Jim Hartman: Henry Kissinger turns 100

Henry Kissinger turned 100 on May 27.

Kissinger has been the United States’ preeminent foreign policy strategist over the past 60 years and an historically significant secretary of State.

In 1938, Kissinger arrived in this country with his family as Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany when he was 15. During World War II, he was drafted into the Army and fought against the Nazis in Germany and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Kissinger excelled academically and graduated from Harvard College in 1950, earning M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard as well. He remained at Harvard as a faculty member. He’s authored 15 books on public policy from 1957 to 2022.

He was in public office only eight years. From January 1969 to January 1977, Kissinger was first national security adviser and secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, holding both titles concurrently for more than two years.

During that period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated an opening of relations with China, engaged in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, which ended American involvement in the Vietnam War.

In the 46 years since, he’s earned the reputation as the most original thinker and hard-nosed statesman of his era. He’s worked as a consultant on strategic relations to governments around the world.

Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.

He was also associated with controversial policies such as the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Kissinger remains a polarizing figure in U.S. politics, having critics on the right of his Soviet détente policy while condemned by many on the left over the Vietnam War.

He offered his counsel in a May 24 interview with the Wall Street Journal.

On the world today: Kissinger sees the world as in “disorder.” Almost “all major countries are in the process of adapting to new circumstances,” meaning a world divided by competition between the U.S. and China.

On China: President Xi Jinping is stronger globally than any previous Chinese leader. Both Biden and Trump “have wanted to exact concessions from China and announce them as concessions.” This is the wrong approach in Kissinger’s view.

“I think the art is to present relations with China as a mutual concern in which agreements are made because both parties think it is best for themselves,” he says.

“I see China, in the power it represents, as a dangerous potential adversary.” Kissinger puts emphasis on “potential.” “I think it may come to conflict.”

On Ukraine: He supports Biden’s policy. “From my perspective, the Ukraine war is won, in terms of precluding a Russian attack on allied nations in Europe. It is highly unlikely to occur again.”

“I think the offer to put Ukraine into NATO was a grave mistake and led to this war.” But Kissinger now believes that Ukraine – “now the best-armed country in Europe” – should belong in NATO.

America in the world: Kissinger believes in a Pax Americana and the need “to defend the areas of the world essential for American and democratic survival.”

But the ability to “execute it politically has declined sharply and that is our overriding problem now.” He ascribes this political weakness to a decline in belief in the U.S. in its own ambitions and institutions.

“There’s no element of pride and direction and purpose left,” he laments, as American leaders focus on events of “300 years ago.”

Alongside that, there isn’t enough common purpose across partisan divides. “Even in my day there was a willingness to find common ground.”

Kissinger believes “that’s what’s needed,” that we have to find a way to recreate the older forms of patriotic collaboration.

“There has to be something, some level, in which the society comes together on the needs of its existence.”

E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.