What Henry Kissinger Never Understood

2023.12.04 Mon posted at 18:05 JST

（ＣＮＮ） His life, as improbable as it was, had important consequences for society. Henry Kissinger was born in a small ghetto in the small German town of Fürth. His grandparents were killed by the Nazis, but he managed to escape. He, his parents, and his younger brother moved to New York in late 1938. He had no desire to leave Germany, but his family had no choice.

Like many other refugees, the family was unprepared for their new life. Henry, a 15-year-old boy with a slender build, could not speak a word of English and had little hope for his future. He attended a public high school in Manhattan and worked nights to help make ends meet. At the same time, he was also preparing to become an accountant. It was a reasonable goal for a Jewish immigrant living in New York.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II changed Kissinger’s fortunes as well as those of the United States. He joined the army. For the first time, he left a family rooted in the Orthodox Jewish faith and set foot on German soil again as a member of the U.S. occupation forces. This was the true beginning of his career. He then established himself as a cosmopolitan savant and pursued power throughout his life. Furthermore, it will decide the fate of the United States and the world. In a controversial manner that will have consequences.

What U.S. leaders at the time desperately needed were talented young people who were familiar with German society but also had a strong attachment to the United States. Mr. Kissinger perfectly fit this condition. Although he looked and felt German (and remained so throughout his life), his Jewish upbringing meant that he never sympathized with the Nazis. Gaining the trust of the Americans, he remained in the Army for a year after the war and worked to create a new Germany under American influence. It became the foundation of the postwar order in Europe.

Thanks to an Army letter of recommendation and the Veterans Affairs Act, Mr. Kissinger had the opportunity to attend Harvard University. He became an older undergraduate than usual, which would have been unthinkable before the war. He was a Jew with a history of being a refugee and was not wealthy, among other conditions that made it difficult for him to receive a university education. At Harvard, Mr. Kissinger forged relationships with a new generation of students and scholars who had immigrated from Europe. They were determined to help the United States lead the world and to stop a new totalitarian regime from destroying civilization. The regime here refers to the Soviet Union.

For Mr. Kissinger, his life’s mission was to: Use his power to elevate America (and himself) to the position of being a bulwark or light against the abyss. This light is nothing but a presence that illuminates the darkness that is gradually creeping up on you. His pessimism about threats to humanity led him to long for a situation in which the United States had the upper hand. This was especially true in a world with nuclear weapons. By demonstrating its strength, the United States will prevent another disaster from occurring. Although he did not work in the State Department’s Bureau of Foreign Affairs, Kissinger focused on the intersection of diplomacy and military affairs. What happened there had a long-lasting impact on the situation that followed.

After earning his doctorate and serving as a professor at Harvard University, Kissinger quickly rose to the heights of power and never left. This is because the above mission resonated with many people, including past presidents and business leaders. Mr. Kissinger worked tirelessly to pursue this mission. As a scholar of war and diplomacy, he worked to strengthen the alliance of Western countries led by the United States. Under this alliance in Europe, the major leaders of each country fostered military, economic, and diplomatic cooperation.

As secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations, he expanded his policy focus to many other regions, including China and the Middle East. He paved the way for the United States and communist China to establish direct relations for the first time. This made it clear that the United States had an advantage over the Soviet Union in Asia. This was because relations between the Soviet Union and the Asian region deteriorated at the time. After the 1973 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the United States became an important external power in the Middle East, helped by Kissinger. The United States provided the largest amount of aid and military support to countries such as Israel and Egypt, which were willing to work with Washington but sideline the Soviet government.

Mr. Kissinger has always known himself to be a refugee, having come to the United States fleeing mass atrocities. He then criticized those who believed that the United States could somehow make humans perfect. The idealistic impulses of former President Wilson, he determined, were naive and dangerous. Hatred and violence always shadowed his perspective on society.

Mr. Kissinger wanted to use American power as a better option, a better option. The goal is to rescue the best in humanity while limiting the damage caused by human weaknesses and shortcomings. Such reasoning drove him into a dark place. In exactly the same way he tried to justify the heavy bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The bombing, which also killed innocent people, was, he claimed, intended to prevent what he saw as far greater suffering. It is said that such hardships come with communist dictatorships.

Similar explanations were given when the United States supported repressive regimes in South America, including Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. Additionally, he has used similar reasoning when providing diplomatic support to authoritarian regimes in Iran, Egypt, South Korea, Indonesia, and Pakistan. The argument was that these dictatorships brought stability, not social chaos or conflict. In his view, the societies in these countries were not yet ready for democracy.

The worthy mission he was founded on has been overstepped, and in Vietnam, Latin America, and Iran, he has unleashed the very kind of nightmares he sought to prevent. Excessive US power and excessive support for an anti-communist dictator brought disasters of their own.

The death, destruction, and suffering that occurred in each of these societies confirms this fact beyond any doubt. The strong outcry against Mr. Kissinger’s policies in the United States and the outcry against him even at the time of his death demonstrate how his unwavering dedication to American power repeatedly hurt others. Originally, such power was supposed to be of use to people.

Mr. Kissinger’s life is therefore both a parable of progress and a tragedy of arrogance. He lived the American dream with pride. He made the world safer for millions of people like himself. On the other hand, he embraced self-righteousness, obsessed with power, and thereby misjudged the outlook. For all his intelligence, he had no idea how serious a threat American power could be. He never understood how deeply he could hurt those who stood in his way.

For better or worse, Mr. Kissinger’s life was a story of American power over the last century. That is why he is so important. His death provides an opportunity to reflect on what American power has done and what it might do in the future.

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Jeremy Suri is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the editor and author of 11 books, including “Henry Kissinger and the American Century.” He is also the co-host of the podcast “This is Democracy.” The content of this article is his personal opinion.