S U P F RPO\t' ERHenryKissinger
In 1938 a fifteen-year-old Jew ishboy was fo rced
toflee fromGerma nyw ithh is parentsin o rde rto
escapeimprisonmem ino neofHitler 'sconcen-
tration camps. Thefamily went to livein the
U nited Stareswhereth eboygotajobcleaning
b ris tlesina shaving-brushfactory.H e wascleve r
and hardworking. however. and went on to
becomea brilliantstudentatHarva rdUnivcrsnv.
Justoverthirtyyears later hebecameth eSecretary
o f StateoftheUnitedStares.I lisnamewasHenry
Kissing er.Kissing er's risetoimportancebegan whenRich ard
N ixo n became Presid ent III 1% 9. He became
Nixon'spersonaladviserin all rhcUnited Sta tes'
dealings with th e Clost ofthe world. In 1973
Kissing erofficially becameSccrcra rv ofSta te,a
po sitio n he held until J immy Carter becam e
Presid ent in 1977.
All th ro ug h the t'arlyandmiddle 1970sKissing er
p layeda centralpartinshapingAmericanfo reign
poli cy.H e helped to form and directth eNixon
government's policy 111 the later years o f the
Vietna m WJr .l iepreparedthe W3Yfor deten te
w ithcommunistChina. l ieworkedtob ringpeace
between theUnitedStatesallyIsrael anditsArab
neighbors.SOllie- peo ple believedrhnr Kissinge r 's bo yhood
exper iences in Germ anyplayedanimportantpart
IIIformingh is ideasaboutth e kind ofworld he
wantedtosha peas Secretaryo f State.Onenun
w hoknewhunsaid:Byth e middleo f t he19&15PresidentReaganh ad
increasedAmericanm ilitaryst rengthsomuchthat he
was readyto starttalki ng serio usly aboutslowing
downthearmsrare.The SO,'lC"tUnionwasready,
to o.In 1985a newleader. M ik hail Gorbachcv. had
cometopowerth er e.Gorb ach cvbelievedthatthe
h u gecostofthearmsran' was cripplingrhc Soviet
Union'sccouomvan dhe w aseagertoreduce it.
IIIDecemberJ'-JK?'.Oorbach cvt;an-Icdw ithhis wife
totheUnitedSt an-s .There,in Wash in gton.heand
Pn-sidcmReag an signedth e Intermedi ateRange134
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p ..ji qJ'""'....-j,<>i'/it/ ')701,
"Ithin k he carneourofit witha kindofb u rn ing
need fororder.Peoplein theseexperienceshave a
rea l1Jle-lllo ryo f chaos.o f violenceand brutality,
likethe-world is collapsingu nderehcm. Kissing er.
mo re than most , wou ld p robably agree that
disorderisworsethan inj usti ce ."Kissinger'scriticssawh im;ISashowman .,v 'hose
achiev em ent swere moreap puelltth anreal.llis
admirers believed th at he w asoneofthe most
effecti ve states menofth e tw entieth ccnturv.N u clear Fo rce(lNF) treaty.
In theIN F treat yboth coun tries agreedthatw ithin
threeyears theywould destro y alltheirland-based
m ed ium andshorterrang en uclea r missiles.P resident
ReagangaveOo rb achcv a pairofcutllinksto
celebratethesigningofth e tr eaty.Tosymbolizetheir
tw ocountriesturningaway fromwar andtowards
peacc.th e cufflinks sho we dsw o rdsbein gbeaten into
p loug hs hares.