Henry Kissinger: Visionary or War Criminal? Examining his Legacy

Visionary for some, “war criminal” for others, Henry Kissinger, the “wise man” with a curved silhouette but still recognizable by his large frame of dark glasses, remains active.

The former head of the American diplomacy participated Tuesday in a tribute for his 100 years at the very select Economic Club of New York, blowing out candles on a chocolate cake.

His public appearances have become rare over the years, and most often by videoconference as in Davos last January. But for someone who left his mark on the foreign policy of the United States in the second half of the 20th century, this longevity is exceptional.

And he maintains, from his offices in New York and his consulting firm Kissinger Associates, a relative aura with the elite in Washington and abroad, including among Democrats like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who once said “to rely on the advice” of his “friend”.

Dark pages in the history of the United States

A key player in world diplomacy during the Cold War, this Nobel Peace Prize laureate initiated the rapprochement with Moscow and Beijing in the 1970s, with a pragmatic vision of the world, a kind of American-style “Realpolitik”. .

In a sign that his vision of the world has hardly changed, he felt on Tuesday in front of his guests that the United States had to defend their “vital interests”. “We need to be ever stronger in order to resist any pressure,” he said.

Or even on the war in Ukraine when he advocates a ceasefire. “We have reached a point where we have fulfilled our strategic objective. Russia’s military attempt to absorb Ukraine has failed.”

Read the opinion of our columnist Alain Campiotti: lose the war

But the image of the man with the gravelly voice and the strong accent inherited from his German origins remains tarnished and linked to dark pages in the history of the United States, such as support for the 1973 coup in Chile. or the invasion of East Timor in 1975 and, of course, Vietnam.

“To me, there is no doubt that his policy has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and destroyed democracy in many countries,” notes Reed Kalman Brody, a lawyer specializing in human rights. “I’m amazed he got away with it.”

‘No reason to praise Kissinger’

He was in fact never bothered by justice, a complaint having been dismissed in 2004. In an investigation published Wednesday, The Intercept, a journalistic investigation site, affirms on the basis of archival documents of the and survivor testimonies that the American bombing campaign in Cambodia between 1969 and 1973, of which Henry Kissinger was the architect, had been largely underestimated causing far more civilian deaths than previously admitted.

Dhaka University historian Muntassir Mamoon points out that Henry Kissinger “actively supported the genocide in Bangladesh” in 1971. “I see no reason to praise Kissinger,” he says, adding that his point of view was shared in many countries, including Vietnam.

“The irony is that we remember that he made peace but we forget all that he did to prolong the war not only in Vietnam, but in Cambodia and Laos”, adds historian Carolyn Eisenberg, from Hofstra University in the United States.

Born in Bavaria, refugee in the United States at 15

The young German Jew Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923 in Fürth, Bavaria. He took refuge at the age of 15 in the United States with his family before becoming a naturalized American at the age of 20. The son of a teacher, he joined the military counterintelligence and the American army before beginning brilliant studies at Harvard, where he also taught.

He established himself as the face of world diplomacy when Republican Richard Nixon called him to the White House in 1969 as national security adviser, then as secretary of state. He held both positions from 1973 to 1975, and remained master of diplomacy under Gerald Ford until 1977.

It was then that he launched the détente with the Soviet Union and the thawing of relations with Mao’s China, during secret trips to organize Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in 1972.

He also conducts, always in the greatest secrecy and in parallel with the bombardments of Hanoi, negotiations with Le Duc Tho to end the Vietnam War. The signing of a ceasefire won him the Nobel Peace Prize with the North Vietnamese in 1973, one of the most controversial in the history of the Nobel.