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Who was Henry Kissinger, the strategist who marked American foreign policy after the 50s

2023-11-30 09:15:20Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Who was Henry Kissinger, the strategist who marked American foreign policy after
Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger, the strategist who determined the course of American diplomacy in the second half of the 20th century, died this Wednesday. He who was Secretary of State for two presidents and the much-discussed winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the protagonist of the restoration of relations between the United States and China, responsible for the bombings in Vietnam and who supported the Pinochet coup in Chile, has died in His residence in Connecticut at the age of 100.

One of the most controversial figures of the last century, unmistakable with his signature glasses and a German accent that he never quite lost, he remained active until the last moment. This year, on his centennial, he promoted his book on leadership styles, testified before a Senate committee on the nuclear threat from North Korea, and last July he made a surprise trip to Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A Jew born in Germany in 1923—his full name was Heinz Alfred Kissinger—he arrived in the United States as a teenager in 1938 to flee the Nazi regime with his family. During World War II he enlisted in the US Army and was stationed in Europe. As intellectually brilliant as he was arrogant, with a keen sense of humor and interested in multiple disciplines, he came close to choosing scientific studies before settling on international relations. After a distinguished 17-year academic career at Harvard University, he entered the US administration under Republican Richard Nixon, who would appoint him first as National Security Advisor and then as Secretary of State during his tenure.

In the 1970s, he played a key role whose mark still remains, half a century later, in most world events of that phase of the Cold War. Realpolitik and pragmatism were his main features. His style of diplomacy sought to achieve practical objectives, rather than being guided by principles or exporting political ideals. To his defenders, he succeeded in promoting American interests and expanding his country's influence in the rest of the world, putting it in a position that would eventually allow it to win the Cold War and remain the sole superpower.

To his many critics, he was a combination of Machiavelli and Mephistopheles, who never responded to actions that hurt and caused great pain in the affected countries.

He led arms control talks with the Soviet Union, which paved the way to moderate tensions between the two superpowers.

He led the negotiations for the Paris peace accords with North Vietnam that brought the United States out of an unpopular, costly and seemingly endless war.

With a diplomacy of constant travel to Middle Eastern countries, he expanded ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors. A 32-day marathon of meetings and pressure on the ground managed to separate the Jewish state and Syria in the Golan Heights; There was a similar attempt in 1975, however, it failed to reach an agreement between Israel and Egypt.

He was one of the great architects of the rapprochement with China: his two trips to the Asian giant, one of them to meet secretly with Premier Zhou Enlai, opened the door to Nixon's historic visit to Beijing in 1973, which launched , which until then seemed unimaginable: the normalization of relations between the United States and the Asian country with a communist regime, after decades of enmity, writes Vox News.

His fear of the establishment of leftist regimes in Latin America led him to support - if not promote - military dictatorships in the region. In 1970 he conspired with the CIA to destabilize and bring about the fall of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile.

His power as the great architect of American foreign policy increased during the Watergate scandal and when that of Nixon, his chief theorist, weakened. The resignation of this president in 1975 reduced his influence, but did not eliminate it during the term of President Gerald Ford (1974-1977). Throughout his life he continued to advise Republican and Democratic politicians, write books, give speeches and run a global consulting firm.

Fame never left him, but so did controversy. His policies in Southeast Asia and his support for dictatorships in Latin America led to charges as a war criminal and demands that he be held accountable for his decisions. The Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, awarded ex aequo  along with the North Vietnamese Le Duc Tho - who turned it down - was one of the most controversial in history. Two members of the Nobel committee responsible for awarding the prize resigned. Criticism and demands for an investigation into the secret US bombing of Cambodia in 1970 began.

That operation was intended to destroy supply lines heading from North Vietnam to support communist guerrillas in the South. But its critics believe it hastened the takeover of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge and sparked an era of terror in that country in which nearly two million people died.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, then-President George W. Bush selected him to head an investigative committee. The Democratic opposition denounced a conflict of interest with many clients of Kissinger's consulting firm, forcing the former Secretary of State to resign.

Divorced in 1964 from his first wife, Ann Fleischer, with whom he had two children, for a decade he earned a reputation as a feminist, despite not exactly being an Adonis "power is the best aphrodisiac", he claimed he. In 1974 he married Nancy Maginess, an associate of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

He was asked many times if he regretted any of the measures he had taken or supported. In an interview for the ABC television network in July of last year, he replied that "All my life I have thought about these problems. It's my hobby as much as my job. So the recommendations I gave were the best I had at the time.”/ voxnews


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