Henry Kissinger

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Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State (1973) Henry Kissinger Signature 2.svg
Henry Kissinger (2009)

Henry Alfred Kissinger (born on 27. May 1923 in Furth , as Heinz Alfred Kissinger ) is a German - American political scientist and former politician of the Republican Party . The German-American Kissinger played a central role in US foreign policy between 1969 and 1977; he was a representative of a tough, violent realpolitik as well as one of the architects of détente in the Cold War . From 1969 to 1975 Kissinger was National Security Advisor , from 1973 to 1977 Secretary of State of the United States . In 1973 he and Lê Đức Thọ received the Nobel Peace Prize for a ceasefire and withdrawal agreement with North Vietnam . From 1977 to 1981 Kissinger was director of the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations .

Life

Childhood and youth

Henry Kissinger was born as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Fürth, Middle Franconia, at Mathildenstrasse 23 . His father Louis Kissinger (1887–1982) taught history and geography at the Fürth Lyzeum , his mother Paula Kissinger (née Stern) (1901–1998) was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish cattle dealer from Leutershausen near Ansbach . The surname was adopted by his great-great-grandfather Meyer Löb (1767-1838) from the Lower Franconian Kleineibstadt in 1817 and refers to the city of Bad Kissingen .

Henry Kissinger spent his childhood with his one year younger brother Walter Bernhard in Fürth, where the family lived at Marienstraße 5 from 1925 until they left in 1938 . The family emigrated from the National Socialist German Reich to the USA in September 1938 . Several relatives of the Kissinger family were later murdered by the National Socialists . Kissinger went to George Washington High School with his brother Walter in New York City , in the Washington Heights district of Manhattan , which was at that time a German-Jewish district . He has never lost his pronounced German accent in English and his Franconian dialect in German.

On June 19, 1943, Kissinger received US citizenship after being drafted into military service in the US Army that same year . In 1944, Kissinger met the then 36-year-old lawyer and political scientist Fritz GA Kraemer at the Claiborne training camp ( Louisiana ) , who, like him, served in the 84th US infantry division and was also a German emigrant.

This encounter shaped Kissinger's future path. “During the following decades, Kraemer influenced my reading and my thinking, influenced my choice of university, sparked my interest in political philosophy and history, inspired my academic theses ( both my undergraduate and my graduate theses ) and became an integral and indispensable part in general of my life. [...] His inspiration stayed with me even in the past 30 years when he no longer wanted to talk to me, ”explained Kissinger after Kraemer's death in 2003.

The Second World War brought both of them back to Germany. Kissinger was initially a private (ordinary soldier) in the G Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 84th US Infantry Division. Since Kissinger spoke good German, Kraemer put him in charge of military intelligence within the division. At the end of 1944 he was assigned to the G-2 Section in the division's command staff , voluntarily fought against Hitler's Ardennes Offensive , was employed as a special agent in the 970th Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and was promoted to sergeant .

In March 1945 he spent three weeks with the 84th US Infantry Division in Krefeld , and from April 9th ​​in Hanover , where he and Robert Taylor tracked down and arrested several Gestapo officers. For this he received the Bronze Star on April 27th . He was also among the soldiers who liberated the Hanover-Ahlem subcamp on April 10 .

Post-war period in Germany

After the war he stayed in Germany and worked from mid-1945 to April 1946 in the American zone of occupation for the Counter Intelligence Corps in Bensheim (Hesse). This intelligence service had the task of investigating war crimes and promoting denazification in Germany. From Bensheim, Kissinger went to the European Command Intelligence School at Camp King in Oberursel (Taunus) , where he taught until his return to the USA in 1947.

Scientific career

In 1947 Henry Kissinger returned to the United States and studied political science at Harvard College , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1950 . In 1952 he completed his master’s degree and two years later his doctorate , both at Harvard University . His dissertation was later published under the title A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-1822 and became a successful standard work of historiography. From 1954 to 1971 he was a faculty member at Harvard and a staff member in the Department of Government. Kissinger's political career benefited greatly from the contacts he made as the head of the Harvard International Seminar, a summer school for young executives from all over the world. In 1954 he worked on the question of the military challenge of the USA by the Soviet Union for his work Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. From 1957 to 1960 Kissinger was director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs and from 1958 to 1969 director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program . From 1950 to 1960 he was also a consultant to the United General Staff's Arms Development Agency and from 1961 to 1968 a consultant to the US Agency for Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs . In 1977, after retiring from politics, he accepted a professorship in International Diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, DC .

The work of the German philosopher Oswald Spengler exerted a significant influence on Kissinger's thinking : Spengler's pessimistic worldview and his rejection of rationalism in politics and history were also characteristic of Kissinger's conception of realpolitik. Similar to Spengler, Kissinger also saw the greatest danger for a civilization in the fact that rationalist, weighing “factual people” could suppress the moment of creative and risk-taking human action so much that a state would be de facto incapable of acting. In contrast to Spengler, who viewed such a development as inevitable in his historical picture, Kissinger drew other conclusions from this:

“Spengler only described the fact of the downfall and not its necessity. However, there is a borderline between necessity and chance within which the statesman must persistently and intuitively perceive decision-making options in order to shape the fate of his people "

Political career

Kissinger with President Ford in front of the White House, August 1974
Henry Kissinger in the White House, April 1975

Henry Kissinger gained his first political experience as an advisor to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller from 1957. Subsequently, he was also appreciated by the US Presidents John F. Kennedy , Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon . With the election of the Republican Nixon as President in 1968 , Kissinger became the official National Security Advisor.

His term of office falls into a period that, in US policy and public opinion, was marked by a decline in American influence in the world, while the Soviet Union was seen as a rising star. The Vietnam War , which dragged on due to failures, coincided with revelations about abuse of power by US politics and the secret services, but also the oil crisis and the limits to growth made the prospects of the Western superpower shrink. This motivated savings in the US federal budget led to a 40% decline in defense spending between 1968 and 1975. At the same time, the Soviet Union was arming itself and gaining influence in the Middle East . This perceived situation in the United States is considered to be the reason for Kissinger's realpolitik , which placed interests above values ​​and did not judge allies by their human rights record.

In July and October 1971 he made two secret trips to the People's Republic of China in order to pave the way for Nixon's visit and normalization of relations between China and the United States in talks with then Prime Minister Zhou Enlai . As a result of these negotiations, Kissinger is now often referred to by Chinese politicians as “the old friend of the Chinese people”.

In the same year he also toured the Soviet Union, where in Moscow he prepared the first arms limitation agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. He established a policy of detente between the two countries and was the American negotiator in the strategic arms limitation talks that the SALT I treaty culminated, as well as the ABM treaty strategic to limit missiles ( A nti B allistic M issiles).

He also met in secret with the North Vietnamese Lê Đức Thọ and prepared peace talks with him, which in 1973 led to a peace treaty in the Vietnam War. However, the war lasted until 1975, as Lê Đức Thọ responded to further interference and arms delivery by the USA to the South Vietnamese troops with further acts of war. Both politicians received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for the treaty , which Lê Đức Thọ, however - unlike Kissinger - rejected because the war was still ongoing at that time.

In September 1973, Kissinger took under Richard Nixon, succeeding William P. Rogers , the foreign minister, he also Cabinet of Gerald Ford held until January 1977th During the Ford years he worked very closely and trustingly with the German Schmidt / Genscher government . It was not least thanks to his backing that Bonn's interest in "inviolable" but not "unchangeable" borders in Europe found its way into the CSCE Final Act . By expressly recognizing the possibility of peaceful change, the option of German reunification was preserved.

Left to right: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmi , Richard Nixon and Kissinger in the White House on October 31, 1973, one week after the end of the Yom Kippur War .

From 1973 to 1974 Kissinger played a major role in the peace efforts between Israel and the Arab countries, especially Syria . He negotiated the end of the Yom Kippur War , which had begun with Egypt and Syria's attempt to recapture Sinai and the Golan Heights, which were lost to Israel in the Six Day War , and initiated the first direct meeting of the opponents and a number of parties with the Geneva Conference on the Middle East Interim agreements that served the long-term goal of implementing UN Resolution 338 . Kissinger's extensive travels between the parties led to the emergence of the then much-used term shuttle diplomacy ( Shuttle Diplomacy ).

Kissinger is one of the spiritual fathers of the Roadmap , the agreement between the President of the Palestinian Autonomous Territories Arafat and Israel's Prime Minister Rabin in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was also he who pushed Mubarak to play the crucial role of mediator between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Kissinger also knew how to get the government of the Federal Republic of Germany to mediate in the Middle East conflict .

When US President Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, Henry Kissinger left the government and largely withdrew from political life. He characterized globalization as follows: “Globalization is just another word for US rule.” He supported Ronald Reagan's presidential candidacy in 1980 and, after his election, was also included in his advisory staff. In the following years, however, he remained largely without political influence. In the run-up to the 2000 presidential election , he appeared as a supporter of John McCain . He later advised George W. Bush .

Kissinger is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a regular participant in the Bilderberg conferences . Since 1996 he has been a member of the scientific advisory board of the direct federal Otto von Bismarck Foundation .

retirement

Kissinger to the left of President Obama in 2010 during preliminary talks about a new START agreement

Kissinger founded the consulting firm Kissinger Associates in 1982 , of which he is President. From 1997 to 1999 he was a member of the supervisory boards of the aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace and the Chicago newspaper group Sun-Times Media Group. In 2000, the then Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid appointed him political advisor. After the end of his tenure, he published his memoir Years of Upheaval and numerous "Opposite Editorials" in various newspapers, including the New York Times.

From June 11th to 14th, 2015 he took part in the 63rd Bilderberg Conference in Telfs- Buchen in Austria . On November 23, 2015, he gave a funeral speech in German as part of the state ceremony for the late former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Hamburg's main church Sankt Michaelis . On September 1, 2018, he gave a funeral speech for John McCain in front of 3,000 invited guests, including ex-President Obama and George W. Bush, at Washington National Cathedral .

criticism

Like this, Kissinger's long-standing work at the central control points of US foreign policy was also intensely criticized. In particular, Kissinger's role in the 1973 coup in Chile and his role in Operation Condor have led to several court summons in various countries, which Kissinger never complied with. In 2001 the journalist Christopher Hitchens published his book The Kissinger Files (orig. The Trial of Henry Kissinger ), in which he raised numerous allegations against Kissinger. The book is the basis of the documentary Accused: Henry Kissinger .

Even among former employees, Kissinger is viewed critically, at least in retrospect. For example, Roger Morris said of his former boss: “If we judge Henry Kissinger by the same standards as we have done with the other heads of state and politicians in other societies; B. in Germany and Japan after the Second World War, then he will surely be convicted as a war criminal at some point. "

Some of the criticisms made by various quarters are the US support for military coups and dictatorships that violate human rights not only in Latin America, support for the illegal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia in 1975 and the bombing of neutral Cambodia in the final phase of the Vietnam War, which was kept hidden from the public .

Bombing of Cambodia

Kissinger, who was considered the most influential politician under President Nixon, organized American foreign policy through the National Security Council , sometimes bypassing the State Department. Contrary to Nixon's election promises before his first election in 1968 to end the Vietnam War, the US government continued to force attacks on the opposing Viet Cong . As a result of the expansion of the war, more than 100,000 Vietnamese and more than 25,000 American soldiers were killed in the following years. The area of ​​neutral Cambodia was also bombed in the top secret Operation MENU in violation of international law in order to destroy Vietnamese supply lines there. Nixon and Kissinger reacted to the publication of the secret bombings with massive but legal telephone wiretapping (not to be confused with the illegal Watergate wiretapping ). These were sometimes directed against Kissinger's closest collaborators in order to find out the informant , who is still unknown to this day .

In extending the war to Cambodian territory, the US sacrificed the integrity of the last independent state of Indochina. The area bombing killed around 200,000 people, the majority of them civilians, and contributed to driving a large part of the population into the arms of the Cambodian communist resistance movement Khmer Rouge . Of American Boeing B-52 - long-range bombers in 1973, twice as many bombs were dropped on Cambodia alone as over Japan during the entire Second World War. The destabilization of Cambodia indirectly led to the takeover of power by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, which subsequently committed genocide against their own population with 1.7 to 2.2 million victims by 1979 . The secret expansion of the war, contrary to Nixon's election campaign promises, also led to massive anti-war demonstrations in the USA, which also resulted in the fatal use of firearms against demonstrating students ( Kent State massacre ).

1973 coup in Chile

As early as 1963, the CIA had carried out a series of covert operations in Chile with the aim of preventing the election of the socialist Salvador Allende as president. After these actions were unsuccessful and Allende became president in 1970, the US began massive intelligence operations with the aim of destabilizing the Chilean government and creating the conditions for the September 11, 1973 military coup . In the course of the CIA operations, the constitutional and loyal to Allende Chief of Staff René Schneider , who stood in the way of the coup , was murdered . The conspiratorial group had previously been equipped with machine guns and tear gas grenades by the CIA .

East Timor

In 2001 it became public that Indonesia had received the green light for the 1975 invasion of East Timor from US President Gerald Ford and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. This is proven by previously secret documents published by the US National Security Archive .

Just one day before the occupation of East Timor, Ford and Kissinger met with President General Suharto in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and expressly agreed to the invasion plans , which were contrary to international law . When Kissinger was informed of the invasion by an employee a little later, he replied that he hoped that he would "keep his mouth shut". Kissinger's approval of the invasion of East Timor is probably due to the fact that nine days before the invasion the FRETILIN party unilaterally proclaimed the independence of the Portuguese colony . The left-wing party included both bourgeois and Marxist elements, which is why the USA and Australia feared that East Timor could become a second Cuba. According to investigations by the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of East Timor, the invasion and 24 years of occupation cost 183,000 lives, almost a third of the original 600,000 inhabitants of East Timor.

The East Timor Action Network , the International Campaign against Impunity and the Instituto Cono Sur ran the Kissinger Watch project , which published information about Kissinger's prosecution.

Argentine military dictatorship

The Argentine military junta believed in 1976 that it had the approval of the USA to use massive force against political opponents in the name of a national security doctrine in order to fight their "terrorism". This was based, among other things, on several meetings between the Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Guzzetti and Kissinger from June 1976 onwards, which, contrary to the Argentine's initial expectation, had given positive signals to a tough approach to solving the Argentine "terrorism problem". Robert C. Hill , the then US ambassador to Argentina, complained in Washington about Guzzetti's "euphoric reaction" after meeting Kissinger. Guzzetti then reported to the other members of the government that, in his opinion, the United States was not concerned with human rights , but that the whole matter would be "resolved quickly". The military junta subsequently rejected admonitions from the US embassy regarding the observance of human rights and referred to Kissinger's “understanding” of the Argentine situation. Hill wrote after another meeting of the two:

"[Argentine Foreign Minister] Guzzetti reached out to the US in full expectation to hear strong, clear and direct warnings about his administration's human rights practice; instead, he came home in a state of jubilation , convinced of the fact that there was no real problem with the US government on this matter. "

Over the next seven years , the military murdered up to 30,000 people , most of them disappearing without a trace . This period became known as the " Dirty War ".

Statements about Soviet Jews

In 2010, tape recordings of talks between US President Nixon, Secretary of State Kissinger and others, which became known or were released for publication, revealed insensitive statements by Kissinger. B. after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir , in which she urgently asked for American pressure to get more Soviet Jews released, to Nixon on March 1, 1973: "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not a goal of the american foreign policy. And if they send the Jews in the Soviet Union to the gas chambers, that's not an American problem either. It may be a humanitarian problem. "

Accusation of "softness towards communism"

Conversely, some hardliners (hawks) saw Kissinger's contribution to the policy of détente and better relations with the People's Republic of China as appeasement to communism. Kissinger's behavior would have indirectly led to massacres in Indochina (Laos, genocide in Cambodia , the tragedy of the boat people ) and later (under Carter) to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan .

Endowed professorship at the University of Bonn

On the occasion of Henry Kissinger's 90th birthday, the German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière and Foreign Minister Westerwelle announced in 2013 that they would be establishing an endowed professorship at the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in Kissinger's honor . The professorship is set up for five years and is financed by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Defense. With the professorship, the ministers want to ensure "that the extraordinary achievements of Henry Kissinger in the fields of diplomacy, strategy and transatlantic international relations give a lasting boost to the security and defense policy debate."

Rector Jürgen Fohrmann and Chancellor Reinhardt Lutz welcomed the decision, there was resistance from the green university group Bonn. Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen submitted a small request for a professorship to the Bundestag, while the Greens and the Left opposed the professorship at the municipal level. The German Armed Forces universities wanted a high profile professorship at one of their universities. The professorship with the name “Henry Kissinger Endowed Professorship for Governance and International Security” was filled at the end of 2014 by the former Ambassador James D. Bindenagel .

Kissinger's résumé on the world order

In his work Weltordnung , published in 2014, Kissinger saw the Westphalian Principles as the basis of global relations between states that is still effective today. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 corresponded to a pragmatic adaptation to reality and by no means to a unique moral insight . Today's, now global Westphalian system - which we colloquially call the world community - is aimed at taming the anarchic character of the world through an extensive network of international legal and regulatory structures. According to Kissinger, today's challenges in the further development of the world order would mean that the Westphalian system must be modernized and adapted to new realities.

Family and private

Kissinger was married to Ann Fleischer from 1949 to 1964. The children Elizabeth and David came from the divorce in 1964. He has been married to Nancy Maginnes for the second time since 1974. In 1982 he had several bypass operations.

Kissinger has been an honorary citizen of his hometown Fürth since 1998 and a founding member of the Fürth Community Foundation, which was founded in July 2007. At the beginning of May 2010 he came to Fürth, where he visited, among other things, his birthplace and his former school. He also attended the unveiling of the portrait he had made in his honor in the Fürth town hall.

Kissinger has been a loyal supporter of the SpVgg Fürth football club, today's SpVgg Greuther Fürth, since his youth . While he now follows the game results of the Fürth and the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga on the Internet, he used to get them from the German embassy in the USA. After the club had made it to the 1st Bundesliga for the first time on April 20, 2012, Kissinger kept an earlier promise and sat in the stands at the second home game against FC Schalke 04 on September 15, 2012.

Awards and honors (selection)

Own works

  • Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. Oldenbourg, Munich 1959.
  • The decision is urgent. Basic questions of western foreign policy. Econ, Düsseldorf 1961.
  • Great power diplomacy. On the statecraft of Castlereagh and Metternich. Econ, Düsseldorf 1962.
  • American foreign policy. Econ, Düsseldorf 1962.
  • What will happen to the Western Alliance? Econ, Düsseldorf 1965.
  • Memoirs 1968–1973. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-570-03138-1 .
  • Memoirs 1973–1974. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-570-00710-3 .
  • The world political situation. Speeches and essays. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-570-06890-0 .
  • World politics for tomorrow. Speeches and essays 1982–1985. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-570-06694-0 .
  • The balance of the great powers. Manesse, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-7175-8062-0 .
  • The six pillars of the world order. Siedler, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-88680-358-9 .
  • The reason of the nations. About the nature of foreign policy. Siedler, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-88680-486-0 .
  • Years of renewal. Memories. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-570-00291-8 .
  • America's Challenge. World politics in the 21st century. Propylaea, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-549-07152-3 .
  • Crisis. The anatomy of two major foreign policy crises , Simon & Schuster, New York 2004, ISBN 0-7432-4911-9 .
  • China - between tradition and challenge. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-570-10056-1 .
  • World order. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-570-10249-7 (see above).

literature

  • Gary Allen : Kissinger . Americ. Original title: 'Kissinger "The Secret Side of the Secretary of State"'. VAP Verlag for Applied Philosophy, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-88027-702-8 .
  • Robert Dallek: Nixon and Kissinger. Partners in power , HarperCollins, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-06-072230-2 .
  • Del Pero, Mario: The eccentric realist. Henry Kissinger and the shaping of American foreign policy , Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8014-4759-4 .
  • Niall Ferguson : Kissinger. The idealist. 1923–1968 Propylaeen, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-549-07474-9 . (First published in English Penguin Press 2015).
  • Edith J. Fresco-Kautsky: Henry A. Kissinger. Historian and statesman. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 1983 (= dissertations on modern history; 13), ISBN 3-412-02183-0 .
  • Greg Grandin: Kissinger's long shadow. America's most controversial statesman and legacy . CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-68857-7 .
  • Bernd Greiner: Henry Kissinger. Guardian of the Empire. A biography , Beck, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-406-75566-8 .
  • Jussi Hanhimäki .: The flawed architect. Henry Kissinger and American foreign policy. Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 2004, ISBN 0-19-517221-3 .
  • Seymour Hersh : The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House. 1983.
  • Christopher Hitchens : The Kissinger Files . German Verl.-Anst., Stuttgart a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-421-05177-1 . Original: The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Verso, 2001, ISBN 1-85984-398-0 .
  • Walter Isaacson: Kissinger. A biography. Ed. q, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-86124-144-7 .
  • Holger Klitzing: The Nemesis of stability. Henry A. Kissinger's ambivalent relationship with Germany, Wiss. Verl. Trier, Trier 2007, ISBN 978-3-88476-942-3 .
  • Evi Kurz: The Kissinger saga. Edition TimeLineFilm, Fürth 2007, ISBN 978-3-940405-70-8 .
  • Evi Kurz: The Kissinger Saga - Walter and Henry Kissinger. Two Brothers from Fuerth, Germany. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The Orion Publishing Group, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-297-85675-7 .
  • Robert D. Schulzinger: Henry Kissinger. Doctor of diplomacy. Columbia University Press, New York 1989, ISBN 0-231-06952-9 .
  • Jermi Suri: Henry Kissinger and the American Century . Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 2009, ISBN 978-0-674-03252-1 .

Movie

  • Accused: Henry Kissinger . Documentation, France 2002, 80 min., Written and directed: Alex Gibney, Eugene Jarecki, production: BBC , arte u. a., first broadcast: April 9, 2003
  • The Kissinger saga. Henry and Walter: two brothers from Fürth. Documentation, 45 min., Script and direction: Evi Kurz, production: BR , Germany, USA 2006, first broadcast: ARD , October 18, 2006, summary ( memento of August 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of the ARD
    unabridged version, 90 min ., First broadcast: BR , January 21, 2007, summary ( memento of January 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of the BR
  • Henry Kissinger - Secrets of a Superpower. Stephan Lamby (director) has a detailed conversation with Kissinger, therefore documentation of the most important conflicts of his time as foreign minister, among others with former government employees and George W. Bush , Alexander Haig and Helmut Schmidt . Germany, USA, 2008, 90 min.
  • The bridge builders Henry Kissinger, Fritz Stern and Lord George Weidenfeld. Jewish emigrants and reunification. Documentation, 43 minutes, Germany, USA, Israel, England, Austria, Switzerland, 2010. Written and directed by Evi Kurz, Production: TLF-Timelinefilm GmbH Fürth , first broadcast: ARD , September 29, 2010. In interviews, Kissinger, Stern and Weidenfeld u. a. Helmut Schmidt, Angela Merkel, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Richard von Weizsäcker, Timothy Garton Ash and Niall Ferguson. Table of contents / synopsis (PDF; 76 kB) from TLF-Timelinefilm GmbH

Web links

Commons : Henry Kissinger  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Official list of directors of the CFR from 1921 (Engl.)
  2. Louis Kissinger in FürthWiki - accessed online on July 6, 2019 | 11:24 a.m. - available online
  3. according to other sources, the year of birth was 1760
  4. ^ The Kissingers in Bad Kissingen ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Bayerischer Rundfunk June 2, 2005
  5. ^ Walter Isaacson : Kissinger: A Biography . Simon and Schuster, New York City 2005, ISBN 978-1-4391-2721-6 , p. 56.
  6. ^ Henry A. Kissinger: The Prophet and the Policymaker. P. 15f., In: Hubertus Hoffmann : True Keeper of the Holy Flame - The Legacy of Pentagon Strategist and Mentor Dr Fritz Kraemer. Verlag Inspiration Un Limited, London / Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-9812110-5-4 .
  7. ^ Niall Ferguson : Kissinger: 1923–1968: The Idealist, Penguin Press 2015, ISBN 1-4558-3449-1
  8. ^ Klitzing: The Nemesis of Stability. Henry A. Kissinger's Ambivalent Relationship with Germany , WVT: Trier 2007; Jan Bürger: The Kissinger Boys. From the Harvard Summer School to Suhrkamp Culture. in: Intelligence Import / Export (Journal for the History of Ideas XI / 4 Winter 2017, edited by Jan Bürger, Petra Gehring and Alexandra Kemmerer), 5-18.
  9. ^ Greg Grandin: Kissinger's Long Shadow. America's most controversial statesman and legacy . CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-68857-7 , p. 29ff.
  10. ^ Henry A. Kissinger: Memoirs 1968-1973. Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh 1981, ISBN 3-570-03138-1 , pp. 83f.
  11. ^ "On Tuesday, the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research group at George Washington University, published an online edition of transcripts of 15,000 Kissinger phone calls from 1969 to 1977, fully indexed and searchable for the first time. A selection was posted on the archive's Web site, nsarchive.org, and the full collection is available to subscribers, which include many university libraries. " Scott Shane: Indexed trove of Kissinger phone transcripts is completed. International Herald Tribune December 24, 2008
  12. Russell Crendall: America's Path from malaise to Primacy . In: Survival , Volume 59, Number 1 (February-March 2017), pp. 149–160, 151 f.
  13. quoted in: Werner Biermann / Arno Klönne: Globale Spiele. Imperialism Today - The Final Stage of Capitalism? PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-89438-227-9
  14. ^ "Balance of a consultant" , Die Zeit , June 28, 2007, No. 27, interview
  15. Biography ( Memento from May 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on henryakissinger.com, accessed on May 20, 2014.
  16. Henry Kissinger in the Notable Names Database (English)
  17. ^ Henry Alfred Kissinger Ph.D., KCMG at investing.businessweek.com, accessed May 20, 2014.
  18. ^ Robert Bryce (March 3, 2000): Naked City - Mr. Kissinger Goes to Jakarta on austinchronicle.com, accessed May 20, 2014.
  19. Theo Sommer : World politics against a dark backdrop - The former American Secretary of State also proves to be a great observer and author in: Die Zeit. October 8, 1982, accessed May 20, 2014.
  20. ^ Henry Alfred Kissinger - Memoirs 1973–1974 on worldcat.org, accessed May 20, 2014.
  21. www.youtube.com
  22. Full text of the speech (English)
  23. www.washingtonexaminer.com: Henry Kissinger: 'The world will be lonelier without John McCain'
  24. ↑ In 2001 the Brazilian government withdrew the invitation to speak in São Paulo because it could not guarantee Kissinger's immunity.
  25. ^ Bonn - Protest against a new professorship: Kissinger is not a role model ( memento from January 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) WDR 5, March 6, 2014; End of the article.
  26. ^ A b "The murder of General Rene Schneider / Lawsuit against Kissinger in the US" ( Memento of October 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), International Campaign against Impunity (ICAI)
  27. a b Excerpt from Christopher Hitchens ' book The Trial of Henry Kissinger , published in the Guardian
  28. Why the law wants a word with Kissinger The Sun-Herald, April 30, 2002
  29. a b BR-alpha : [Henry Kissinger. Secrets of a Superpower], documentary, aired: May 26, 2013, 10:15 pm-11: 45 pm.
  30. Christoph Meister: No News Without Secrets. Political leakage in the United States 1950–1976 . Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8288-3764-5 , p. 217-238 .
  31. Taylor Owen, Ben Kiernan: Bombs over Cambodia. (PDF; 836 kB) The Walrus Magazine, October 2006
  32. Ben Kiernan, Taylor Owen: [Roots of US Troubles in Afghanistan:] Civilian Bombing Casualties and the Cambodian Precedent. The Asia-Pacific Journal, June 28, 2010.
  33. ^ The National Security Archive: Ford, Kissinger and the Indonesian invasion, 1975-76
  34. ^ The National Security Archive: The Secretary's Staff Meeting (PDF; 174 kB) October 8, 1974.
  35. ^ About Kissinger - East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
  36. ^ Argentine Military believed US gave go-ahead for Dirty War. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, 73 - Part II, confidential CIA documents, published in 2002. The then US Ambassador Robert Hill wrote after another meeting between Kissinger and Foreign Minister Guzzetti: “Guzzetti went to US fully expecting to hear some strong, firm, direct warnings on his government's human rights practices, rather than that, he has returned in a state of jubilation, convinced that there is no real problem with the USG [overnment] over that issue ".
  37. a b c Argentine Military believed US gave go-ahead for Dirty War. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, 73 - Part II, CIA Confidential Documents, published 2002
  38. ^ Kissinger Gave the "Green Light" for Argentina's Dirty War Mother Jones, January 14, 2014
  39. Amnesty International: Rights at Risk. In: Jahrbuch Menschenrechte 2003. Retrieved December 17, 2008 .
  40. Quoted several times, e.g. B. Jüdische Allgemeine , December 23, 2010, page 7 ( Ignorance meets self-hatred. Why former Foreign Minister Henry Kissinger ignored the situation of Soviet Jews ) or Die Jüdische Zeitung , No. 51, Zurich, December 24, 2010, page 4
  41. : University of Bonn receives "Henry Kissinger Professorship" Die Welt, May 29, 2013.
  42. : Federal government honors Henry Kissinger with endowed professorship Press release from the Federal Foreign Office, May 26, 2013.
  43. : Greens do not want Henry Kissinger Professorship General-Anzeiger Bonn, July 23, 2013.
  44. : Small question from the parliamentary group BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN federal printed matter 17/14594
  45. : Dispute about the "Henry Kissinger Professorship" in Bonn portal amerika21, August 24, 2013.
  46. : Embarrassing egg dance at the University of Bonn Stern, July 23, 2014.
  47. : The Kissinger case and the University of Bonn papers for German and international politics, February 2014.
  48. : The critics won't let up. General-Anzeiger Bonn, April 15, 2014
  49. ^ Henry Kissinger: World Order , New York 2014, German edition C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-570-10249-7
  50. ^ Kissinger: Weltordnung , p. 11
  51. ^ Kissinger, p. 16
  52. ^ Kissinger, p. 424
  53. Nordbayern.de : “Bürgerstiftung established” July 30, 2007.
  54. ^ Henry Kissinger enthusiastic about "his" Fürthern , Focus from September 16, 2012
  55. According to information from the Office of the Order of the Federal President's Office on August 7, 2013, "Mr. Henry A. Kissinger [...] was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on June 27, 1977 at the suggestion of the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs".
  56. Friends of Dresden - Honory Directors ( Memento from January 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  57. ^ Organs of FC Bayern München e. V., section “Honorary Members” , website of FC Bayern Munich, accessed on March 14, 2017