28/10/22
Note this book was published in 1972 and was more a current assessment than history of that period.
Like Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's movie. Kissinger is a nuclear expert with a German accent.
While US politicians see George Washington, Lincoln or even Eisenhower as heroes, it is only the voice of the Teutonic Otto van Bismarck or Klemens von Metternich that appealed to Kissinger.
Some of the founding fathers who wrote the constitution were slave owners and this is not a good example to black Americans. Many Jewish youngsters who fled Nazi Germany with their nightmares were determined to avoid violence at any cost. Kissinger was advisor, councilor companion, apologist , buddy and spokesman for Nixon. Kennedy after the missile crises increase the nuclear arsenal 3 fold.
1923 Henry Kissinger was born in Furth, German a town that in 1618 was wiped off the map in the 30 years war.
1932 Germany had 3 chancellors in a year.
1936 Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon at time that Cordell Hull was trying to convince the world on peace. While Cordell Hull was Secretary of State it was Harry Hopkins that Roosevelt relied on in foreign affairs.
1938 over 17000 Germans arrived in the US. There were more Nazi spies in the US than in any other country in Europe except France. Nazi spy Guenter Rumrich was arrested by the FBI. Kissinger arrived in the US and 5 years later was inducted into the army. In post war period Kissinger took over the entire administration of the Bergstrasse district in Germany, his firsthand knowledge of power was watching the Nazi takeover German as a child. Ann Fletcher was a refugee also and after knowing each other 7 years the married in 1949.
1949 to 1963 der Alte Konrad Ardenauer was the chancellor of West Germany.
1958 Kissinger's book Nuclear weapons and Foreign policy became a best seller
1959 under Eisenhower Kissinger was asked to serve as a foreign policy strategist.
1961 The Cold war was enough to reconcile the US to West Germany, while the Russians were blockading Berlin. Khrushchev felt that the US did not know her own interests and did not have the power to deal with a real threat. he saw the way the US dealt with the Suez crises and the US intervention of Lebanon that replaced a government that supported the Eisenhower doctrine.
1961Bay of Pigs disaster.
Berlin wall crises The Russians misjudged Kennedy, who was his own foreign minister even though Dean Rusk held the official position.
1968 under Johnson Kissinger with Kenneth Klark made a trip to Vietnam where he discovered that the US was supporting a government with only 15% support of the S. Vietnam population. Kissinger had supported Nelson Rockefeller in the election against Nixon. The leading Democratic contender had been Robert Kennedy who was assassinator. When Nixon was nominated he offered a honorable solution to the Vietnam war. When Kissinger was offered the position by Nixon, Rockefeller was not displeased as he would still have a contact in the White House. Kissinger became director of the National Security council.
Machiavelli - the first impression you get of a ruler is the men he surrounds himself with. Generally Nixon had no friends.
1969 Jan. till 1974 Aug. Nixon President and Kissinger started working for him a few months later. Nixon had promised to withdraw half a million troops from Vietnam, there was souring inflation and the economy was languishing, with urban crime, no money for decaying cities, racial desegregation in schools was still a dream and blacks poor and women were in revolt. Soviet Union was full steam forward in the arms race. Nixon turned to TV to deal with the anti war protestors looking for the "great silent majority."
1970 Bombing Laos and Cambodia where Vietcong were transferring troops and weapons to the south. This resulted in the Kent State University shooting of protestors, campus after campus protests started. Kissinger advised on easing up on the bombing and the protest quietened down. Later South Vietnamese troops were sent to invade Cambodia.
Beside Kissinger most of Nixon's appointees or advisors were useless and his attempt to add more southern judges to the supreme court failed. Kissinger never trusted the State Dept. and William Rogers became politically impotent.
1971 A troop withdrawal plan designed by Kissinger and approved by the Pentagon to withdraw 184000 troops by December. American sent a team to play ping pong in China. Currency restriction and businessmen travelling to China ended after 25 years. John Holdridge was an important diplomat who worked with Kissinger. Kissinger went to Pakistan and from there disappeared an excuse was given that he was indisposed with stomach trouble and flew to Beijing where he had an eight hour discussion with Chou en Lai and arranged for Nixon to be invited to Beijing. The acceptance of China in the UN followed and this was fine with the puppet regime of South Vietnam and also the Democrats. Red China got in and Taiwan got out.
1971 October Kissinger went back to Beijing to plan Nixon's visit. For a while in China the news blackout on American ended.
1971 Kissinger had 12 secret meeting with the North Vietnamese in the Paris summit. He also went to Moscow. When Nixon revealed these secret meeting in Paris the US press was taken by surprise. The Americans offered a ceasefire, withdrawal timeline of US forces and a prisoner swop. however the meeting were a flop.
J.Edgar Hoover was not consulted when a change of the China policy was brewing and he would have stopped this but he died in 1972 after being discredited and his days at the FBI were already numbered.
1972 May Nixon visited China. Kissinger had realized that without China there could not be an enduring peace.
1972 Kissinger got the SALT treaty signed with the Russian.
1973 America withdrew from Vietnam.
1973 till 1977 Kissinger was the Secretary of State. Succeeded by Alexander Haig.
1974 till 1976 President Gerald Ford succeeded by Ronald Reagan.
1975 Chiang Kai-shek the President of Taiwan died .
Details of Kissinger relationships with women are discussed Jill St. John and Tza Tza Gibor and other Hollywood stars is a long saga that kept the press full. Kissinger was known as Henry the K, Henry the kiss. The Professor , Herr Doctor and , Super Kraut. He also had powerful women secretaries under him.
This book was published before the Yom Kippur War so the story of Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy to end the war had not yet happened. Nor the controversy of Kissinger delaying the shipments of armaments to Israel?
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