Flee Nazi Germany
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO, PROVIDED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon at the White House. The photo is undated.
Heinz Alfred (Henry) Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923 in Fürth, Germany. Of Jewish faith, harassed by the Nazis, the family left Germany in 1938 and found refuge in the United States. On June 19, 1943, while undergoing basic training in the US Army, Henry Kissinger took US citizenship. Sent to Germany at the end of the Second World War, he is responsible for finding members of the Gestapo. Back in the United States, he entered Harvard University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree (1950), a master’s degree (1951) and a doctorate (1954).
In politics
PHOTO DAVID HUME KENNERLY, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger chats with President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office of the White House, April 1975.
After a university career, Kissinger turned to politics. He was an adviser to Republican candidate Nelson Rockefeller during the 1960s and became close to Richard Nixon when the latter was chosen as the Republican Party’s candidate for the 1968 presidential election. When Nixon was sworn in 37e President of the United States on January 20, 1969, Kissinger became National Security Advisor. On September 22, 1973, Nixon appointed Kissinger Secretary of State, the equivalent of a Minister of Foreign Affairs. He will also hold this position under Gerald Ford.
Realpolitik and relaxation
PHOTO ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Historic moment that this handshake between US President Richard Nixon and Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing, February 1972
Follower of realpolitik, principle by which a foreign policy is defined more by the balance of power, the possible and the effectiveness rather than the doctrines, Kissinger influences the president Nixon on the way of the relaxation with the USSR. As for Nixon’s famous trip to Red China (February 21-28, 1972), it was preceded by Kissinger’s secret meetings in Beijing. “He was extremely skilful in this file, especially considering the president for whom he worked, says Rafael Jacob, associate researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair. Before being president, Nixon had built a huge part of his political career on his opposition to communism. »
controversies
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
President Nixon meets Henry Kissinger (left) and Major General Alexander Haig, Deputy National Security Advisor, November 13, 1972 at Camp David to discuss the situation in Vietnam.
In addition, Kissinger’s name is associated with enormous controversies, including US support for the September 11, 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. But above all, Kissinger had a lot of influence on Nixon’s decisions during the Vietnam War. “This includes the illegal bombings committed in Cambodia. Kissinger was at the forefront of this, ”said Rafael Jacob. On October 10, 2015, the magazine Politico published an article in which ten historians expressed widely varying opinions on the legacy of the former Secretary of State. If some extol it, others bring it down in flames.
And today
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Henry Kissinger upon his arrival at the International Economic Forum of the Americas, June 11, 2008, at the Hilton Bonaventure hotel in Montreal
Kissinger left the White House on January 20, 1977 with the swearing in of Democratic President Jimmy Carter. But he always remained in the orbit of Washington politics. “He remained a kind of gray eminence in the public space, believes Rafael Jacob. It’s hard to find a single other diplomat who, in the last 30 or 40 years, has been given so much platform and credibility, particularly by the American mainstream media and by the establishment, in both major parties. As of early 2023, Kissinger was still intervening in the public sphere by speaking, via videoconference, about the war in Ukraine, during an exchange at the World Economic Forum in Davos.