As I travelled early morning yesterday from Swat to CMH Rawalpind, to attend to a family medical emergency, confronting a brotherly former colleague, Maj Naeem Iqbal Khan. As I rose from sleep this morning that the the news of the death of the author of ‘Seize the Moment’ issued by Pakistan Army library book, gifted to me by Maj. Naeem Iqbal , in the 90s greeted me, leaving me contemplate his career and the impact the man had on the world politics.
Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state an internationally acclaimed American scholar and statesman, proponent of brute power to further political ambitions. China remained his ultimate target of diplomacy with his ice thawing initiative through Pakistan in 1972 followed by president Richard Nixon’s visit , the disgraced US President forced subsequently to resign after he ordered the political burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., at the Watergate Office Building. This incident came to be called as water gate scandal something to which Pakistan is used to everyday through political witch hunt by successive government’s against their political rivals. Yesterday, it was PML N, today it is PTI, yet not lesson learnt, leaving one wonders how many water gates make a Waterloo ( analogy drawn from a place called Waterloo in Belgium where Napoleon was defeated in 1815).
After the Watergate scandal brought down Nixon, Kissinger served under his successor, Gerald Ford. In an unprecedented arrangement, Kissinger served both as secretary of state and national security adviser.
Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiations to end the Vietnam War. Hated in much of the world for his cloak and dagger policies , he was at long last defeated by death not allowing him to be 101 to finish his last assignment of finishing China.
In 1970, he plotted with the CIA on how best to topple the Marxist, democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende, and in a memo after Argentina’s bloody coup in 1976 he advocated that the military dictators should be encouraged, policy that one sees In our part of the world where military intervention was never condemned or discouraged despite the country championing its sham democratic credentials.
Kissinger also supported Indonesia, a close anti-communist ally, as it seized East Timor in 1975. More than 100,000 East Timorese died as a result of the invasion. He was the one who misled Pakistan to believe the US on her side during the 1971 conflict that resulted the loss of half of the country. In the 1971 India-Pakistan war, Nixon and Kissinger drew heavy criticism for ostensibly tilting toward Pakistan. Kissinger was heard calling the Indians “bastards” — a remark he later said he regretted. While in the reality the bastards were allowed to devour Pakistan when one is not wise enough to have friends like Henry Kissinger, a wily diplomatic wolve one does not need enemies.
While retreating from Vietnam Kissinger plotted to have upper hand at the negotiating table, Nixon and Kissinger authorised a secret 1969-1970 bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia aimed at disrupting rebel movement into South Vietnam.The bombing did not halt the infiltration, killed thousands of civilians and helped spawn the genocidal Khmer Rouge Kissinger similarly was unapologetic of the Cyprus when Greece’s military junta deposed the elected leader, Archbishop Makarios, and Turkey in 1974 invaded the island, which remains divided.
After leaving government having lost credibility with White House, the restless Kissinger set up a high end consulting firm in New York, which offered advice to the world’s corporate elites. He served on company boards and various foreign policy and security forums, wrote books, and became a regular media commentator on international affairs.
After the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, US president George W. Bush picked Kissinger to head an investigative committee. But outcry from Democrats who saw a conflict of interest with many of his consulting firm’s clients forced Kissinger to step down.
He remained active till the last breath in his life , attending meetings in the White House, publishing a book on leadership, and testifying before a Senate committee about North Korea’s nuclear threat. Just last July in 2023, he made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, but little did he know his wicket was to fall later at the end the same year .
Every rise has a fall, every start an end and every dog a day and Henry Kissinger had many days to enjoy in the corridors of power through his controversial intellectual prowess advocating brute use of force that killed many innocent civilians victims of his machiavellian political strategies. .
