LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Henry Kissinger, the longtime American statesman who passed away on Wednesday, once spoke at a conference in Lexington.
In 1990, Mayor Scotty Baesler invited Kissinger to speak at the International Economic Development Summit Conference being held in Lexington. He was the keynote speaker at the conference, according to John B. Townsend II, a former 18 Action News reporter who, in 1990, served as Baesler’s communications director.
Townsend is on the left side of the photo he provided. Kissinger is on the right.
“That event drew more than two thousand people and they greeted Doctor Kissinger enthusiastically,” Townsend said. “They sat there and hung on every word and gave him a rousing applause.”
The crowd of Kentucky businesspeople heard from Kissinger about how they could build on the success of bringing Toyota to Kentucky by building international ties.
While Townsend shared that Kissinger was highly controversial, “There were no protests in Kentucky that day, he was speaking to a business audience of his peers of the controversy about what happened in Cambodia, what happened in Vietnam, had receded in the minds of many,” he said.
Instead, Kissinger was seen as an elder statesman, he said.
“It is always great to be an eyewitness and a participant in history and meeting the historical figures that shape history for will or woe,” Townsend said.
