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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17062602/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- Keywords: Charter 77, Diplomacy, Dissent, European Integration, Helsinki (Accords), History, Human Rights, Legacy (Havel), NATO, Prague, Russia, Transatlantic Relations, Velvet Revolution.
- Biographical:
- Henry Alfred Kissinger was born in Germany in 1923. He moved to the United States with his family in 1938. Kissinger served as American Secretary of State between 1973 and 1977, during which time he was instrumental in the negotiation of the Helsinki Accords between the United States and the Soviet Union. The agreement recognized the boundaries of Central European countries which had been put in place following World War II. In return for this acknowledgement, the Soviet Union agreed to implement and uphold human rights legislation. Human rights infractions then became a point of protest for campaigners around the Eastern bloc. In his memoir, Years of Renewal, Kissinger singles Václav Havel out as one of the “great men” who, in this way, “transformed a diplomatic enterprise into a triumph of the human spirit” (Years of Renewal, Simon & Schuster, 1999, p. 663). He continues today to commend the creativity of Havel in Czechoslovakia and Walesa in Poland, both of whom were able to “mobilize the world’s pressure on their behalf by their conduct inside the country.” Speaking for those who represented the United States in Helsinki, Kissinger concludes that the actions of Havel and other Eastern bloc dissidents “went beyond our expectations.” Kissinger recalls first meeting Václav Havel through émigré Czech director (and the latter’s old schoolmate) Miloš Forman in Prague. In 1998, the former secretary of state traveled to the Czech capital to deliver a keynote address at Forum 2000, an annual conference organized by Havel (who was then president of the Czech Republic). In his presentation, Kissinger declared himself “an extraordinary admirer of the President,” a sentiment he reiterates in this interview. In Prague, Kissinger called for a recognition of the role idealism played in politics (as a counterpoint, perhaps, to the politics of “realism,” with which he is often associated). Kissinger continued that a good politician should “take his society from where it is to where it has never been. And he must do that at a time when the consequences of his actions are not clear.” For this, suggested Kissinger, moral conviction and a sense of history were required. In this Havel Conversations interview, the former chief of US diplomacy (who wrote a PhD on the history of the field) reiterates his belief that the study of history helps shape “inspirational leaders.”
Kissinger has served as Assistant to the US President for National Security Affairs (1969-1975) and as a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1984-1990). He is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The author of numerous books (including Diplomacy, White House Years and most recently World Order), Kissinger describes fellow author and politician Havel as having been “a personal friend.” A self-described “strong advocate of Czech membership of NATO,” Kissinger reflects that this was a point of initial disagreement between the more pacifically-inclined Havel and himself, before Havel grew to become one of the Alliance’s staunchest supporters. Discussing present American politics, Kissinger considers US NATO membership still to constitute a chief component of the country’s “international role,” as well as a pillar of the United States’ relationship with the states of Central Europe.
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