Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger in the United States

Personal Data

Henry Kissinger was a great American success story. As a youth, he emigrated with his family to the United States, fleeing Nazi tyranny. Kissinger was born in Fürth, Germany, on May 27, 1923, came to the United States in 1938, and was naturalized a United States citizen on June 19, 1943. He served in the Army during World War II, then went to Harvard University and received his doctorate in political science. Henry Kissinger came to the fore in the 1960s for his academic writings, and was subsequently hiked into positions of great political power–first as national security advisor and then as secretary of state–by President Nixon, and later on by President Ford.

Among the awards Dr. Kissinger received have been the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty in 1986.

Dr. Kissinger was the author of:

  • A world Restored: Castlereagh, Metternich and the Restoration of Peace, 1812-1822 (1957);
  • Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (1957);
  • The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy (1961);
  • The Troubled Partnership: A Reappraisal of the Atlantic Alliance (1965);
  • Problems of National Strategy: A Book of Readings (ed.) (1965);
  • American Foreign Policy, Three Essays (1969);
  • White House Years (1979);
  • For the Record: Selected Statements, 1977-1980 (1981);
  • Years of Upheaval (1982);
  • Observations: Selected Speeches and Essays, 1982- 1984 (1985);
  • Diplomacy (1994)

Approach To The World

In his approach to diplomacy, Kissinger sought to challenge and recast the traditional American approach to the world. He believes that a more realistic, sober tradition that of European statecraft recommends itself to the United States, especially as it approaches the new century. To be sure, Kissinger does not believe that Americans will ever become Europeans. But he thinks that American optimism and naive about international relations should be leavened by the harsh experience of other men and times.Kissinger’s approach to the world is based on the great European diplomatic tradition often referred to as “realpolitik” as it developed from the 17th to the 19th centuries. This tradition can be summed up in two ideas.

  • First, “raison d’etat”, where the interests of the state justify whatever means are necessary to pursue them. The national interest thus replaced the medieval notion of a universal morality that guided all men and nations.
  • The second key concept is the balance of power an international order in which no nation is dominant. Each nation maintains its independence by aligning itself, or opposing, other nations according to its calculation of the imperatives of power.

All status quo nations benefit from this arrangement: they can check the pretensions of the most aggressive nation, and thereby achieve international stability and moderation.

Kissinger’s pantheon of practitioners of balance-of power politics included Cardinal Richelieu, William of Orange, Frederick the Great, Metternich, Castlereagh, and Bismarck. To be sure, Kissinger is not an unqualified admirer of realpolitik. He warned that European-style diplomacy tempts its practitioners toward overextension. Nations that pursue security through the acquisition of power can easily go too far. This dangerous tendency led to the tragedy of the First World War. Kissinger believes that the solution to overextension lies in seeking “an agreement on common values. The balance of power inhibits the capacity to overthrow the international order; agreement on shared values inhibits the desire to overthrow the international order.” The American diplomatic tradition, as Kissinger sees it, is a rejection of raison d’etat in favor of a different standard of international relations. This standard, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, is that there should be “but one system of ethics for men and for nations.”

Kissinger And The American Tradition In Diplomacy

For Americans, the objectives of foreign policy may be properly understood only as a means to the end of protecting and promoting individual freedom and well-being. In Kissinger’s account, the United States sees itself as a an exceptional nation, due to its republican form of government, the benign circumstances attending its development, and the innate virtue of its citizenry. For Kissinger, the American tradition points in two opposite and equally unfortunate directions. The first response is the withdrawal of America from international affairs, so as to perfect its own democratic institutions and serve as a beacon for the rest of humanity. The second, more recent response after WWII, is to engage in crusades for democracy around the world, as a means to transform the old international system into a global international order based on democracy, free commerce, and international law. In such a world, peace will be the natural outcome of relations among peoples and nations, rather than the result of an artificial, unstable, and unjust balance of power.

For most of its history, Kissinger argues, the United States chose the first course, isolationism. But during the second half of this century, the second American path, that of crusading internationalism, dominated. Woodrow Wilson is the exemplar par excellence of American internationalism. For Wilson, America’s role in the world was justified not by the need to sustain the balance of power, but by the obligation to spread its principles throughout the world. These principles held that peace depends on the spreadof democracy. Although Wilson could not persuade his countrymen to support the great project to democratize the world, Wilsonian idealism has lived on. According to Kissinger, “it is above all to the drumbeat of Wilsonian idealism that American foreign policy has marched since his watershed presidency, and continues to march to this day.”

Kissinger acknowledges and celebrates the fact that the United States did succeed in bringing down the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, according to Kissinger, American foreign policy during the Cold War was excessively moralistic and insufficiently attuned to the realities of international relations.

His Diplomacy

Kissinger particularly criticizes the American view that the Soviet Union was an ideological rather than a geopolitical threat. As a result of this misperception, Kissinger argues, America’s Cold War success was far more costly than it could have been. The tragedy of Vietnam, rather than the triumph of the fall of the Berlin Wall, dominates Kissinger’s reflections on American policy during the Cold War. The moral of the story for Kissinger is that America must mend her ways, at least to a degree. As the bipolarity of the U.S.-Soviet conflict passes, a new set of international relations is emerging. Contrary to American expectations, nations are pursuing self-interest more frequently than high-minded principle. There is more evidence of competition than cooperation, exactly as the European diplomatic model would predict. Further, Kissinger argues, the decline of American power precludes the United States from dominating the world, just as our interdependence with that world precludes withdrawal. Other countries have grown into great power status, and their interests must be taken into account. Order in this new world must be based on some concept of equilibrium, a balance of power.

To summarize Kissinger’s views very simply, there are two critical theaters where the balance of power should be applied.

  • First, Europe. Here, Russia, despite its initial steps towards democracy, and a newly unified Germany are the powers that must be balanced. Put differently, the United States has an interest in seeing that unbridled Germany and Russia do not compete over the center of the Continent, as they did in the first half of this century. This requires the continuation of an American presence in Europe and the enlargement of NATO to the east.
  • Second, Asia. Here, the United States must balance China and Japan, and help them coexist despite their suspicion of each other. In practical terms, to achieve these regional balances, Kissinger recommends a relatively tough line towards Moscow, and a relatively accommodating line towards Beijing.

(Source: based on Peter van der Maas writings)

Henry Kissinger in the U.S. Legal History

Summary

The national security advisor to President Nixon, the Harvard-educated German Jewish immigrant was a staunch anti-Communist. He was Nixon’s closest associate on matters of foreign policy.


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