Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (born
Heinz Alfred Kissinger on
May 27,
1923) is a
German-born
American diplomat,
Nobel laureate and statesman. He served as
National Security Advisor and later
Secretary of State in the
Nixon administration, continuing 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
dĂ©tente that led to a significant relaxation in USâ"Soviet tensions and played a crucial role in 1972 talks with
Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai that concluded with the
"opening" of China and the formation of a new strategic anti-Soviet Sinoâ"American alliance.
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 which resulted in a military coup, and the death of democratically elected president
Salvador Allende. 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 US State Department rejected this petition. [
1], [
2]
During his time in the Nixon and Ford administrations he cut a flamboyant figure, appearing at social occasions with many of America's most celebrated beauties. His foreign policy record made him enemies amongst anti-war
liberals and
conservative anti-Communist hawks alike; controversy surrounding Kissinger has by no means receded in the years since.
With the recent declassification of Nixon and Ford administration documents relating to US policy toward
South America and
East Timor, Kissinger has come under fire from certain journalists and
human rights advocacy groups, both in the US and abroad. Several have accused him of having committed
war crimes [
3]; author and journalist
Christopher Hitchens is perhaps most prominent among the accusers.
Kissinger was born in
FĂŒrth in
Franconia (
Bavaria) as Heinz Alfred Kissinger into a
Jewish family. His name refers to the city of
Bad Kissingen. In 1938, fleeing
Adolf Hitler's persecution, his family moved to
New York. Kissinger was
naturalized a US 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 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. 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. He received his
M.A. and
Ph.D. degrees at
Harvard University in 1952 and 1954, respectively. 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).
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 adviser.
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 and Associates, a consulting firm.
Kissinger is well known as being a
New York Yankees fan. He is also a great fan and honorary member [
4] of the German soccer club
Spielvereinigung Greuther FĂŒrth from his hometown, where he was a member in his youth.
Under Nixon, Kissinger served as
National Security Advisor from 1969 to 1973 and then
Secretary of State until 1977, staying on board as Secretary of State under President Gerald Ford following Nixon's 1974 resignation in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.
DĂ©tente and the opening of 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.
He sought to place diplomatic pressure on the Soviet Union; to accomplish this, he made two secret trips to the
People's Republic of China in July and October 1971 to confer with Premier
Zhou Enlai, then in charge of Chinese foreign policy. This set the stage for the
groundbreaking 1972 summit between Nixon and Zhou and
Communist Party of China Chairman
Mao Zedong as well as the
normalization of relations between the two countries, ending 23 years of diplomatic isolation and mutual hostility and resulting in the formation of a strategic anti-Soviet Sino-American alliance. Today, Kissinger is often remembered by Chinese leaders as "the old friend of the Chinese people." The talks between Kissinger and Zhou were highly secretive; recently declassified documents show that the talk highly focused on the
Taiwan issue. While Kissinger's diplomacy led to economic and cultural exchanges between the two sides, the establishment of official diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China would not occur until 1979 as the United States continued to recognize the
Republic of China government on Taiwan.
 |
Kissinger, shown here with Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong, negotiated the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China. |
Vietnamization and the Cambodian bombing campaign
Kissinger's involvement in Vietnam started prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser to Nixon. Kissinger was a secret informant to the Nixon campaign where he passed confidential information from the Johnson administration's negotiators in the Paris peace talks to John Mitchell, Nixon's campaign manager. Nixon had been elected in 1968 on the promise of achieving "peace with honor" and ending the
Vietnam War. Once in office, he began implementing 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 Vietnam and
North Vietnamese Army (NVA). At the same time, Kissinger, with Nixon's support, played a key role in expanding American bombing campaigns into
Cambodia, a sovereign country, to target NVA and Viet Cong units launching raids against the South. The bombing campaign was initially secret and ignited significant anti-war protests in the U.S., particularly at university campuses, when it became known. The bombing campaign also 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 diplomatic
North Vietnamese representative
LĂȘ Ăức Thá» for their work in negotiating a ceasefire between the South and the North. Kissinger accepted the award, but LĂȘ declined, claiming that a true peace had not been reached. The ceasefire was broken in 1975 when the NVA invaded and occupied South Vietnam, establishing a united Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976 with
Hanoi as its capital. While Kissinger was unable to attend the award ceremony, United States Ambassador to Norway Thomas Ryan Byrne was presented the award on Kissinger's behalf.
1971 Bangladesh (East Pakistan) War
|
Last President of a United Pakistan Yahya Khan with President Richard Nixon of USA |
The advice that Kissinger gave President Nixon, and Nixon's support for the Pakistani administration of
Yahya Khan during the
1971 Bangladesh War, did nothing to discourage the
Pakistan Army and local allies from committing
atrocities in East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh). Kissinger and Nixon were well briefed on the atrocities as U.S. diplomats in the
South Asia were reporting regularly to the
State Department about them in unequivocal language.
On
December 16,
2002, the
George Washington University's
National Security Archives published a collection of American
declassified documents, mostly consisting of communications between US officials working in embassies and USIS centers in Dhaka and in India, and officials in Washington DC
[Gandhi, Sajit (ed.), The Tilt: The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of 1971: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 79]. These documents show that US officials working in diplomatic institutions within Bangladesh used the terms âselective genocide'
[Blood, Archer, Transcript of Selective Genocide Telex, Department of State, United States] and âgenocide' (
Blood telegram) to describe events they had knowledge of at the time. They also show that President Nixon, advised by Henry Kissinger, decided to downplay this secret internal advice, because he wanted to protect the interests of Pakistan as he was apprehensive of India's friendship with the
USSR, and he was seeking a closer relationship with who supported Pakistan
[Memorandam for the Record(PDF) August 11 1971].
In June 2005 the U.S. state department declassified documents concerning the visit of Indian Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi to the White House. Included in the documents was a transcript of a conversation between Kissinger and President Nixon on the morning of November 5, 1971:
[Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume E-7, Documents on South Asia, 1969-1972 150. Conversation Among President Nixon, the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), and the President's Chief of Staff (Haldeman), Washington November 5, 1971, 8:15-9:00 a.m.]Nixon: "We really slobbered over that old witch":Kissinger: "They are the most goddamn aggressive people around.":Nixon: "The Indians?":Kissinger: "Yeah.":Nixon: "Sure.":Kissinger: "The Indians are bastards anyway. They are starting a war there. While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too. She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to go to war."
Kissinger has since expressed his regret over the comments saying, "I regret that these words were used. I have extremely high regard for Mrs. Gandhi as a statesman. This was somebody letting off steam at the end of a meeting in which both President Nixon and I were emphasizing that we had gone out of our way to treat Mrs. Gandhi very cordially." On Indo-American relations Kissinger has also added that "I'm known as a strong advocate and one of the originators of close relations with China. I believe that today I am also a strong advocate of close relations with India." The newly released documents also show that Kissinger pushed for a Chinese military build up along the Indian border as the Americans feared an Indian invasion into
West Pakistan. The American request for Chinese involvement in the war was, however, declined.
[Debasish Roy Chowdhury 'Indians are bastards anyway' in the Asia Times June 23, 2005][ Kissinger regrets India commentsBBC 1 July, 2005]1973 Yom Kippur War
In 1973, Kissinger negotiated the end to the
Yom Kippur War, which had begun with a surprise attack against
Israel by the
Syrian military and by the
Egyptian army one day later. With Kissinger's supportthe U.S military conducted the largest military airlift in history. American action contributed to the 1973 OPEC embargo against the United States, which was lifted in March 1974. Though Israel regained some of the territory it had lost, Kissinger pressured the Israelis to
cede land to the Arabs, contributing to the first phases of a lasting Israeli-Egyptian peace. The move saw a warming in U.S.â"Egyptian relations, bitter since the '50s, 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.
Latin American policy
Normal relations with Latin America were continued, and 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, the same year as
Augusto Pinochet's coup against
Salvador Allende in
Chile.
Augusto Pinochet's September 11, 1973 coup
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. While the Nixon administration initially considered authorizing the
CIA to organize a military coup that would prevent Allende's inauguration and presumably call new elections, the plan was aborted because the administration doubted any of the willing factions had a chance. [
5] The extent of Kissinger's involvement in or support of these plans is unknown.USâ"Chilean relations remained frosty during Salvador Allende's tenure; following the complete
nationalization of the partially US-owned copper mines and the Chilean subsidiary of the US-based
ITT, as well as other Chilean businesses, the US 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." [
6] 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 [
7] during a military coup launched by Army Commander-in-Chief
Augusto Pinochet, who became President. During a later visit to Chile, Kissinger told Pinochet that the US was concerned about the junta's human rights violations but was sympathetic to its anti-communist stance. USâ"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.
Operation Condor
Kenneth Maxwell's review of
Peter Kornbluh's book
The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, in
Foreign Affairs Novemberâ"December 2003, pinpointed Kissinger's influence in Operation Condor. Nearly ten nations of the American continent participated in the brutal campaign, while a 1978 cable released in 2000 under Chile declassification project showed that the South American intelligence chiefs involved in Condor "[kept] in touch with one another through a US communications installation in the Panama Canal Zone which [covered] all of Latin America".
Robert E. White, the US ambassador to Paraguay, was concerned that the US connection to Condor might be revealed during the then ongoing investigation into the 1976 assassination of former minister of the
Unidad Popular government
Orlando Letelier in Washington D.C. together with his American colleague Ronni Moffitt.
USâ"Cuban relations
Kissinger initially supported the normalization of USâ"
Cuban relations, broken since 1961 (all US-Cuban trade was blocked in February 1962, a few weeks after the exclusion of Cuba from the
Organisation of American States under US 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 supported the
National Union for a Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by
Jonas Savimbi, the
Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) insurgencies, as well as the CIA-supported advance of
South African troops in Angola. Kissinger made it clear that unless Cuba withdrew its forces from Angola and Mozambique relations would not be normalized.
Jorge Videla's Argentinian junta
Kissinger took a similar line that he had toward Chile when the
Argentine military, led by
Jorge Videla, toppled the democratic government of
Isabel PerĂłn in 1976 and consolidated power, launching brutal reprisals and "
disappearances" against political opponents. During a meeting with Argentine foreign minister
CĂ©sar Augusto Guzzetti, Kissinger assured him that the United States was an ally, but urged him to "get back to normal procedures" quickly before the US Congress reconvened and had a chance to consider sanctions.
Africa
In 1974, a pacific 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) defending the nation from the invasion of the U.S. and European supported South-African apartheid regime. In
1976 South African troops withdrew due to U.S. Congressional opposition.
Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO's head
Mozambican Liberation Front, was assassinated in 1969 by
Aginter Press, the Portuguese branch of
Gladio, supported by Kissinger.
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 newly-independent former Portuguese colony of
East Timor in the
Indonesian archipalego. Indonesian president
Suharto was a strong American ally in the Pacific and began to mobilize the 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 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
UN-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 '90s, but with the end of the
Cold War felt more free to criticize the regime for its actions in East Timor.
Kissinger, like the rest of the Nixon administration, faced extreme unpopularity with the anti-war Left, particularly after the secret US 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,
Shirley MacLaine, and
Candice Bergen. There was even discussion of ending the requirement that a US president be born in America so that Kissinger could have a chance to run.
Kissinger left office when former Democratic
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. Carter was later defeated by
Republican presidential candidate
Ronald Reagan in 1980, and in the '80s and early '90s Kissinger played a relatively minor role in the US government, because the
neoconservatives, who had come to dominate the Republican Party and the
Reagan administration from 1981 to 1989, 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 do political consulting, speaking, and writing. 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.
In 2005, Kissinger offered a public apology for using foul language in 1971 to describe
Indian
prime minister Indira Gandhi and Indians in general. Declassified transcripts show that Kissinger had disparaged the independence movement in East Pakistan, predicting that an independent
Bangladesh would become a failed
third world country. The comments underscored US hostility toward
India, supportive of the Bengali guerrillas and backed by the Soviet Union. The
Pakistani Army violently suppressed the independence movement in the East, causing an influx of Bengali refugees into India and exacerbating longstanding Indo-Pakistani tensions. Pakistani forces were eventually forced to withdraw and an independent Bangladesh was established in East Pakistan's place. Despite international condemnation of the conduct of Pakistani forces during the conflict, US-Pakistani relations remained strong based both on concerns of growing Indo-Soviet hegemony in the region and Pakistan's status as an ally of China. (see
Bangladesh Liberation War and
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971)
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,
Cambodia, and
Chile. Kissinger became a focal point of criticism from the political Left and certain
human rights NGOs. The
Trial of Henry Kissinger was later adapted into a documentary that predominantly featured Hitchens as narrator.
Gladio, or NATO's secret "stay-behind" paramilitary organizations
After World War II, the
MI6 and the
CIA organized secret "
stay-behind" anticommunist paramilitary organizations, originally to counter an eventual invasion by the Soviet Union. However, those anticommunist networks, dubbed Gladio, which were connected to
ODESSA's ratlines through the
Gehlen organization, have been involved in various terrorist acts: during Italy's
strategy of tension, in Turkey with the support of the ultra-nationalist
Grey Wolves and various military coups, in Greece helping the
"Regime of Colonels" take the power in 1967, in Spain during the 1976
Montejurra terrorist incident, and also in Argentina, during the
June 20,
1973 Ezeiza massacre, when the
Alianza Anticomunista Argentina ("Triple A") opened up fire on the mass of left-wing
peronists. Gladio's existence, which was closely linked to
Propaganda Due, a masonic lodge also known as "P2", was officially disclosed by Italian Prime minister
Giulio Andreotti in 1990. According to a November 18, 1990 article by
The Observer, quoted by
Statewatch:
"Declassified secret service papers reveal that Ted Shackleton, deputy chief of the CIA station in Rome in the 1970's introduced the notorious
Licio Gelli â" head of the neofascist
P2 masonic lodge and for years a fugitive in Argentina â" to General
Alexander Haig, then Nixon's chief of staff, and later, from 1974 to 1979,
NATO Supreme Commander. P2 was a right-wing shadow government, ready to take over Italy, that included four Cabinet Ministers, all three intelligence chiefs, 48 members of parliament, 160 military officers, bankers, industrialists, top diplomats and the Army Chief of Staff. After meetings between Gelli, Italian military brass and CIA men in the embassy, Gladio was given renewed blessing â" and more money â" by Haig and the then head of the National Security Council, Henry Kissinger. Just how those and later funds were spent is a key point in the [Casson] investigations." [
8].
Involvement in 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 US involvement in
Operation Condor 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 US 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 US 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.[
9]
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. Schneider was killed by coup-plotters loyal to General
Roberto Viaux in a botched kidnapping attempt, but US involvement with the plot is disputed, as declassified transcripts show that Nixon and Kissinger had ordered the coup "turned off" a week prior to the killing, fearing that Viaux had no chance. As a part of the suit, Schneider's two sons are attempting to sue Kissinger and then-CIA director
Richard Helms for $3 million.
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. 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
SĂŁo Paulo because it could no longer guarantee his immunity from judicial action.
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.
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 US bombing campaigns in North Vietnam and Cambodia in the period between 1969 and 1975. Simultaneously, Spanish judge
Baltasar GarzĂłn, 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. [
10]
As detailed above in the section
1971 Bangladesh (East Pakistan) 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.
Kissinger owns a consulting firm,
Kissinger and Associates, and is a partner in
Kissinger McLarty Associates with
Mack McLarty, former
Chief of Staff to President
Bill Clinton. He also serves on various
boards of directors including
Gulfstream Aerospace[
11] and
Hollinger International, a
Chicago-based newspaper group[
12].
In 1998, Kissinger became an honorary citizen of
FĂŒrth, Germany, his hometown. He has been a life-long supporter of the
Spielvereinigung FĂŒrth 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.
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[ Freeport McMoran Inc.[
13] 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.
Kissinger has long been a satirised or lampooned figure in America and overseas, due in part to his controversial nature and distinctive voice and mannerisms. References include:
*In the British comedy special
"The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation As We Know It", a character called "Dr. Gropinger" with the voice and mannerisms of Kissinger is assassinated at the story's beginning, leading to the events of the plot. Gropinger is portrayed as rather bumbling and useless without his diary.
*In an episode of
The Simpsons (
$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)),
Homer Simpson finds Kissinger's glasses in a toilet. Kissinger is shown,
sans glasses, speaking to
Monty Burns, who wonders where the glasses are. Kissinger thinks to himself that nobody must ever know he dropped them in the toilet. Later in that episode, we find out that he walked into a wall.
*In an episode of
Futurama (
War is the H-Word), Kissinger is assigned to aid Bender in peace negotiations between Earth and Spheron 1.
*In an episode of the short-lived
Dilbert cartoon, Henry Kissinger appeared as a Vegas-style Lounge Singer in Elbonia.
*The
Monty Python troupe recorded a song entitled "Henry Kissinger", in which Kissinger's attributes, both mental and physical, are praised.
*One member of Monty Python,
John Cleese, went on to mention Kissinger many times in the
sitcom Fawlty Towers, usually involving gags of sarcasm from Cleese's character, Basil, retorting that the other person is
stupid for asking an obvious question.
*In
Joseph Heller's novel
Good as Gold the protagonist, Bruce Gold, plans on writing a book about Kissinger and believes that he was not Jewish.
*In the James Bond movie
The Man with the Golden Gun, Sheriff J.W. Pepper protests his arrest by Bangkok police by bellowing, "I'll get Henry Kissinger!"
*Kissinger appears as a major character in John Adams' 1987 opera
Nixon in China. The character is a semi-comic figure, with an ungainly appearance in the opera's central ballet.
*Kissinger appeared as himself briefly in a 1983 episode of the
soap opera Dynasty, along with former president
Gerald Ford and his wife
Betty.
*
National Security Council*
Council on Foreign Relations*
Trilateral Commission*
Bilderberg Group*
Bohemian Grove*
David Rockefeller*
Nelson Rockefeller*
Realism in international relations*
Foreign policy*
Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne by Andrew F. Smith, Henry A. Kissinger (2002) ISBN 0791453790
**
Does America Need a Foreign Policy?: Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century (2001) ISBN 0684855674
**
Diplomacy (Kissinger) (1994) ISBN 067165991X
*
On Men and Power: A Political Memoir by Helmut Schmidt, Henry Kissinger (1990) ISBN 0224027158
*
Observations: Selected Speeches and Essays 1982-1984 (1985) ISBN 0316496642
*
For the Record: Selected Statements 1977-1980 (1981) ISBN 0316496634
*
American Foreign Policy: Three Essays (1974) ISBN 0393055256
*
A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-22 (1973) ISBN 0395172292
*
The Troubled Partnership: A Re-Appraisal of the Atlantic Alliance(1965) ISBN 0070348952
*
The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy (1961) ISBN 0060124105
*
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 0743249100
*
Vietnam: A Personal History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War (2002) ISBN 0743219163
*
Kissinger Transcripts: The Top Secret Talks With Beijing and Moscow by Henry Kissinger, William Burr (1999) ISBN 1565844807
*
Years of Renewal (1999) ISBN 0684855712
*
Years of Upheaval (1982) ISBN 0316285919
*
The White House Years (1979) ISBN 0316496618
*
Biographies*
The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy by Jussi M. Hanhimaki (2004) ISBN 0195172213
*
Kissinger: A Biography by Walter Isaacson (1992) ISBN 0671663232
*
The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping of America's Foreign Policy by Richard C. Thornton (1989) ISBN 0887020518
*
The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House by
Seymour Hersh (1983) ISBN 0671447602
*
Kissinger by Marvin L. Kalb, Bernard Kalb (1974) ISBN 0316482218
*
Kissinger on the Couch by Phyllis Schlafly (1974) ISBN 0870002163
*
Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind by Stephen Richards Graubard (1973) ISBN 0393054810
Historiography
* Jussi M. HanhimÀki, "'Dr. Kissinger' or 'Mr. Henry'? Kissingerology, Thirty Years and Counting,"
Diplomatic History November 2003 - Vol. 27 Issue 5 pp 637-76
*
Articles By Henry Kissinger*
Nobel Prize: Biography of Henry Kissinger*
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?,
Toronto Globe & Mail, June 11, 2002.
*
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Kissinger –
LA Weekly article on
Hitchens's
The Trial of Henry Kissinger* Official site of the film
The Trials of Henry Kissinger (
Flash)
*
Kissinger-related material on the site of
East Timor Action Network*
Henry Kissinger page on www.thirdworldtraveler.com. Extensive anti-Kissinger link collection
