Kissinger's Views on Power

This paper discusses Henry Kissinger's views on power. The study will include a variety of opinions held by political theorists on Kissinger's dealings in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere. Kissinger attained a high reputation in the media during his time as Secretary of State and was praised for his "shuttle diplomacy" and for other actions seen as leading toward peace. Yet, history shows that peace was not achieved and that many of the situations into which Kissinger thrust himself and, sometimes, American military might were only made worse as a consequence. We are still coping with many of the issues raised by Kissinger's actions to this day. At the same time, though, Kissinger remains an icon for some and is still asked to explain his views on current issues by the media, trotted out as a guru by those who have not examined his record closely enough. One issue is that it is not always clear who in an administration is responsible for a policy, and the media kindly ascribed whatever was good to Kissinger and much that was bad to Nixon, an easy target because he was forced to resign from office.

The thesis of the paper is that Kissinger's approach to foreign policy and politics generally is a flawed one, based on outmoded concepts about the world. Mazlish is particularly effective in presenting this view, writing that Kissinger's political philosophy is based on nineteenth century concepts of the world which no longer apply:

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n a direct set of talks with Egypt as one of the most powerful nations of the Arab world. This is precisely what Kissinger was aiming for, and that is what he got. Again, his goal was achieved at the cost of many lives and at the risk of a major confrontation between the superpowers. The most important point made by the sources consulted for this study, however, is that Kissinger's addiction to an outmoded political philosophy based on the 19th Century theory of balance of power helped create the war in the first place. It can be argued that Kissinger did not intentionally bring the war about, but at the same time his arrogance in refusing to see the world as it was in 1973 instead of as he wanted to believe it was certainly helped establish conditions in which the war could begin. As Hersh writes, in agreement with the other sources consulted for this study, Kissinger's arrogance and his misconceptions about the reality of the Middle East situation prior to the outbreak of the war directly led to the war itself. Hersh also agrees with others who argue that Kissinger's ego got in the way of a clear picture of what was going on in the Middle East in the years prior to the war in 1973. As Hersh writes, "it is difficult to so

Category: Government - K