Henry Kissinger, the controversial U.S. diplomat during the Cold War, died at the age of 100 on Wednesday (29).
Kissinger, a Jewish refugee born in Germany whose career took him from academia to diplomacy, remained an active voice in foreign policy until his final years. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but defined by many as a war criminal.
As National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, he managed to thaw relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and China.
His diplomacy helped end the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973; and the negotiation of the “Paris Peace Accords” brought the U.S. out of Vietnam.
But he was accused of supporting the bloody coup that overthrew Chile’s leftist government and turning a blind eye to the Argentine military’s “dirty war” against its people.
Jewish Fugitive
Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Bavaria on May 27, 1923. The family took time to flee Nazi persecution but joined the German-Jewish community in New York in 1938.
He planned to study accounting but was drafted into the army during World War II. Upon returning to the United States, he studied political science at Harvard and rose through the academic ranks.
Entry into Politics
In 1957, he published the book, “Nuclear War and Foreign Policy,” which argued that a limited atomic war was winnable. He claimed that the “tactical” and “strategic” use of a new kind of smaller missiles could be rational. The book brought him to prominence, and Kissinger’s march toward fame and influence had begun.
When Richard Nixon won the White House in 1968, he offered Kissinger the position of national security advisor. It was the height of the Cold War.
Nixon and Kissinger decided to reduce tensions with the Soviet Union by resuming negotiations to reduce the size of their respective nuclear arsenals. At the same time, dialogue was opened with the Chinese government. This improved Sino-American relations and placed diplomatic pressure on the Soviet leadership, which feared its enormous neighbor.
Meanwhile, the U.S. was trying to exit Vietnam.
“Peace with honor” was a campaign promise of Nixon. Kissinger entered negotiations with North Vietnam but agreed with Nixon to conduct covert bombings in Cambodia, in an effort to deprive the communists of troops and supplies.
In total, the U.S. dropped over 2 million tons of bombs across Cambodia and sent thousands of ground troops. More than 50,000 civilians were killed, and millions fled their homes. The destabilization helped give rise to the brutal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, infamous for its “killing fields.”
But thanks to peace negotiations with the North Vietnamese, Kissinger – who became Secretary of State, won the Nobel Peace Prize, a decision harshly criticized by peace advocates, as the diplomat chose to continue bombing South Vietnam.
But no position of Kissinger was more controversial than his support for the military coup in Chile.
The election of Marxist Salvador Allende as president of Chile worried the United States. The new government was pro-Cuban and nationalized American companies. The CIA conducted covert operations in Chile, attempting to help opposition groups overthrow the new government. Kissinger chaired the committee that authorized the action.
“I don’t see why we need to sit back and watch a country become communist due to the irresponsibility of its people,” he said. “The issues are too important for Chilean voters to decide for themselves.”
Eventually, the military intervened; and Allende died in a violent coup that brought General Pinochet to power. Many of the soldiers who acted in the coup were paid by the CIA.
In the following years, Kissinger himself would be pursued by various courts investigating human rights abuses and the deaths of foreign citizens during Chile’s military regime.
Power
Even after leaving important positions in the White House, Kissinger continued to guide and influence many presidents. The last was Donald Trump after the 2017 election, suggesting, among other things, acceptance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s occupation of Crimea.
An extraordinary figure, Kissinger was at the center of power during the most significant events of the last century.
“A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy,” he once declared, “will achieve neither perfection nor security.”
Source: BBC