HENRY KISSINGER

HENRY KISSINGERJew, Diplomat and REALIST

Katrina P. TarapeStudent# 11385421MADEPOL PROGRAMDr. Roman DannugDVS541M, Theories of International Relations

HENRY KISSINGER: Jew, Diplomat and REALIST

***From Germany to the White HouseBorn in Furth, Germany on May 27, 1923, Heinz Alfred Kissinger, widely known as Henry A. Kissinger, was a Noble Peace Prize winner for his work on Vietnam Wars Paris accord and a staunch advocate and practitioner of a realist point-of-view. Kissinger was raised by his parents (Paula Stern and Luois Kissinger) in a highly anti-Semitic environment where Germany is building their intense fanaticism to Nazi. Germany then just emerged from a humiliating World War I defeat and was beginning to unfairly treat its Jewish population, to which Kissinger belongs to, and blame them as the reason behind Germanys series of misfortunes. Dreading the looming tragedy of the holocaust, Kissinger and his parents set sail to New York on August 20, 1938, shedding light to their future that was bleak already back in Germany. Though life became tough for Kissinger and his family, education was highly-prioritized in his family. While working in a shaving brush factory, he was attending the local high school, and then eventually set forth in New Yorks city college. Just two years upon his arrival in New York, he was drafted to fight in World War II and was sent back to Germany as a G-2 intelligence officer. The Nazi whom he and his family fled from was the very same people that he was tasked to eliminate. In 1947, upon his return to the United States, Kissinger decided to pursue his undergraduate career in Harvard University, pursuing an academic degree in political history. He then proceeded to continue his doctorate degree on the same university, producing a dissertation paper entitled A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822. His dissertation paper was a foreshadowing of his take on foreign policy, which he successfully cascaded to former President Richard Nixon, who appointed him as National Security Advisor in 1969-1975, and eventually Secretary of State from 1973-1977. Vietnam WarUpon his assumption of office as Nixons National Security Adviser, Kissinger faced a pressing world dilemma that eventually defined his influence and eventually led him to winning a Nobel Peace Prize- Vietnam War. Kissingers main burden was to ultimately end the Vietnam War without having to sacrifice Americas reputation in the international community. By pursuing diplomatic initiatives coupled with tactical troop withdrawal and bombings on North Vietnam, Kissingers plan took, some say delayed, the eventual victory over Vietnam for four years. In January 27, 1973, Henry Kissinger and his Vietnamese negotiating partner Le Duc Tho signed an agreement to finally end the war, which claimed an estimated 20,000 American and Vietnamese lives. Their efforts were seen as highly laudable by the Nobel Board of Examiners and earned both of them a Nobel Peace Prize award, but Kissinger was the sole recipient as Tho declined to accept his. Though the victory over Vietnam was duly and rightfully credited to Kissinger, his Machiavellian efforts were put into extreme scrutiny, more so when the Cambodia secret bombing was exposed to the public. Known as Operation Breakfast or Project MenuNixon and Kissinger ordered the release of B-52 carpet bombings over the unsuspected Cambodians for a 14-month duration. The bombing which claimed 600,000 lives were kept in secret primarily because the United States as not at war with Cambodia, which was currently used by North Vietnamese communists as their main transportation route and headquarters. Nixon and Kissinger were both worried that they might lose its stronghold in Southeast Asia via Vietnam, resorted into whatever means available to pressure the North Vietnamese to agree and sign a final ceasefire. The vulgarity of the secret bombing in Cambodia outraged many of its peasants, majority of the Cambodian population, who then decided to join the Khmer Rouge, a communist revolutionary movement that gain major power and ordered the genocide of over 1,000,000 Cambodians. From Vietnam to Cambodia, Kissingers effort to quench violence in order to promote peace were polar opposites, especially when one considers the lives lost and the emergence of a dictatorial movement that inspired an Asian genocide version, which ironically his family fled from and dedicated seven years of his life fighting to end. But despite of criticisms, Kissinger still finds the means he employed as justified by the successful endings. China and Soviet: Mending FencesAt the onset of President Nixons leadership, he was already sending signals that White House is ready to talk to Beijing to settle the quiet dispute once and for all. America was beckoning China to be its ally to balance the dominance of its western counterpart- the Soviet Union. Twenty years before the secret trip of Kissinger to China and Nixons 1972 visit to sign the Shanghai Communique with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, America sees China as a notorious Communist country with an insatiable appetite to violate human rights in order to uphold the dominance of the Chinese government. Moreover, America believes that China is a threat to its non-communist neighboring countries, and before communism spreads and Asian allies of America leaves their side, various US leaderships were imposing/ exercising heavier pressure on China than the Soviet Union. Military bases were established on US-allied Asian countries, especially those bordering the eastern and southern portions of China. US-ASIAN alliances were made formal by the establishment of SEATO or Southeast Asian Treaty Organization, with Thailand, Philippines and South Vietnam (North Vietnam was largely communist-influenced) as allies, and linking ANZUS countries or Australia, New Zealand and United States. Americans discouraged its allies into entering diplomatic relations and imposed an international trade embargo with China. By 1960, America felt that China was reeling in pain from the pressure imposed by US and its allies and the Communist party is now willing to open itself, and America to welcome them, as President Nixon wrote in Foreign Affairs that, we simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates, and threaten its neighbors. There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation."The eventual mending of fences between China and America was initially administered by Henry Kissingers trip to Beijing in July 9-1, 1971. Thru Kissingers orchestration, the National Security Council was preparing a study that would look into alternative approaches in dealing with China. Many more steps were taken by Kissinger before President Nixon finally agreed to meet with Chinese official to settle the quiet dispute. Thus the 1972 Shanghai Communique was birthed. The Communique summarizes the agreement and disagreement between China and the US which includes the revision of its stance regarding the leadership of Taiwan. Chinas main bargaining chip was US withdrawal of support to Taiwan, which US semi-complied by slowly withdrawing its military presence. As China yields to American pressure, so did the Soviet Union. Aside from Kissingers side trip to Beijing, he was also negotiating with the Soviets, which finally paved way to dtente which means the permanent relaxation in international affairs during the Cold War rather than just a temporary relaxation. A product of dtente is the SALT 1 or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement that led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Kissingers aim in pushing for this agreement was to address the issue of armament control of Cold War superpowers (US and Soviet). The agreement basically permits a fixed number of defensive systems which would limit both the US and Soviet to come up with new defensive systems to counter what the other has done. However, said agreement was only temporary and ended when President George W. Bush (Kissinger serves as an adviser) announced that US would withdraw from the ABM treaty as it limits the US from defending itself from terrorist or rogue-ballistic attacks. From his dissertation paper, to his diplomatic techniques employed in Vietnam, China and Russia, and the books he authored, Kissinger has been admired and criticized by the entire world. He leaves a recognizable signature on his work in the academe as well as in foreign policy, which roughly revolves around a state-centric approach where the interest of the state should at all times be upheld through whatever means necessary to achieve it. This philosophical disposition is known as Realism which Henry Kissinger highly values and practices. Realist Diplomacy1 | Page