Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State and national security adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, turned 100 on May 27, 2023. Despite having been out of office for many years, Kissinger’s legacy as a Cold War strategist, influential adviser, and jet-setting diplomatic shuttler persists, and he is still called upon for counsel as to how to solve complex global issues. While Kissinger played a pivotal role in opening relations with China and brokering arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, he also has a controversial record of perpetuating atrocities around the world. His legacy has three key aspects: the centralization of foreign policymaking power in the White House, the avoidance of ever apologizing for his destructive actions, and the corporatization of foreign policy.
Kissinger centralized foreign policy power in the White House, and the model he created has passed down to this day in Democratic and Republican administrations. He consolidated the job of a national security adviser and the nation’s top diplomat, serving in the White House and as Secretary of State at once. The concentration of foreign policymaking among the president’s staff, away from the State Department, has endured. Kissinger also built out the National Security Council, expanding the president’s advisory apparatus. However, Blinken, Biden’s longtime aide and the current Secretary of State, reflected on his time as an adviser to the Obama White House: “The State Department needs to lean in and put ideas forward. When you lean back, no one in the White House will wait around,” Blinken said.
Kissinger never apologized for his overseas actions, and few US leaders have to this day. This has had a major impact on the way leaders subsequently have conducted themselves internationally. The methods employed by Nixon and Kissinger to circumvent democratic scrutiny of foreign policy have since become standard, a historian has written. Kissinger has been the original “don’t apologize and just tweet through it.” He modeled that you can play foreign policy like chess and not have to answer domestically for the disastrous consequences in other countries.
Kissinger is also known for the corporatization of foreign policy. As a pioneer of the “revolving door” system, he engendered close relationships between big business and the administration, such as his links to ITT Corporation and Dupont. His vision that markets would drive the world has fueled the free-market globalism that we see today. By corporations being right at the heart of global politics, the rules of international trade have so far privileged the interests of the rich countries and big businesses rather than the poor.
In addition, those reporting on foreign policy are always in Kissinger’s shadow. Even as scholars, journalists, and progressives make a credible case that he committed war crimes, Kissinger retains many admirers for his realpolitik prowess. New books about his ingenuity as a statesman keep coming out, and he is still writing books himself. Kissinger is still called upon for counsel as to how the war in Ukraine will end or how to avert conflict with China. Kissinger attends marquee international conferences like Davos and Bilderberg.
Over time, Kissinger’s reputation has been challenged. Today, his legacy is considered a controversial one, with his centralization of foreign policymaking power and disregard for overseas impact being increasingly questioned. His legacy is a reminder that policymaking needs to be progressive, inclusive, and accountable. Although long out of office, Kissinger’s model of foreign policy has managed to influence events to the present day. Furthermore, this model holds important implications for shaping policy in the future: policymakers should take initiative; apologize for unethical policies, even if it is difficult; and be accountable to the domestic population of their own nations and the wider world in equal measure.
