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The White House View

The True Henry Kissinger Henry Kissinger grew up in a German Jewish home. Henry Kissinger had a Frankish accent and never got rid of the accent. During his younger years in school, other kids would make fun of Henry because of the Frankish accent that he had, and because of all of the teasing he was extremely shy throughout his childhood. In his later school life, he attended Washington Heights and George Washington High School. When he finished high school, Henry went to City College of New York and he also got his Bachelor of Arts degree at Harvard College. During his earlier adult life, he was a diplomat, an American political scientist and he was also a recipient of the Noble Peace Prize. Henry Kissinger had always wanted to have a greater impact on US foreign policy; and so then in his early career life, he got a job as the advisor to Nelson Rockefeller, who at the time, was the Governor of New York. In Henry’s later adult years, he got married to Ann Fleischer and they had two kids together, Elizabeth and David; but then they got divorced in 1964. He then got remarried 10 years later to Nancy Maginnes. The jobs that Henry Kissinger had during his early career life as a younger adult weren’t the only jobs that he had. He eventually became a part of the White House when Richard Nixon got into office. When President Nixon first became president, he gave Henry Kissinger the job as his Nation Security Advisor. Later on during Nixon’s presidency, he gave Henry Kissinger another job, but this time the position as his Secretary of State.



The Ways of Henry Kissinger Richard Nixon became President and in the beginning of his presidency, he gave Henry Kissinger the role of National Security Advisor. Eventually, President Nixon gave Henry Kissinger the job as his Secretary of State, later on in his presidency. While Henry Kissinger was the Secretary of State, he did many things to improve the US role in the world from where it was during the Cold War. During the time of the Cold War, the United States didn’t have anything to do with any of the other countries in the way of foreign affairs. The only interaction that the US had with other countries was the ongoing technology battle with the Soviet Union. All of this changed when Kissinger and Nixon, especially Kissinger, wanted the US to be more involved with the rest of the world. This time period was an Era of Negotiation. This Era of Negotiation was going to help the Soviet Union and the United States settle the differences that they had with each other during the Cold War. This era was being used to help the Soviet Union and the United States come to a compromise with each other. One of the ways that Kissinger viewed the US role in the world was by starting to interact differently with Russia and China. The way that Kissinger wanted to do this was through détente. Détente is a term that Kissinger uses when describing what he wants his interaction to be with Russia and China; this term means that a country, United States, shouldn’t get involved in political affairs with other countries but still should interact with them in things, like economy. Kissinger also, for the sake of the United States’ role in the world, was to form new ties with the US’s old enemies. Kissinger’s concept of “interests are constant, alliance are not,” goes with the fact that he wants the US to be involved in other countries for economic matters, but not get involved in alliances, so just in case one of the United States’ allies gets into war, then the US won’t have to help that country fight in the war. The way that Kissinger’s views of the US role in the world are different from the US foreign policy during the Cold War because Kissinger wants to form ties with other countries, but not form alliances; unlike during the Cold War where the US was against the other countries. The main issue that the nation is facing is the fact that the nation wants to make all of the other countries democratic and prevent any more countries from becoming communist. This whole issue came into play when the idea of a Domino Theory got put in the minds of the people of the US. The Domino Theory is that if we let communism get moved out of its “fence” and the countries around it become communist then eventually the US will become communist; which made everyone freak out. Kissinger doesn’t believe in the Domino Theory and thought that the US shouldn’t try to control other countries government style, unless it is completely unavoidable. Another way that Kissinger had to solve this issue, is to just keep interests in other countries and not get into any alliances; this is because Kissinger didn’t want to have to get into a bad, pointless war with another country about government, like the Vietnam War that the US was involved in. The Vietnam War that the US got into, Kissinger didn’t think it was necessary to get involved in. The Vietnam people just wanted to be free. Vietnam just happened to have a leader that was communist which the US wasn’t happy about so the US went to war with Vietnam because they thought that Vietnam was becoming communist, but they really weren’t, they were just going to become free and their leader was communist. So therefore, it was pointless to go to war with them, because we weren’t winning the war and there was no need to go to war in the first place. Vietnam wasn’t the only place that Kissinger wanted to make a better relationship with, he also wanted to make a better relationship with China. Henry Kissinger wanted to make a better relationship with China. The type of relationship that Kissinger wanted with China had to do with the open trade that he wanted the US to be able to have with them. Kissinger didn’t care if the country was communist or not, he just thought that the us should be able to have countries to fall back on for trade and other things that have to do with the economy. The steps that Kissinger took to do this was he made many trips to China. Eventually, the US formed a better relationship with China that turned into an alliance. From all of the events that have been happening in the US, the US is heading towards different things. One of the ways that Kissinger sees the US heading from where it is now is not getting into wars like the Vietnam War. The reasoning for this is because of the fact on how pointless the Vietnam War was, because (1) we weren’t winning and (2) just because they had a communist leader and just wanted to be free, doesn’t give the US the right to go in and try and control their government, just because of the whole Domino Theory (of that if anymore countries go communist then eventually the US is going to go communist). Another way that Kissinger sees the US heading from where it is now is not getting tightly involved in alliances with other countries, but he also doesn’t want to get completely isolated from the rest of the world either. So basically, Kissinger just wants to be involved in other countries in the way of interests, not get involved in alliances, get off the concept of the Domino Theory and not get into pointless bad wars like the Vietnam War.