The 56th Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, passed away on November 23, 2023. Kissinger had a long and lasting career in international policy and United States diplomacy, but with that came controversy.
Henry Kissinger was born in Germany in 1923, but then immigrated to the United States as a teenager when Adolf Hitler rose to power. He would then attend Harvard and study both history and political science, earning a bachelors, masters, and PHD from the university. His career then began in 1954 as a Harvard faculty member in their Department of Government and Center for International Affairs. Kissinger would work at Harvard from 1954-1971. He also advised many committees and departments during this time, including the Department of State.
Kissinger began working in big time politics in 1969 under President Nixon as the National Security Advisor. In this office, he was able to jointly negotiate a ceasefire in Vietnam in 1971. This would win him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972, but he was heavily criticized after the fact because Kissinger was the one ordering the bombings in Vietnam during the war. President Nixon then named Kissinger Secretary of State in 1973. He would remain in the position until 1977, continuing under President Ford. The position allowed him to architect the opening up of the United States to China, expanding ties in the Middle East, and getting an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Unfortunately, Kissinger’s work was not all positive. Before efforts for a ceasefire, Kissinger’s tactic to end the Vietnam war allowed for a dictator to rise in Cambodia, who killed two million people. He also encouraged military dictatorships in Latin and South America in place of communist governments. Kissinger also notably enabled a war between East and West Pakistan.
Kissinger would go on to become a heavily awarded novelist and open an elite consulting firm after his retirement from politics. However, his retirement did not stop him from being involved in policy. Most recently he met with President Xi Jinping of China this past summer, and warned about the effect of Gaza’s attack on Israel on October 7th. Whether it was good or bad, Henry Kissinger made a lasting effect on the world shaping global policy for decades.
