Henry Alfred Kissinger

Henry Kissinger was national security adviser from 1969 to 1975 and Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. Working first with Richard Nixon and then Gerald Ford, he pursued negotiations with communist powers and regional settlements while treating military pressure and covert action as instruments of American policy. ^{3, 4, 5}

Henry Kissinger used Pakistan's diplomatic channel to arrange secret talks with China's leaders. On June 2, 1971, Pakistani ambassador Agha Hilaly handed him Beijing's invitation for a preliminary visit before President Richard Nixon's proposed journey. Kissinger, then Nixon's national security adviser, traveled to Beijing on July 9–11. Pakistan's government helped arrange the concealed journey from Islamabad. ^{1, 2, 3}

Kissinger's route to the White House began with flight from Nazi Germany. His Jewish family immigrated to the United States in 1938. He became an American citizen during the Second World War and served in the Army as a German interpreter. After earning degrees at Harvard, he joined its faculty and advised government agencies before becoming national security adviser in 1969. ³

The China talks also addressed the crisis in East Pakistan. On July 10, Kissinger told Zhou Enlai that the Nixon administration sympathized with Yahya Khan's government and would oppose Indian military intervention. In 1973, he became secretary of state while retaining his White House post. He remained secretary under Gerald Ford until January 1977. ^{2, 3}

As national security adviser, Kissinger negotiated privately with North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho while the United States continued and expanded military pressure. Their talks produced the January 1973 Paris agreement, which enabled American withdrawal and the return of prisoners of war. It did not end the conflict between the Vietnamese parties. South Vietnamese leaders had resisted provisions leaving North Vietnamese troops in the South, and renewed fighting culminated in the fall of Saigon in 1975. ^{3, 4}

The October 1973 Arab-Israeli war began shortly after he entered the State Department. Kissinger supported an American airlift to Israel and then traveled repeatedly between Middle Eastern capitals to negotiate disengagement. Agreements between Israel and Egypt in January 1974, Israel and Syria in May 1974, and a further Egyptian-Israeli agreement in 1975 reduced immediate military confrontation. He also helped negotiate the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and continued détente with the Soviet Union. ³

His record remained contested where strategic calculations supported coercion or authoritarian partners. In a November 1970 memorandum, Kissinger urged Nixon to oppose Salvador Allende as strongly as possible and prevent him from consolidating power in Chile. The administration used covert funds to oppose Allende and restricted aid and credit during his presidency; the military coup of September 1973 ended Chile’s democratic government. These policies, together with the administration’s position in the South Asian crisis, formed part of the continuing debate over the human consequences of Kissinger’s diplomacy. ^{3, 5, 6}