Carter Security Archives Show Zbigniew Brzezinski as a Duplicitous Thug

by Harley Schlanger

[Print version of this article]

With the death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the National Security Archives at George Washington University published a sampling of documents it had compiled on his administration, under the heading, “Jimmy Carter: A De-classified Obituary.” Among the documents were some which show the relationship Carter had with his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Though Brzezinski died in 2017, these quotes provide a window into his perverse mind, which continues to shape U.S. foreign policy through his protégés, as a variant of the ideology of British imperial geopolitics. He was a mentor to Madeleine Albright, who has been claimed by Antony Blinken as his mentor. The refusal of President Joe Biden’s regime to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the fighting in Ukraine reflects Brzezinski’s commitment to prevent Russia from emerging as a “rival” to the U.S. in Eurasia.

One of the documents was the National Security Council Weekly Report prepared by Zbiggy on April 21, 1978. In it, Brzezinski writes of the need to “toughen policy,” rather than just “negotiating agreements and devising formulas.” He called for adoption of a hard-nosed effort “to influence attitudes and to shape political events.” Among the proposed tactics was the use of “demonstrations of force … to infuse fear.” He advocated “saying publicly one thing and quietly negotiating something else.” Carter’s hand-written note in the margin of this doc says “Lying?” This duplicitous approach has been applied often in dealing with Russia, e.g., in President Clinton’s negotiations with Soviet President Yeltsin on NATO expansion, or the lying acknowledged by former French President Hollande and former German Chancellor Merkel in the Minsk Accord.

Zbiggy went on to call for “using black propaganda to stimulate difficulties” for our opponents. He concludes the memo by stating, “The world is just too complicated and turbulent to be handled effectively by negotiating ‘contracts’ while neglecting the need also to manipulate, to influence and to compel.”

A comment from Carter on Brzezinski’s predecessor as National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, is noteworthy. He wrote, “H.K. is a liar and also irresponsible. We must prepare to tell the truth about him.” Unfortunately, Carter never did. Perhaps this explains the fear among the “old boys” in intelligence, over the prospect that Tulsi Gabbard will be confirmed as Director of National Intelligence. Imagine a DNI who tells the truth about present covert plans, while at the same time exposing past dirty operations! [back to text]