like a “Mr. Henry”, one of the bosses of the total mess that the world has become, in terms of peace and fairness, than the man — who was at the head of American diplomacy under Nixon and Ford — risks passing into posterity.
Kissinger may have received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, but the fact remains that in Asia, in the former USSR, in the Middle East, in Africa or in Central or South America… diplomacy “made in Kissinger ” will have spared no continent, sometimes for the better, and much more often for the worse.
It is in Asia that Kissinger’s record is most controversial.
In 1973, the year Kissinger received the Nobel (officially for ending the Vietnam War), he was at the same time negotiating the terms of this ceasefire, while the American army was carrying out the order to continue its bombings on Hanoi, capital of Vietnam…
Last July,Henry Kissingeralready a hundred years old, met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Although relations between the two leading world powers remain tense, Kissinger is today seen as a source of inspiration even in China. In the 1970s, when he was Secretary of State to Richard Nixon (then Gerald Ford), Henry Kissinger did a lot for China’s entry onto the international scene.
Unlike Emmanuel Macron who will probably be forgotten from a diplomatic point of view, we can affirm that despite the painful memories that hundreds of millions of people, or even more, will keep of him, deeply anchored in their flesh for some, at least as many people will keep Henry Kissinger in their hearts to lifeeternal.
Mister Kissinger, you have hello fromFrance-Soir !
(1) We can’t help but wonder why Alfred instead of Alphonse, Gideon or Siegfried?
The expression is not attested before the year 1930, but it was from 1925 that the designer Alain Saint-Ogan made the penguin Alfred appear, in his comic strip Zig et Puce (3), this animal being adopted by the two heroes. This character will experience great success, even to the point that derivative products will be created around this alcid. However, it turns out that when Zig and Puce managed to get rid of an opponent or teach him a lesson, they generally punctuated their victory with: “Hello from Alfred!”
It is therefore thanks to the great enthusiasm for these illustrated stories and their characters that the expression quickly spread into everyday language. It goes without saying that if the penguin had been called Gontrand, the face of the world would have been changed…
(2) Example of the use of the expression: “Guys like that deserve only one thing. Let it go wrong one day, and in the heat of the moment, we throw a prune at him from behind, as expected, and neither seen nor known, hi Wasselet : ‘Hello from Alfred!'” (Yves Gibeau, War is war, 1961)
(3) Zig and Puce will be the first French comic book heroes to express themselves in speech bubbles, these famous bubbles containing what the characters say.
#Alfred