Brzezinski was European American – Lithuania’s Landsbergis

Landsbergis, Lithuania’s first post-independence leader, said Brzezinski was a “unique (personality) on the US political arena” who as European American. Therefore, Brzezinski was not one of the Americans who wanted to “write Europeans off.”

“He was different among the famous politicians of America. This kind of person will be greatly missed. I thought today that the expression African Americans is broadly used and well understood today, while European Americans are hardly used. And we miss them greatly. There were quite a few of them. Many in America come from Europe, however, we do not often see that in their way of thinking and culture. Meanwhile, Brzezinski was this type of a politician – a true American politician with a European background who understood not only the partial Europe, the Western part so proud to be Europe but also the Eastern region. He was our neighbor both culturally and by the way of thinking,” Landsbergis told BNS on Saturday.

“He could understand very well – from a faction of a word or separate actions – what is behind political action, games and intrigues, identify the source of interest, as he saw the great confrontation between the East – Russia, which has now become anti-Europe, and the true Europe that was so close to him,” he added.

Landsbergis recalled a 1993 meeting with Brzezinski when the topic of Ukraine came up.

“I attended a very interesting reception – a working dinner in his residence near Washington. We were discussing the future of Europe and America and how things would work out, ways of avoiding wars and confrontations. I had an opportunity to have a say and I raised the Ukrainian issue, which was very unpopular then and did not sound significant. And Brzezinski was among those who understood, while the rest were surprised. Later he raised the topic again, spoke about Ukraine back when hardly anyone did,” said Landsbergis.