Henry Kissinger leaves behind his multi-polar world
Tiana Lowe Doescher
After a century of a landmark life, Henry Kissinger has died. The infamous diplomat, who survived Nazi Germany to reach Cabinet ranks in the administrations of both Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, leaves behind a world shaped uniquely by his own imagining, one distinctly multi-polar, with America at last trailing behind.
The former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser is most famous for his attempts to re-open Western relations with the Chinese Communist Party and to enact detente with the Soviet Union. Considering the present state of both the Chinese and Russian governments, it is questionable whether Kissinger succeeded in opening up Western relations.
But as far as reorienting global alliances to create a multi-polar world, Kissinger succeeded beyond his wildest, youthful dreams. In the definitive recollection of how a power-hungry Nixon blew up the gold standard with the intent of devaluing the greenback, Yale economics professor Jeffrey Garten agrees that, “first and most important, Kissinger, along with Nixon, was the chief intellectual architect for the overall shift in American foreign policy from a position of single-handed dominance over the free world to one in which political and economic power and responsibility would have to be shared.
“Before coming to Washington, the NSC adviser was a prominent professor, writer, and consultant who espoused such views, and within the administration, his influence on the president in foreign affairs was unequaled,” Garten wrote of Nixon. “‘The age of superpowers is now drawing to an end, [Nixon] wrote shortly before he was appointed by Nixon. ‘And there must be a conviction that the United States cannot or will not carry all the burdens alone.'”
Liberals may look to Kissinger’s egregious and broader human rights record, from the Cambodian genocide to claiming victory over Vietnam. But Republicans across the spectrum have every reason today to second guess the deified status of Kissinger if only because he impelled America last, as a matter of the global order.