Henry Kissinger: Polarising architect of Cold War era American foreign policy

Influential US secretary of state to Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as arch practitioner of ‘realpolitik’ who was revered and reviled in equal measure, writes Ariana Baio

Henry Kissinger leaves a controversial legacy (AP)

Henry Kissinger, the divisive 56th US secretary of state and architect of American foreign policy during the Nixon and Ford administrations, died on 29 November at 100 years old.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, Kissinger leaves behind a complex legacy: hailed as a grandmaster of geopolitical chess by some while denounced as a war criminal by others.

The academic-turned-diplomat had an unusually outsized impact on the US’s approach to foreign policy, having maintained close relationships with the White House through 12 different administrations, both Republican and Democrat.

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on 27 May 1923 in Furth, Bavaria to a Jewish school teacher, Louis Kissinger, and his wife, Paula.

Growing up in the Weimar Republic during the rise of Nazi power, Kissinger and his family were forced to flee from antisemitic abuse while he was just a teenager.

His family fled to New York City in August 1938, shortly before Kristallnacht. However, at least 13 of his close relatives were unable to join them and were eventually murdered in the Third Reich’s concentration camps.

In Manhattan, Kissinger attended George Washington High School and quickly acclimated to the culture, changing his name from Heinz to Henry. He was an accomplished student and showed an early instinct for diplomacy when he counselled his friends on their love lives.

Kissinger became a naturalised US citizen in 1943 and joined the US Army to serve in World War II, assigned to the 84th Infantry. Due to his fluency in German, Kissinger was reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps where he helped track down and capture Nazis. He later won a Bronze Star for his work in counterintelligence.

In 1947, he returned from war and enrolled at Harvard University, where he spent the next 20 years, earning a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s and finally a PhD. He stayed on thereafter and joined the faculty as a professor and associate director of Harvard’s Department of Government and Center for International Affairs.

Henry Kissinger with mentor Fritz Kraemer in Germany in 1945 (Supplied)

In 1949, Kissinger married his first wife, Ann Fleischer. They divorced in 1964 but had two children: Elizabeth, born in 1959, and David, born in 1961.

He would remarry in 1974 to Nancy Maginnes, whom he met while working for former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller.

But in his bachelor years, Kissinger enjoyed a reputation as an unlikely ladies’ man and social butterfly in Washington, dating the actors Jill St John, Shirley MacLaine and Candice Bergen.

During his time at Harvard, Kissinger served as a consultant to several government agencies on national security issues including the Department of State and the National Security Council’s Operations Coordinating Board. He was also appointed as an advisor on foreign affairs to then-president John F Kennedy.

Then, in 1968, president-elect Richard Nixon tapped him to be his national security advisor.

When the duo took office in January 1969, the most immediately pressing problem they faced was the Vietnam War, the failures of which ultimately became synonymous with Kissinger.

Kissinger meets with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in July 1971 (AFP/Getty)

Neither man, privately, believed the war could be won outright but Kissinger was of the opinion that the United States could not abandon South Vietnam without losing the trust of its international allies and further emboldening the Soviets.

Instead, he preferred to pursue an armistice with North Vietnam and gradually withdraw American troops from the South but his position was met with anxious opposition from South Vietnam president Nguyen Van Thieu.

This prompted Kissinger to conduct secret negotiations with North Vietnam president Le Duc Tho instead. In exchange for the release of prisoners of war in North Vietnam, America would slowly withdraw its forces.

North Vietnamese politburo member Le Duc Tho with Kissinger during peace talks on the Vietnam War in Paris, France on 24 January 1973 (Getty)

Meanwhile, Kissinger continued embedding himself in covert operations, this time by supporting the US’s deadly bombing raids in Cambodia known as “Operation Menu” in 1969, which were intended to ramp up pressure on North Vietnam.

Kissinger advocated for the continued bombing of Cambodia that lasted for three years, known as Operation Freedom Deal. An estimated 150,000 to 500,000 innocent civilians were killed as a result and the policy arguably paved the way for the dictatorship of Pol Pot that would follow. It was kept a secret from the American public until 1972.

By 1973, Kissinger’s secret negotiations with Le Duc Tho resulted in a ceasefire agreement known as the Paris Peace Accords, which, after much bitter haggling, was finally accepted by a reluctant Thieu under pressure from Nixon.

Kissinger and his wife Nancy arrive at the White House for a state dinner on 24 April 2018 (Getty)

As a result, Kissinger and Tho were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that December, which Tho declined. Kissinger accepted it but, following the Fall of Saigon in 1975, attempted to return the accolade.

After Nixon secured a second term in 1972, he took the unprecedented step of making Kissinger his secretary of state (the first foreign-born American to hold that office) while retaining him as national security adviser.

During his tenure, Kissinger made a series of controversial decisions. He supported a failed covert operation to kidnap Chilean general Rene Schneider in the hopes of preventing president Salvador Allende’s inauguration.

Kissinger meets with Israel’s defence minister Moshe Dayan in Tel Aviv on 8 January 1974 (AFP/Getty)

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War (also known as the Yom Kippur War), Kissinger acted quickly to secure American aid to Israel, a pivotal intervention in the conflict but one that inspired the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boycott trade with the US in retaliation, sparking an economic crisis at home.

Though the Watergate scandal forced Nixon’s resignation in 1974, Kissinger remained secretary of state under Gerald Ford.

The duo continued to pursue a detente with the USSR and China and the period brought the Helsinki Accord of August 1975.

US president Gerald Ford, Soviet general secretary Lenoid Brezhnev and Kissinger speaking informally at the conclusion of the Vladivostok Summit on the tarmac at Vozdvizhenka Airport in November 1974 (Universal History Archive/Getty)

When Kissinger left the White House in November 1976, he found himself surplus to requirements at the young age of 54, albeit with a Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck.

Reinventing himself as a writer, public speaker and lecturer, he published further books, including the memoirs The White House Years (1979) and Years of Upheaval (1982) and founded the consultancy Kissinger Associates.

He continued to make himself available to every succeeding president.

Under the Reagan administration, he was appointed to the head a national commission on Central America in 1983 and served on the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy.

US President Donald Trump meets with Kissinger in the Oval Office in 2017 (AFP/Getty)

During George W Bush’s presidency, Kissinger advised him on the aftermath of 9/11 and the Iraq War, supporting the 2003 invasion.

He offered advice to Donald Trump and helped maintain a relationship between China and the Biden administration.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, his two children from his first marriage, Elizabeth and David and his five grandchildren.

Heinz (Henry) Alfred Kissinger, US secretary of state and national security adviser, born 27 May 1923, died 30 November 2023.