StormShadow
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Henry Kissinger a former foe who now roots for India
By the age of 89, even the doughtiest of men slow down. But then they are not Henry Kissinger, world statesman and former United States secretary of state.
A measure of Dr Kissinger's longevity is the fact that he has been in the consulting business since the mid-1950s and the book that brought him fame as a scholar, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, was published as far back as 1957. It came out at a time when fears of a nuclear holocaust were high - the American monopoly of nuclear weapons had been broken, and the Soviets had launched the Sputnik.
On Friday evening, Dr Kissinger will deliver the gala keynote address at the India Today Conclave on 'The Making of an Asian Century'.
Kissinger's early work was with nuclear weapons, where he sought to provide the US an understanding of how weapons as destructive as nuclear weapons could also serve a rational goal with regard to policy.
The initial focus of his attention as national security adviser (1969-1975) and as secretary of state (1973-1977) was the Soviet Union and Western Europe, but the momentum of events shifted his attention to Asia.
Even given his longevity, the sheer scale of Kissinger's achievement is staggering. He was the principal instrument of fostering the policy of détente with the USSR, the architect, along with his President, of the Western rapprochement with China, the man who helped wind down the Vietnam war and the person who was a thorn in India's side through a difficult decade of the 1970s, beginning with the Bangladesh War.
Kissinger's forte has been realpolitik, and he has a great deal to answer for many of his policies, though he has seen himself as a Metternich whose job is to keep order in a world that is coming apart. His campaign of secret bombing of Cambodia led to the breakdown of the government there, and the chaos from which arose the terrible genocide carried out by Pol Pot and his associates.
He was the man who, again along with his President, ignored the Pakistani genocide in Bangladesh and actually encouraged China to attack India during the crisis of 1971, and promised to back the Chinese were the Soviets to come to India's assistance. The main reason why Kissinger took Pakistan's side in the Bangladesh struggle was because he did not want to endanger the conduit that the Pakistani dictator Yahya Khan provided to him to establish a diplomatic opening to China.
There remain profound questions with regard to his attitude towards China. His book On China, published last year, brings out his somewhat starryeyed approach to the Middle Kingdom and tends to play down the human costs of the Chinese revolution and the ruthless ways of its leaders.
In a similar light can be seen his past policies of supporting dictators in Latin America and the role of the United States in organising a coup to overthrow President Salvador Allende of Chile in 1973.
After his retirement from government service, Kissinger has taught at several universities and institutions and founded a consulting company, Kissinger Associates, and is a partner in Kissinger, McLarty Associates. He has also been adviser to several Presidents, including George W. Bush.
After his 1970s encounter, Kissinger has become an ardent supporter of India. He has visited this country often and in 2007-2008, lobbied hard for the Indo-US nuclear deal and he supports the proposal to make India a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Given his enormous intellect and vast experience in public life, it would be fascinating to hear what a quintessentially 19th century man has to say about Asia of the 21st century.
Henry Kissinger a former foe who now roots for India : North News - India Today
