By Benjamin Hong, Features Editor
On November 29th, former secretary of state and legendary political scientist Henry Kissinger passed away. As one of the most influential political thinkers of the 20th century, Kissinger’s reputation is complex and controversial, his lionized reputation as a brilliant diplomat who fought for peace and American interests abroad forever lying in stark contrast to his equally pervasive image as a cold-hearted strategist with the blood of millions of innocents on his hands. Venerated by some and criticized by just as many, the late German immigrant’s power and impact on the world stage reached unparalleled heights for someone of such humble origins.
Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger to a German-Jewish family in Bavaria on May 27, 1923. He and his family fled to the US to escape Nazi persecution, where he was drafted into the US Army, serving in counterintelligence operations. After the war, he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Harvard University and served on the Council on Foreign Relations until his 1957 book “Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy” launched him to national prominence. He served as the head of the National Security Council for 6 years and advised both Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford as secretary of state of their respective administrations.
Kissinger had a major influence on US relations during heightened international tensions. He negotiated the Paris Peace Accords (pulling the US out of Vietnam), began the opening of China-US relations, and initiated the policy of détente (the easing of geopolitical tensions) with the Soviet Union. Kissinger also aided in ending the Yom Kippur War, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog lauded him following his death for laying “the cornerstone of the peace agreement, which was later signed with Egypt, and so many other processes around the world I admire.”
His accolades are equally as wide-ranging as his diplomatic achievements, being the recipient of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a National Book Award, among many other honors.
Despite the illustrious sheen that imbues his accomplishments, many condemn the decisions he made and the initiatives he spearheaded throughout his multi-decade career. Greg Grandin, a professor of history at Yale University, estimated that as a national security advisor and secretary of state, Kissinger’s policies led to the deaths of 3 to 4 million people between 1969 and 1976 in what he calls “crimes of commission.”
Included in these is the bombing of the then-neutral country of Cambodia, for which an anonymous colonel on the Joint Staff reported Kissinger hand-selected targets with the express purpose of clandestinely expanding the scope of the Vietnam War. He has also been accused of informally endorsing anti-democratic regimes in Latin America through his inaction, most notably that of Chile’s Auguste Pinochet, which was highlighted following Kissinger’s death by a statement on X by Chile’s ambassador to the US, Juan Gabriel Valdes, in which he described Kissinger as “a man has died whose historical brilliance never managed to conceal his profound moral misery.”
Kissinger’s impact on the present day, no matter what your political views are, is undeniable. He shaped much of the latter end of the 20th century, with the real question being not of the existence of his influence, but of its morality. In such a historically rich debate, it is no wonder some Hawks have decided to take a side. Shrihaan Chaudhary, a junior at River Hill who is the president of Model UN and the History & Public Policy Club, stated that while Kissinger “did indeed work for US interests abroad and served his country diligently, there are a great many things I find to be repulsive actions committed by that man, some of which are against the interest of humanity and his country as a whole.” Chaudhary points to the fact that “after the rise of military juntas backed by Kissinger there was a sharp decline in human rights in South America,” and that “during a time of the Bengali genocide when the Pakistani Army slaughtered 3 million Bengalis, he supported Pakistan’s dictator Yahya Khan.”
Kissinger’s legacy and how his ideas influence the present day are deeply nuanced and highly complicated. The easing of tensions with communist nations had an immeasurable benefit geopolitically, and the Paris Peace Accords he negotiated ended an expensive and bloody conflict. On the other hand, he directly contributed to an untold loss of life through his bombings of Cambodia and he greenlit the deterioration of democracy in Latin and South America through his willful inaction. Setting aside the value judgments of Kissinger’s actions, however, one thing is irrefutable: his legacy is intertwined with the story of modern world history. As associate professor of history at Texas A&M University and co-editor of The Nixon Tapes Luke Nichter put it in an article for Politico, “Hero or villain, he remains a larger than life figure” because ultimately, “he mattered.”