Legacy of Henry Kissinger: an American Bismarck or a Pragmatist Diplomat Who Wooed Dictators?

Settling the legacy of Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State during Detente in the Cold War, remains a matter of ongoing narrative wars.

Former President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in this archived photo. (AP Photo)

The National Interest, the bastion of American realists and neoconservatives, this past summer came up with a cover story dedicated to the legacy of Henri Kissinger, the former National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon and a Secretary of State in the Gerald Ford administration. Not surprisingly, the story was yet another attempt in a long series of efforts by the folks of Kissinger lobby to nail his legacy with a positive projection.

No matter how the adherents of the Kissinger industry relentlessly beat the drumbeat of a genius narrative to polish the image of the 56th secretary of state, there are significant questions that percolate about the controversial legacy of this German emigre. The fact that he is no American Bismarck. He might be a good historian of world diplomacy, but he had never been a flawless practitioner of the…