Nobel Peace Laureate Henry Kissinger, Who Promoted Dictatorship in Latin America, Dies | Diplomat, former US Secretary of State, 100 years old

Former US Secretary of State Henry KissingerThe Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 came before his support for that year’s coup in Chile came to light. He died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday at the age of 100.. Considered by some as a great statesman and intellectual, by others as a cynic and war criminal, Kissinger is a tradition that has been questioned. Despite blowing out a hundred candles in May, Kissinger continued to express his views on the current world with topics as diverse as the war in Ukraine, relations with China or artificial intelligence.

Diplomat by profession

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923 in Furth, Germany., within a Jewish family that fled the Nazi regime and immigrated to America in 1938. His first job was in a shaving brush factory in New York. After becoming a US citizen in 1943, he served in the US Army during World War II. He received a scholarship to study at Harvard University, where he earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Kissinger as National Security Advisor.. His guiding philosophy was that foreign policy should serve the national interest with pragmatism. so, In the midst of the Cold War, Kissinger organized two summit trips to China and the Soviet Union. 1972 to disarm war tensions with communist powers.

Kissinger had already secretly traveled to China in 1971 to meet Premier Zhou Enlai. “Finding a way for China and the US to come together is inevitable given the current needs”, Kissinger wrote four decades later in one of his 18 books. “It happened very firmly and was carried out with few detours, a tribute to the leadership that made it possible,” he wrote with his characteristic modesty.

In 1973, Nixon appointed Kissinger as Secretary of State., he served until January 1977, when Gerald Ford (Nixon’s successor in 1974) ended his term, and until January 1975, he served concurrently as National Security Adviser. As Secretary of State, Kissinger practiced so-called “shuttle diplomacy,” which eased tensions in the Middle East following the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt.

In this context, they later signed Sinai Accordswhy Despite their differences, both sides agreed to abandon the war. In 1977 Kissinger went to work at Georgetown University, but He later returned to the US government in 1985 as a foreign intelligence adviser. of President Ronald Reagan. The late president appointed Kissinger to head a mixed bipartisan committee that would define White House interests in Central America.

Support for dictatorships in Latin America

TO Kissinger He will also be remembered for the dictatorships in Argentina between 1976 and 1983 and the last years of Francisco Franco’s rule in Spain (which ended with the leader’s death in 1975), as well as his role in Operation Condor, a crackdown on Latin Americans. Leftist dissidents or his support for the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende in Chile. “Chile can’t be allowed to go down the drain”He even said in 1970.

In a declassified memo that showed his cold calculations, Kissinger said that Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile, had provided an “insidious” model by showing that an elected left-wing government could work. Documents declassified by the White House record a 1976 conversation between dictator Pinochet and Kissinger in Santiago, Chile, demonstrating American pressure since 1971 to support a coup against Allende.

When Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998, Spanish judge Baldazar Carson asked Kissinger to question him for his alleged role in the Condor project.The consolidation of South American dictatorships in the late 70s and early 80s, arresting and killing opponents, But the United Kingdom rejected the offer.

According to a series of documents released by the National Security Archive in 2006, Kissinger asked his officials to support a military dictatorship in Argentina. “I want to encourage you”said Kissinger About the Argentine coup plotters during a meeting with his staff on March 26, 1976. Classified minutes of that meeting also reflect how He told the Argentine army to “do what you have to do quickly”..

Green light for invasions

Kissinger was also reluctant to support invasions when he saw greater American interest. While Pakistan acted as China’s secret intermediary, it provided diplomatic cover to Islamabad while it carried out a campaign of mass murder and rape in East Pakistan, which became independent Bangladesh.

When Cold War ally Indonesia seized East Timor, beginning a brutal 24-year occupation that killed more than 100,000 people, Kissinger showed an apparent green flag. Kissinger implicitly supported Turkey as it annexed a third of Cyprus, seeking stronger ties with the strategically located country and its competitive balance with Greece, another NATO member.

Leading Nixon’s efforts to “honorably” end the US war in Vietnam, Kissinger secretly ordered bombing raids on neighboring Cambodia and Laos in hopes of severing Hanoi’s supply lines. Kissinger negotiated a cease-fire in Vietnam in January 1973 in Paris, and was controversially awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which Hanoi’s representative at those talks, Lu Duc Tho, refused to accept. In a 2001 book, The Kissinger Inquiry, Author Christopher Hitchens said the former secretary of state should be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity..

Active until the end of his days

With a stooped silhouette, but still recognizable by his thick-framed sunglasses, Kissinger remained practically active until his last moments. Days before turning 100 last May, he took part in a tribute at New York’s Select Economic Club, where he blew out the candles on a chocolate cake.

Despite the bad moment of relations, in the situation they are in Beijing As Moscow lined up in front of Washington today, Kissinger continues to be revered in China, a country he has visited on several occasions, most recently last July when he was welcomed by the country’s current president, Xi Jinping. Full hospitality at Deyoudai Guest House, a former imperial estate.

Kissinger is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy, two children (David and Elizabeth) from his first marriage, and five grandchildren. Her remains will be laid to rest in a private family service and a memorial service will be held in New York City.