Henry Kissinger

German-born American diplomat

• Born: May 27, 1923
• Place of Birth: Fürth, Bavaria, Germany
• Died: November 29, 2023
• Place of Death: Kent, Connecticut

At once the most controversial and effective architect of US foreign policy in the second half of the twentieth century, Kissinger negotiated peace settlements in Indochina and the Middle East and established ties with China. He pioneered détente with the Soviet Union. His role in ending the Vietnam War earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, but his detractors criticize his secretiveness and support of repressive foreign regimes.

Early Life

Henry Kissinger, American diplomat and secretary of state (1973–75), was born in the small Bavarian town of Fürth, where his father was a schoolteacher. The Kissinger family was Jewish, and after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, family members were subjected to increasingly intolerable persecution. They fled to the United States in 1938 and settled in New York. This experience as an adolescent profoundly affected Kissinger’s later political career, as it instilled in him a deep aversion to mass popular movements fueled by radical ideology.

Working during the day and attending night school, Kissinger finished high school and entered the City College of New York. Drafted into the armed services in 1943, he trained as an interpreter and served in this capacity during the Allied occupation of Germany, helping track down and prosecute former Gestapo agents.

Upon discharge, Kissinger entered Harvard University, graduated summa cum laude in 1950, and earned a doctorate in history in 1954. His dissertation, “Peace, Legitimacy, and the Equilibrium: A Study of the Statesmanship of Castlereagh and Metternich,” meticulously analyzed the diplomatic history of post-Napoleonic Europe. Comparing the flawed but durable peace settlement at the Congress of Vienna (1815) with the Treaty of Versailles (1918–1919), which set the stage for World War II, Kissinger developed a philosophy of international relations emphasizing stability and balance of power. Admirers and detractors refer to this philosophy by its German name, realpolitik (reality politics), implying a European-style cynicism.

Kissinger joined the Harvard faculty as associate director of the Center for Foreign Relations in 1957 and served as director of the defense studies program from 1958 to 1971. A high-profile scholarly expert on international relations, he advised Nelson A. Rockefeller in his bid for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination. He was an obvious candidate for political appointment when Richard Nixon became US president in 1968. Detractors accused him of sabotaging the Paris peace talks, which were proceeding at this time, to secure Nixon’s election.

Life’s Work

Although Kissinger ranked high as an academic historian and political scientist, and remained an active commentator and adviser on foreign affairs after he left national office, much of his reputation as an international figure was derived from his activities as National Security Adviser (1969–73) and Secretary of State during the presidencies of Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.

Under Kissinger’s direction, the United States extricated itself from the war in Vietnam, cooperated with the Soviet Union through détente, opened relations with communist China, and played a key role in ending the Yom Kippur War between Syria, Israel, and Egypt on terms leading to greater regional stability. The same period saw numerous international crises involving gross violations of human rights, in which the United States aided repressive right-wing regimes.

With the leadership of Nixon and Kissinger, the United States pursued a policy of “Vietnamization” designed to strengthen the South Vietnamese army into a force that could defend itself without US troops, and it negotiated the Paris Peace Accords for which Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese representative, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. The cease-fire proved temporary, however. Vietnamization failed to prevent an ultimate victory by North Vietnam. Kissinger was criticized for aggressively pursuing the war between 1968 when Nixon pledged to end the war, and 1973, when the last American forces withdrew. His approval of bombing North Vietnamese bases in neighboring Cambodia and Laos in 1969 and 1970 forms one count of the indictment against him for alleged war crimes. The realpolitik defense counters with the argument that US diplomatic successes in China and the Middle East would not have been possible had the United States not maintained its stature as a superpower by continuing to fight in Vietnam.

As National Security Adviser, Kissinger negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement (SALT I) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1972. In 1971, he made two trips to China, the first in secret, which paved the way for the 1972 summit between Nixon, Mao Zedong, and Zhou Enlai. The summit ended twenty-three years of mutual hostility and diplomatic isolation between the United States and China. Full normalization of relations did not occur until 1979.

In 1973, Kissinger negotiated an end to the Yom Kippur War between Israel, Syria, and Egypt on terms illustrating his commitment to Middle East stability. Israel—which was not the aggressor—won the war with US aid but was induced to relinquish territorial acquisitions from earlier wars. The accord also preserved Jordan, a constitutional monarchy friendly to the United States, against Syrian aggression.

Kissinger was embroiled in other global issues as well. Commentators have characterized US actions abroad in the early 1970s as self-serving and as condoning preventable human-rights violations, including genocide. These events included the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and Indonesia’s 1975 takeover of East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. All three crises involved a key US ally dealing with political instability within or adjacent to its borders. American complicity was double-pronged. First, the United States told the heads of state of each respective nation that it would not oppose actions without obtaining assurances that a given action would not be punitive; second, the United States did not withdraw general support when notified of atrocities.

Also highly controversial was Kissinger’s alleged role in the overthrow of Chile’s socialist president, Salvador Allende, in 1973. His role included alleged approval of the use of CIA funds to spark antigovernment protests, possible complicity in the assassination of General René Schneider, and subsequent support of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte’s repressive military regime. During the same period, the United States maintained friendly relations with a right-wing dictatorship in Argentina that imprisoned or assassinated thousands of dissidents.

Significance

Unquestionably, Kissinger played the dominant role in shaping US foreign policy between 1969 and 1976, signal years in world affairs. The bitter controversy accompanying his name testifies to his effectiveness and singular vision. The world was a very different place after his tenure in government. Still, there remains much dispute over whether or not these global changes represent improvements and whether or not they could have been achieved with less secrecy and covert action. Also, many have questioned why these changes did not come with better human rights safeguards and less loss of life.

In 2001, Christopher Hitchens, a journalist and political commentator, added to the Kissinger controversy with the book The Trial of Henry Kissinger, a polemic arguing that the former secretary of state was guilty of war crimes. Hitchens accused him of having incited genocide in East Timor and Bangladesh, of plotting assassinations in Chile and Cypress, and of ordering the bombing of neutral Cambodia and Laos. With the book’s appearance came attempts by courts in France, Chile, and Argentina to question Kissinger about various incidents. Relatives of Schneider filed a lawsuit in US federal court.

Because neither Kissinger nor the State Department was willing to submit to the authority of these courts, many people believed the charges were substantially true. Kissinger addressed the issue of criminal behavior in his memoirs. For example, the East Timor crisis, he wrote, developed during the Ford administration which received little public support. A new government in Portugal had granted independence to half a small island whose other half was already part of Indonesia. Had the occupation proceeded peaceably, the interests of international stability would have been served. (International stability was Kissinger’s primary concern.) When the occupying force met with organized resistance and instituted brutal reprisals, there were no good options for the United States. The accusation of genocide, in this case, stems from overestimating the ability of the United States to control its allies.

The attack on North Vietnamese and Viet Cong bases in Cambodia made sense from a military perspective. Cambodia forfeited its neutrality when it allowed one combatant to maintain a substantial military presence on its soil. Kissinger’s culpability in the disaster that befell Cambodia lies in authorizing the extension of well-established combat strategies known to cause massive civilian casualties and environmental damage. This accusation might be leveled against virtually every decision-making military commander and civilian strategist since the beginning of aerial warfare. The collapse of the Soviet Union rendered détente moot, and the Middle East remains a maelstrom of conflict, leaving US-Chinese cooperation as the most lasting legacy of Kissinger’s peacemaking.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, US President George W. Bush asked Kissinger to be an adviser in the war on terrorism. Kissinger initially agreed but soon withdrew, citing a conflict of interest with his consulting business. That he was approached at all indicates that his opinions carry great weight. On China— Kissinger's 2011 book on Sino-American relations—saw the former diplomat weighing in on the future strategic balance between the two great powers while re-examining his role and experiences in reopening the diplomatic channel between the United States and China. In 2012, Israel selected Kissinger as one of the recipients in its inaugural awarding of the President's Medal. Meant to honor individuals who have contributed to Israeli society and the country's global image, Kissinger received the medal alongside human rights activist Judith Feld Carr, orchestra director Zubin Mehta, and Variety Israel director Uri Slonim.

Future generations will weigh the evidence and decide whether Kissinger merits the title of Nobel laureate and peacemaker or international war criminal. He left a long and complicated legacy with many accomplishments in the Middle East and with the former Soviet Union. However, his role in the conflict in Southeast Asia and his continued support of authoritarian regimes complicates his legacy. Kissinger died on November 29, 2023, at the age of one hundred.

Bibliography

Chorn, Adrien, et al. “On Henry Kissinger's Legacy.” Brookings, 8 Dec. 2023, www.brookings.edu/articles/on-henry-kissingers-legacy. Accessed 2 June 2024.

Hahnhimäki, Jussi. The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.

“Henry Kissinger Is Dead at 100; Shaped the Nation’s Cold War History.” The New York Times, 29 Nov. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/us/henry-kissinger-dead.html. Accessed 2 June 2024.

Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. New York: Verso, 2001.

Jones, Matthew. "'A Man in a Hurry': Henry Kissinger, Transatlantic Relations, and the British Origins of the Year of Europe Dispute." Diplomacy & Statecraft 24.1 (2013): 77–99.

Kaplan, Robert. “Kissinger, Metternich, and Realism.” Atlantic Monthly, 1999, 72–83.

Keys, Barbara. "Henry Kissinger: The Emotional Statesman." Diplomatic History 35.4 (2011): 587–609.

Kissinger, Henry. Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America’s Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War. New York: Simon, 2003.

Kissinger, Henry. On China. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Kissinger, Henry. Years of Renewal. New York: Simon, 1999.

Suri, Jeremi. Henry Kissinger and the American Century. Cambridge: Belknap, 2007.