Henry Kissinger

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Henry Kissinger
56th United States Secretary of State
In office 1973 – 1977
Preceded by	William P. Rogers
Succeeded by	Cyrus Vance
Born	May 27, 1923 (age 83) Fürth, Bavaria, Germany
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ann Fleisher (married 1949 – divorced 1964) Nancy Maginnes (married 1974 – Present)
Religion	Judaism

Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923 in Fürth) is a German-born American diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Nixon administration. He continued in the latter position after Gerald Ford became President in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.

A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this time, he pioneered the policy of détente that led to a significant relaxation in U.S.–Soviet tensions and played a crucial role in 1971 talks with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai that concluded with a rapprochement between the two countries and the formation of a new strategic anti-Soviet Sino–American alliance.

During his time in the Nixon and Ford administrations he cut a flamboyant figure, appearing at social occasions with many celebrities. His foreign policy record made him enemies amongst anti-war liberals and conservative anti-Communist hawks alike.

With the recent declassification of Nixon and Ford administration documents relating to U.S. policy toward South America and East Timor, Kissinger has come under fire from certain journalists and human rights advocacy groups, both in the U.S. and abroad;^[1] author and journalist Christopher Hitchens being prominent among them. Following the release of these documents, officials in France, Brazil, Chile, Spain, and Argentina have sought him for questioning in connection with suspected war crimes such as Operation Condor, hindering his travel abroad.^[2]

Contents 1 Personal background 2 Foreign policy 2.1 Détente and the opening to China 2.2 Vietnam and Cambodia 2.3 1971 Indo-Pakistan War 2.4 1973 Yom Kippur War 2.5 Latin American policy 2.5.1 Chilean and Argentine coups 2.6 Africa 2.7 East Timor and support of Suharto 3 Accusations of war crimes and legal difficulties 3.1 The Trial of Henry Kissinger 3.2 Involvement in Operation Condor 3.3 Asia 4 Public perception 5 Later roles 5.1 Business interests and public service 5.2 Role in U.S. foreign policy 5.2.1 Kissinger and Iraq 6 See also 7 Footnotes 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit] Personal background

Kissinger was born in Fürth in Franconia (Bavaria), as Heinz Alfred Kissinger to Jewish parents Louis Kissinger, a schoolteacher, and Paula Stern. His name refers to the city of Bad Kissingen and was taken by his great great grandfather, Meyer Löb, in 1817.^[3] In 1938, fleeing Nazi persecution, his family moved to New York. Kissinger was naturalized a U.S. citizen on June 19, 1943, while in military training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, SC.

He spent his high school years in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan, but never lost his pronounced German accent. Kissinger attended George Washington High School at night and worked in a shaving-brush factory during the day. While attending City College of New York, in 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, trained at Clemson College in South Carolina, and became a German interpreter for the 970th Counter Intelligence Corps. Kissinger was legendary for his ability to find and arrest former Gestapo agents in immediate post-war Germany.

Henry Kissinger received his B.A. degree summa cum laude at Harvard College in 1950, where he studied under William Yandell Elliott.^[4] Kissinger has been rumored to be the only person to receive a perfect grade point average from Harvard, but in fact he received one B in his senior year.^[5] He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University in 1952 and 1954, respectively. In 1952, while still at Harvard, he served as a consultant to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board.^[6] His doctoral dissertation was titled A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the Problems of Peace 1812–22. Kissinger's doctoral dissertation was a continuation of his undergraduate thesis, which at 383 pages prompted the "Kissinger rule" restricting future senior theses to less than one-half that length (150 pages).

Kissinger remained at Harvard as a member of the faculty at the university's Department of Government and at its Center for International Affairs. He became Associate Director of the Center for International Affairs in 1957. During 1955 and 1956, he was also Study Director in Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy at the Council of Foreign Relations. He released his Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy the following year. From 1956 to 1958 he worked for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as director of their Special Studies Project.^[6] He was Director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program between 1958 and 1971. He was also Director of the Harvard International Seminar between 1951 and 1971. Outside of academia, he served as a consultant to several government agencies, including the Operations Research Office, the Rand Corporation, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the Department of State.^[6]

A liberal Republican and keen to have a greater influence on American foreign policy, Kissinger became a supporter of, and advisor to, Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, who sought the Republican nomination for President in 1960, 1964 and 1968. After Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968, he offered Kissinger the job of National Security Advisor.

With his first wife, Ann Fleischer, he had two children, Elizabeth and David. He currently lives with his second wife, Nancy Maginnes, in Kent, Connecticut. He is the head of Kissinger Associates, a consulting firm.

Kissinger is a fan of the New York Yankees baseball team. He is also a supporter and honorary member of the German soccer club Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth from his hometown, where he was a member in his youth.^[7]

[edit] Foreign policy

Kissinger served as National Security Advisor Under President Richard Nixon, from 1969 to 1975 and (concurrently) Secretary of State from September 1973–January 20, 1977, staying on board as Secretary of State under President Gerald Ford following Nixon's 1974 resignation in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.

In an embargoed interview with Bob Woodward in 2004, former President Ford described Kissinger as a "first-class secretary of state". Kissinger threatened to resign frequently and, as Ford remarked, had the "thinnest skin of any public figure" he ever knew. Also, Ford viewed Kissinger's dual roles as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State to be a conflict of interest; as a result, Brent Scowcroft replaced Kissinger as National Security Advisor in 1975.^[8] Nonetheless, Kissinger remained Ford's chief foreign policy advisor for the rest of his term.^[9]

A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this time, he pioneered the policy of détente that led to a significant relaxation in US–Soviet tensions and played a crucial role in 1971 talks with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai that concluded with a rapprochement between the two countries and the formation of a new strategic anti-Soviet Sino–American alliance. He was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to establish ceasefire and U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, though the ceasefire was quickly violated by the North who sought to conquer South Vietnam by force.^[10]

Kissinger favored the maintenance of friendly diplomatic relationships with anti-Communist military dictatorships in the Southern Cone and elsewhere in Latin America, and approved of covert intervention in Chilean politics. He has been accused of complicity and encouragement in the atrocities committed by the Argentine military junta. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon requested that Kissinger answer questions about matters relating to these humans rights abuses, but the U.S. State Department rejected this petition.^[11]

With the recent declassification of Nixon and Ford administration documents relating to U.S. policy toward South America and East Timor, Kissinger has come under fire from certain journalists and human rights advocacy groups, both in the U.S. and abroad;^[12] author and journalist Christopher Hitchens being prominent among them. Following the release of these documents, officials in France, Brazil, Chile, Spain, and Argentina have sought him for questioning in connection with suspected war crimes such as Operation Condor, hindering his travel abroad.^[13][14][15]

[edit] Détente and the opening to China

As National Security Advisor under Nixon, Kissinger pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, seeking a relaxation in tensions between the two superpowers. As a part of this strategy, he negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (culminating in the SALT I treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Negotiations about strategic disarmament were originally supposed to start under Johnson Administration but were postponed in protest to the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops to Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

He sought to place diplomatic pressure on the Soviet Union; to accomplish this, he made two trips to the People's Republic of China in July and October 1971 (the first of which in secret) to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai, then in charge of Chinese foreign policy. This paved the way for the groundbreaking 1972 summit between Nixon, Zhou, and Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Zedong, as well as the formalization of relations between the two countries, ending 23 years of diplomatic isolation and mutual hostility. The result was the formation of a tacit strategic anti-Soviet alliance between China and the United States. While Kissinger's diplomacy led to economic and cultural exchanges between the two sides and the establishment of Liaison Offices in the Chinese and American capitals, full normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China would not occur until 1979 as Watergate overshadowed the latter years of the Nixon presidency and the United States continued to recognize the Republic of China government on Taiwan.

[edit] Vietnam and Cambodia

Kissinger's involvement in Vietnam started prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser to Nixon. While still at Harvard he had worked as a consultant on foreign policy to both the White House and State Department and, in the summer of 1967, had acted as one of a series of intermediaries between Washington and Hanoi in a peace initiative codenamed "Pennsylvania". In the autumn of 1968, he used his contacts with the Johnson administration to tip-off the Nixon camp about an anticipated breakthrough in the Paris talks, which Nixon feared could cost him the campaign.

Nixon had been elected in 1968 on the promise of achieving "peace with honor" and ending the Vietnam War. In office, and assisted by Kissinger, Nixon implemented a policy of Vietnamization that aimed to gradually withdraw U.S. troops while expanding the combat role of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) so that it would be capable of independently defending South Vietnam against the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and North Vietnamese army (Vietnam People's Army or PAVN). Kissinger played a key role in a secret American bombing campaign of Cambodia to target PAVN and Viet Cong units launching raids against South Vietnam from within Cambodia's borders and resupplying their forces by using the Ho Chi Minh trail and other routes, as well as the 1970 Cambodian Incursion and subsequent widespread bombing of Cambodia. The bombing campaign inadvertently contributed to the chaos of the Cambodian Civil War, which saw the forces of dictator Lon Nol unable to defeat the growing Khmer Rouge insurgency that would emerge victorious in 1975.

Kissinger was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize along with North Vietnam diplomatic representative Le Duc Tho for their work in negotiating the ceasefires contained in the Paris Peace Accords on 'Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam', even though the North quickly violated the terms and began again to make war on South Vietnam. The conflict would continue for two more years after the American withdrawal.^[10] Kissinger accepted the award, but Tho, being so far the only person to have done so, declined, stating that his country was still not at peace. Kissinger did not collect the award in person, and it was accepted on his behalf by United States Ambassador to Norway Thomas R. Byrne.^[16] North Vietnam continued its attack on the South until achieving victory in 1975.

See also: Vietnam War

[edit] 1971 Indo-Pakistan War

Main article: Indo-Pakistan War

Kissinger has been criticized for his role during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. Despite reports of atrocities in East Pakistan, and despite being told—most notably in the Blood telegram—of "genocidal" activities being perpetrated by Pakistani forces, Kissinger and President Richard Nixon did nothing to discourage Pakistani President Yahya Khan and the Pakistan Army. Kissinger was particularly concerned about Soviet expansion into South Asia as a result of a treaty of friendship that had recently been signed between India and the Soviet Union, and sought to demonstrate to the People's Republic of China the value of a tacit alliance with the United States.^[18]

In recent years, Kissinger came under fire for comments made during the Indo-Pakistan War in which he described Indians as "bastards" and the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a "bitch".^[19] Kissinger has since expressed his regret over the comments.^[20]

[edit] 1973 Yom Kippur War

Main article: Yom Kippur War

In 1973, Kissinger negotiated the end to the Yom Kippur War, which had begun with a surprise attack against Israel by Egyptian and Syrian forces. According to Kissinger, if Israel had initiated the war, they would not have received "so much as a nail" in aid from the United States.^{[citation needed]} Kissinger has published lengthy and dramatic telephone transcripts of his activities during this period in the 2002 book Crisis. With Kissinger's support—which was reluctant at first—the U.S military conducted the largest military airlift in history. American action contributed to the 1973 OPEC embargo against the United States and its Western Europe allies, which was lifted in March 1974.

Israel regained the territory it lost in the early fighting and gained new territories from Syria and Egypt, including land in Syria east of the previously captured Golan Heights, and additionally on the western bank of the Suez Canal (although they did lose some territory on the eastern side of the Suez Canal that had been in Israeli hands since the end of the Six Day War. Kissinger pressured the Israelis to cede some of the newly captured land back to the Arabs, contributing to the first phases of lasting Israeli-Egyptian peace. The move saw a warming in U.S.–Egyptian relations, bitter since the 1950s, as the country moved away from its former pro-Soviet stance and into a close partnership with the United States. The peace was finalized in 1978 when U.S. president Jimmy Carter mediated the Camp David Accords, during which Israel returned the Sinai in exchange for an Egyptian agreement to recognize Israeli statehood and end hostility.

[edit] Latin American policy

The United States continued to recognize and maintain relationships with anti-Communist and non-Communist governments, democratic and authoritarian alike. John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress was ended in 1973. In 1974, negotiations about new settlement over Panama Canal started. They eventually led to Torrijos-Carter Treaties and handing the Canal over to Panamanian control.

Kissinger initially supported the normalization of U.S.–Cuban relations, broken since 1961 (all U.S.–Cuban trade was blocked in February 1962, a few weeks after the exclusion of Cuba from the Organization of American States under U.S. pressure). However, he quickly changed his mind and followed Kennedy's policy. After Fidel Castro's involvement in the struggle in Angola and Mozambique, Kissinger made it clear that unless Cuba withdrew its forces relations would not be normalized.

See also: Cuba-United States relations

[edit] Chilean and Argentine coups

Main article: Chilean coup of 1973

Chilean Socialist presidential candidate Salvador Allende was elected by a narrow plurality in 1970, causing serious concern in Washington due to his openly Marxist and pro-Cuban politics. The Nixon administration authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to instigate a military coup that would prevent Allende's inauguration and presumably call new elections, but the plan was not successful.^[21] The extent of Kissinger's involvement in or support of these plans is unknown.^[22]

U.S.–Chilean relations remained frosty during Salvador Allende's tenure; following the complete nationalization of the partially U.S.-owned copper mines and the Chilean subsidiary of the U.S.-based ITT, as well as other Chilean businesses, the U.S. implemented partial economic sanctions, claiming that the Chilean government had greatly undervalued fair compensation for the nationalization by subtracting what it deemed "excess profits". The CIA provided funding for the mass anti-government strikes in 1972 and 1973; during this period, Kissinger made several controversial statements regarding Chile's government, stating that "the issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves" and "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its people." These remarks sparked outrage among many commentators, who considered them patronizing and disparaging of Chile's sovereignty. In September 1973, Allende was either assassinated or committed suicide during a military coup launched by Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet, who became President.^[23]

During a later visit to Chile, Kissinger told Pinochet that the U.S. was concerned about the junta's human rights violations, but was sympathetic to its anti-Communist stance. U.S.–Chilean relations significantly improved and remained warm until Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter defeated President Gerald Ford in 1976 and implemented a tough stance against any state that violated human rights, regardless of its friendliness toward America.

In July 2001, the Chilean high court granted investigating judge Juan Guzman the right to question Kissinger about the 1973 killing of American journalist Charles Horman at the hands of the Chilean military following the coup. The judge’s questions were relayed to Kissinger via diplomatic routes but went unanswered.

Kissinger took a similar line that he had toward Chile when the Argentine military, led by Jorge Videla, toppled the democratic government of Isabel Perón in 1976 and consolidated power, launching brutal reprisals and "disappearances" against political opponents. During a meeting with Argentine foreign minister César Augusto Guzzetti, Kissinger assured him that the United States was an ally, but urged him to "get back to normal procedures" quickly before the U.S. Congress reconvened and had a chance to consider sanctions.

See also: Dirty War

[edit] Africa

In 1974, a non-violent left-wing coup, known as the Carnation Revolution, took place in Portugal, chasing off Marcelo Caetano, Oliveira Salazar's successor; the new government proceeded to quickly give up its former colonies, leaving a power vacuum in the southern African states of Angola and Mozambique. Fidel Castro sent Cuban troops into Angola and successfully assisted the Marxist-Leninist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in defeating other parties. Kissinger supported the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi, the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) insurgencies, as well as the CIA-supported invasion of South African troops to Angola. In 1976, South African troops withdrew, due to U.S. Congressional opposition.

In September 1976, Kissinger was actively involved in negotiations regarding the Rhodesian Bush War. Kissinger, along with South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster, pressured Rhodesia's Prime Minister Ian Smith to hasten the transition to black majority rule in Rhodesia. With neighboring Mozambique no longer controlled by friendly Portugal, and with even white-ruled South Africa withdrawing its support, Rhodesia's isolation was near complete. According to Smith's autobiography, Kissinger told Smith of Mrs. Kissinger's admiration for him, but Smith stated that he thought Kissinger was asking him to sign Rhodesia's "death certificate". Kissinger, bringing the weight of the United States, and corralling other relevant parties to put pressure on Rhodesia, did indeed hasten the end of minority-rule.^{[citation needed]} In 1979-80, Rhodesia transitioned to black-ruled Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980.

[edit] East Timor and support of Suharto

The Portuguese decolonization process that had brought the U.S.'s attention to the newly-independent Angola and Mozambique also brought American attention to the small but densely populated and newly-independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor in the Indonesian archipelago. Indonesian president Suharto was a strong American ally in the Pacific and began to mobilize his army, preparing to annex the nascent state, which had become increasingly dominated by the popular leftist and Chinese-supported FRETILIN party. In December 1975, Suharto discussed the invasion plans during a meeting with Kissinger and President Ford in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Both Ford and Kissinger made clear that U.S. relations with Indonesia would remain strong and that it would not object to the proposed annexation. U.S. arms sales to Indonesia continued, and Suharto went ahead with the annexation plan, meeting fierce resistance from the native East Timorese. The Indonesian army responded with indiscriminate massacres; it is said that some 200,000 East Timorese lost their lives during the 24-year occupation, due to starvation and army massacres. The Indonesian government's recognition of East Timor as the province of Timor Timur was not accepted internationally. Repression on the part of the military and its collaborators was especially intense during the initial invasion and following a United Nations–supervised East Timorese vote for independence in March 1999. East Timor achieved independence in late 1999. The U.S. maintained friendly diplomatic ties with Suharto during the 1990s, but with the end of the Cold War, felt more free to criticize the regime for its actions in East Timor.

[edit] Accusations of war crimes and legal difficulties

[edit] The Trial of Henry Kissinger

A revival of interest in Henry Kissinger came during the new millennium, when journalist Christopher Hitchens wrote The Trial of Henry Kissinger, a scathing critique of Kissinger's policy that accused him of war crimes, particularly for his policy toward Vietnam, Cyprus, Cambodia, Chile and East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh). Kissinger became a focal point of criticism from the political Left and certain human rights NGOs. According to the book, his foreign policy was chiefly concerned with attaining allies that had valuable geographical and strategic locations, such as Turkey and Pakistan, and turned a blind eye when these allies attacked democracies and murdered countless innocent people.

The book was later adapted into a documentary entitled The Trials of Henry Kissinger. The film focused on Kissinger's policies towards Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor, and Chile.

[edit] Involvement in Operation Condor

Main article: Operation Condor

On May 31, 2001, French judge Roger Le Loire requested a summons served on Kissinger while he was staying at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Loire claimed to want to question Kissinger for alleged U.S. involvement in Operation Condor—a mid-1970s campaign of kidnapping and murder coordinated among the intelligence and security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay—as well as the death of French nationals under the Chilean junta. As a result, Kissinger left Paris that evening, and Loire's inquiries were directed to the U.S. State Department.

In July 2001, the Chilean high court granted investigating judge Juan Guzman the right to question Kissinger about the 1973 killing of American journalist Charles Horman, whose execution at the hands of the Chilean military following the coup was dramatized in the 1982 Costa-Gavras film, Missing. The judge's questions were relayed to Kissinger via diplomatic routes but went unanswered.

In August 2001, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba sent a letter rogatory to the U.S. State Department, in accordance with the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), requesting a deposition by Kissinger to aid the judge's investigation of Operation Condor.^[24]

On September 10, 2001, a civil suit was filed in a Washington, DC, federal court by the family of Gen. René Schneider, former Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, asserting that Kissinger gave the order for the elimination of Schneider because he refused to endorse plans for a military coup.^[25][26] Schneider was killed by coup-plotters loyal to General Roberto Viaux in a botched kidnapping attempt,^[26] but U.S. involvement with the plot is disputed, as declassified transcripts show that Kissinger said that he had ordered the coup "turned off" a week prior to the killing, fearing that Viaux had no chance.^[27] However, CIA officials, especially Thomas Karamessines, deputy director of plans, said the coup was not turned off.^[22] As a part of the suit, Schneider’s two sons are attempting to sue Kissinger and then-CIA director Richard Helms for US$3 million.^[26]

On September 11, 2001, the 28th anniversary of the Pinochet coup, Chilean human rights lawyers filed a criminal case against Kissinger along with Augusto Pinochet, former Bolivian general and president Hugo Banzer, former Argentine general and dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, and former Paraguayan president Alfredo Stroessner for alleged involvement in Operation Condor.^[28] The case was brought on behalf of some fifteen victims of Operation Condor, ten of whom were Chilean.

In late 2001, the Brazilian government canceled an invitation for Kissinger to speak in São Paulo because it could no longer guarantee his immunity from judicial action.^[25]

Kenneth Maxwell's review, in Foreign Affairs November/December 2003, of Peter Kornbluh's book The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, discussed Kissinger's relationship with Augusto Pinochet's regime, in particular concerning operation Condor and Orlando Letelier's assassination, in Washington, DC, in 1976.

A 1978 cable released in 2000 shows that the South American intelligence chiefs involved in Condor "[kept] in touch with one another through a U.S. communications installation in the Panama Canal Zone which [covered] all of Latin America". Robert E. White, the U.S. ambassador to Paraguay, was concerned that the U.S. connection to Condor might be revealed during the then ongoing investigation into the 1976 assassination of Letelier.^[29] Kornbluh and Maxwell both draw the conclusion from this and other materials that the U.S. State Department, on Kissinger's watch, had foreknowledge of the assassination.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Asia

In 2002, during a brief visit to the UK, a petition for Kissinger's arrest was filed by the High Court in London based on Indochinese civilian casualties and environmental damage resulting from U.S. bombing campaigns in North Vietnam and Cambodia in the period between 1969 and 1975. Simultaneously, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, who had engaged in a failed attempt to get Pinochet extradited from the United Kingdom for questioning, requested that Interpol detain Kissinger for questioning. British authorities refused his request.

East Timor Action Network (ETAN) activists have repeatedly sought to question Kissinger during his book tours for his role in the Ford administration in supporting Suharto and the Indonesian occupation and genocide of the Timorese in 1975. Transcripts of Ford and Kissinger's greenlight for the invasion are available on the National Security Archive.^[30]

As detailed above in the section 1971 Bangladesh War, Kissinger had knowledge of the 1971 atrocities committed by the Pakistani army and its allies during the war, but did not advise President Nixon to put pressure on the Pakistani government to stop them.

[edit] Public perception

Kissinger, like the rest of the Nixon administration, faced extreme unpopularity with the anti-war political left, particularly after the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia was revealed. However, few doubted his intellect and diplomatic skill, and he became one of the better-liked members of the Nixon administration, which some Americans grew to view as cynical and self-serving. Kissinger was not connected with the Watergate scandal that would eventually ruin Nixon and many of his closest aides; this greatly increased Kissinger's reputation as he became known as the "clean man" of the bunch.

At the height of his popularity, he was even regarded as something of a sex symbol and seen dating such starlets as Jill St. John, Marlo Thomas,^[31] Shirley MacLaine, and Candice Bergen. He was quoted as saying "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac".^[32] There was even discussion of ending the requirement that a U.S. president be born in America by amending the U.S. Constitution so that Kissinger could have a chance to run.^[33]

[edit] Later roles

[edit] Business interests and public service

In 1977, Kissinger was appointed to Georgetown's Center for Strategic and International Studies.^[34]

In 1982, Kissinger founded a consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, and is a partner in affiliate Kissinger McLarty Associates with Mack McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.^[35] He also serves on board of directors of Hollinger International, a Chicago-based newspaper group,^[36] and as of March 1999, he also serves on board of directors of Gulfstream Aerospace.^[37]

From 1995 to 2001, he served on the board of directors for Freeport-McMoRan, a multinational copper and gold producer with significant mining and milling operations in Papua, Indonesia.^[38] In February 2000, then-president of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid appointed Kissinger as a political advisor. He also serves as an honorary advisor to the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce.

In 1998, Kissinger became an honorary citizen of Fürth, Germany, his hometown. He has been a life-long supporter of the Spielvereinigung Fürth football club and is now an honorary member.

He served as Chancellor of the College of William and Mary from February 10, 2001 to the Summer of 2005.

Kissinger delivered eulogies during the state funeral of former President Richard Nixon and Gerald R. Ford in 1994 and 2007 respectively.

[edit] Role in U.S. foreign policy

Kissinger left office when a Democrat, former Governor of Georgia and "Washington outsider" Jimmy Carter, defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential elections. During the campaign, Carter criticized Kissinger, arguing he was "single-handedly" managing all of America's foreign relations. Through the 1980s and early 1990s, Kissinger's role in U.S. government and policy was minimized, as the neoconservatives who rose to dominance in the Republican Party under the Reagan administration beginning in 1981 considered Nixonian détente to be a policy of unwise accommodation with the Soviet Union. Kissinger continued to participate in policy groups, such as the Trilateral Commission, and to maintain political consulting, speaking, and writing engagements. He would often appear as a foreign-policy commentator on American broadcast networks.

In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Kissinger to chair a committee to investigate the events of the September 11 attacks. This led to criticism from Congressional Democrats who accused Kissinger of being secretive and not supportive of the public's right to know. Leading Democrats insisted that Kissinger file financial disclosures to reveal any conflicts of interest. Both Bush and Kissinger claimed that Kissinger did not need to file such forms, since he would not be receiving a salary. However, following continual Democratic pressure, Kissinger cited conflicts of interest with his clients and stepped down as chairman on December 13, 2002.

[edit] Kissinger and Iraq

In 2006, it was reported in the book State of Denial by Bob Woodward that Kissinger was meeting regularly with president George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to offer advice on the War in Iraq.^[39] Kissinger confirmed in recorded interviews with Woodward^[40] that the advice was the same as he had given in an August 12, 2005 column in the Washington Post: "Victory over the insurgency is the only meaningful exit strategy."^[41]

In a November 19, 2006 BBC Sunday AM interview, when asked whether there is any hope left for a clear military victory in Iraq, Kissinger said, "If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi Government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible... I think we have to redefine the course. But I don't believe that the alternative is between military victory as it had been defined previously, or total withdrawal."^[42]

[edit] See also

• National Security Council
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Trilateral Commission
• Bilderberg Group
• David Rockefeller
• Nelson Rockefeller
• Realism in international relations
• Realpolitik

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Further reading

• Foreign policy
  • Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne by Andrew F. Smith, Henry A. Kissinger (2002) ISBN 0-7914-5379-0
  • Does America Need a Foreign Policy?: Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century (2001) ISBN 0-684-85567-4
  • Diplomacy (1994) ISBN 0-671-65991-X
  • On Men and Power: A Political Memoir by Helmut Schmidt, Henry Kissinger (1990) ISBN 0-224-02715-8
  • Observations: Selected Speeches and Essays 1982-1984 (1985) ISBN 0-316-49664-2
  • For the Record: Selected Statements 1977-1980 (1981) ISBN 0-316-49663-4
  • American Foreign Policy: Three Essays (1974) ISBN 0-393-05525-6
  • A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-22 (1973) ISBN 0-395-17229-2
  • The Troubled Partnership: A Re-Appraisal of the Atlantic Alliance (1965) ISBN 0-07-034895-2
  • The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy (1961) ISBN 0-06-012410-5
  • Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (1957)

• Memoirs
  • Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises: Based on the Record of Henry Kissinger's Hitherto Secret Telephone Conversations (2003) ISBN 0-7432-4910-0
  • Vietnam: A Personal History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War (2002) ISBN 0-7432-1916-3
  • Years of Renewal (1999) ISBN 0-684-85571-2
  • Years of Upheaval (1982) ISBN 0-316-28591-9
  • The White House Years (1979) ISBN 0-316-49661-8

• Biographies
  • Kissinger: A Biography, by Walter Isaacson, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, (updated, 2005), ISBN 0-671-66323-2
  • The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy, by Jussi M. Hanhimaki (2004) ISBN 0-19-517221-3
  • The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping of America's Foreign Policy, by Richard C. Thornton (1989) ISBN 0-88702-051-8
  • The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, by Seymour Hersh (1983) ISBN 0-671-44760-2
  • Kissinger, by Marvin L. Kalb, Bernard Kalb (1974) ISBN 0-316-48221-8
  • Kissinger on the Couch, by Phyllis Schlafly (1974) ISBN 0-87000-216-3
  • Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind, by Stephen Richards Graubard (1973) ISBN 0-393-05481-0
  • The Trial of Henry Kissinger, by Christopher Hitchens (2002) ISBN 1-85984-631-9

• Historiography
  • Jussi M. Hanhimäki, "'Dr. Kissinger' or 'Mr. Henry'? Kissingerology, Thirty Years and Counting," Diplomatic History Vol. 27, Issue 5, pp. 637-76.
  • Larry Berman: No peace, no honor. Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam. New York, NY u.a.: Free Press 2001. ISBN 0-684-84968-2.
  • Robert D. Schulzinger: Henry Kissinger. Doctor of diplomacy. New York: Columbia Univ. Pr. 1989, ISBN 0-231-06952-9

• Other
  • Kissinger Transcripts: The Top Secret Talks With Beijing and Moscow by Henry Kissinger, William Burr (1999) ISBN 1-56584-480-7
  • Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia by William Shawcross, (Revised edition October 25, 2002) ISBN 0-8154-1224-X

[edit] External links

• Articles By Henry Kissinger
• Producer of 'The Kissinger-Saga, Walter and Henry Kissinger - Two Brothers from Fuerth/Germany'
• Linkage and Arms Control. Interview conducted on November 26, 1986 for the War and Peace in the Nuclear Age series.
• Henry Kissinger speaks at the Asia Society, NYC, February, 2007
• Kissinger's political donations* NPR: Kissinger Speech at National Press Club. Towards the end [55:55], he responds to Hitchens.
• The BCCI Affair A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, December 1992 102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140.
• Kissinger Associates, BNL, and Iraq Henry B. Gonzalez speech in Congress, May 2, 1991.
• The National Security Archive: The Kissinger Telcons
• The National Security Archive:The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of 1971
• Kissinger's political donations
• Marcus Gee. "Is Henry Kissinger a War Criminal?", Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), June 11, 2002.
• The Kissinger Saga. Henry and Walter: Two Brothers from Fuerth/Germany. Documentary, 90 min. (unabridged version), first time aired: Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting Network), January 21, 2007. Summary
• Henry Kissinger at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by Walt Rostow	United States National Security Advisor 1969-1974	Succeeded by Brent Scowcroft
Preceded by William P. Rogers	United States Secretary of State Served Under: Richard Nixon 1973-1977	Succeeded by Cyrus Vance

National Security Advisors of the United States
Cutler • Anderson • Jackson • Cutler • Gray • Bundy • Rostow • Kissinger • Scowcroft • Brzezinski • Allen • Clark • McFarlane • Poindexter • Carlucci • Powell • Scowcroft • Lake • Berger • Rice • Hadley

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Persondata
NAME	Kissinger, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	United States Secretaries of State, National Security Advisor
DATE OF BIRTH	27 May 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fürth, Franconia, Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH