New Delhi: Henry Alfred Kissinger was not a President of the United States but his influence in US politics in the 1970s is still something that is discussed. He was a US diplomat and a political scientist who was the US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. Also, from 1969 to 1975, he served as the National Security Advisor in the US government led by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Henry Kissinger and a childhood impacted by Nazis
Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in Bavaria, Germany. His father was a schoolteacher and his mother was a homemaker. In 1817, the surname Kissinger was adopted by his great-great-grandfather Meyer Löb and he took it from the Bavarian spa town of Bad Kissingen. Kissinger loved to play football during his childhood.
In 1933, Kissinger was just nine years old when he learnt of Adolf Hitler becoming the Chancellor of Germany. For the Kissinger family, it was a turning point in their life. During the Nazi regime in Germany, Hitler Youth Gangs regularly harassed and beat Kissinger and his friends. Sometimes, he used to defy the segregation imposed by Nazi racial laws and secretly used to enter football stadiums to watch matches, with the security guards sometimes beating him. Due to the anti-Semitic laws of the Nazis, Kissinger’s father lost his teaching job.
Escape to the United States
To avoid Nazi persecution, on August 20, 1938, Kissinger who was 15 and his family fled Germany. They first stopped in London for a brief time before arriving on September 5 in New York City. During World War II, he served in the US Army and later went to Harvard University where he proved himself to be an excellent student. He later worked as a professor at the university and soon became popular as an expert on foreign policy and nuclear weapons. He advised government agencies and other institutions and played a key role in Nelson Rockefeller and Richard Nixon’s presidential campaigns. Later, he became the national security advisor and President Nixon made him the Secretary of State.
Henry Kissinger as a diplomat
Henry Kissinger advocated a pragmatic approach when it came to geopolitics. He was the first diplomat to use with the Soviet Union the policy of détente and strove to improve relations with China. In the Middle East, he deployed ‘shuttle diplomacy’ to bring the Yom Kippur War to an end. Also, he ended the involvement of the US in the Vietnam War by negotiating the Paris Peace Accords. For that, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
Kissinger has his share of controversies for he was associated with the US policies like bombing Cambodia, supporting the military junta of Argentian in its Dirty War, the Chilean coup d’état in 1973, and supporting Pakistan when the latter was involved in the Bangladesh Liberation War and genocide in the country. After leaving government, he founded an international geopolitical consulting firm named Kissinger Associates and ran it from 1982 till his death on November 29, 2023.
Henry Kissinger was a US diplomat and political scientist who was the US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. Also, from 1969 to 1975, he served as the National Security Advisor in the US government led by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
