Henry Kissinger - Years of Renewal

BOOKS BY HENRY KISSINGER

Years of Renewal

Diplomacy

Observations: Selected Speeches and Essays, 19821984

Years of Upheaval

For the Record: Selected Statements, 19771980

White House Years

American Foreign Policy: Three Essays

Problems of National Strategy: A Book of Readings (editor)

The Troubled Partnership: A Reappraisal of the Atlantic Alliance

The Necessity for Choice: Prospects of American Foreign Policy

Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy

A World Restored: Castlereagh, Metternich and
the Restoration of Peace: 18121822

TOUCHSTONE
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Copyright 1999 by Henry A. Kissinger
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

First Touchstone Edition 2000

T OUCHSTONE and colophon are registered
trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Maps copyright 1999 by Paul J. Pugliese

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the Simon & Schuster edition as follows:
Kissinger, Henry, date.
Years of renewal / Henry Kissinger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Kissinger, Henry, date. 2. Cabinet officersUnited StatesBiography.
3. United StatesForeign relations1969-1974.
4. United StatesForeign relations1974-1977.
5. StatesmenUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
E840.5.K58A3 1999
973.924092dc21

[B] 98-41038 CIP
ISBN 0-684-85571-2
0-684-85572-0 (Pbk)
eISBN-13: 978-1-45163-648-2

All photographs not otherwise credited are official White House Photos.
A leatherbound signed first edition of
this book has been published by Easton Press.

To the memory of

my mother,

Paula Stern Kissinger

For five and a half tumultuous years, I had the honor of serving first as National Security Adviser and then as Secretary of State to President Richard M. Nixon. I was then invited to continue in office by President Gerald R. Ford.

This volume is an account of the period in which Gerald Ford healed the nation and launched it on a course that, in subsequent administrations, culminated in victory in the Cold War and a dominant role in shaping the structure of the world. In the brief period of thirty months vouchsafed to him in office, Ford navigated his country through a series of extraordinary events: ethnic conflicts in Cyprus and Lebanon; a decisive step toward Middle East peace; a major agreement on strategic arms control; the end of Americas ordeal in Indochina; a worldwide energy crisis; the signing of the Helsinki Final Act at the first European Security Conference, now generally recognized as a turning point of the Cold War; Soviet and Cuban depredations in Africa; the transition to majority rule in Southern Africa; a new permanent arrangement for the Panama Canal; and the first G-7 economic summit among the great industrial democracies. This is why Fords presidency will be remembered as ushering in an age of renewal.

After completing two volumes of memoirs on the Nixon years, I waited for over a decade before beginning this account of the Ford presidency. I did so in large part to permit the evaluation of the entire period of my government service from a philosophical perspective rather than according to the tactics of the moment. For the deepest debates of the time concerned the national purposefor which the growing obsession with sensational media and congressional exposs was a surrogate.

As I reviewed the source material, the Ford presidency emerged less as the ending of a period than as an overture to what is now described as the new world order. Local ethnic conflicts began to take on large international dimensions and have proliferated since the end of the Cold War; the debate over the role of human rights in foreign policy started in earnest then and has continued since; victory in the Cold War was foreshadowed, if not yet recognized, as the Brezhnev regime began to stagnate internally; todays Middle East diplomacy could be drawn from a script of the Ford period with only some of the names of the principal actors changed; with respect to the Kurdish relations with Iraq, even the names have remained the same; the complexities of long-range China policy began to emerge; the relative roles of Congress and the executive branch in the conduct of foreign policy have still not yet been settled. Obviously history has not stood still, and the collapse of the Soviet Union has opened new dimensions not imaginable in the mid-1970s.

As I wrote in the foreword to the first volume of this series, the perspective of the participant in great events risks merging the impulse to defend with the compulsion to explain. I have sought to the extent possible to do the latter and to explain not only what we did but why. This does not prove that our decisions were always wise. But it may help the reader to see how the interaction of circumstances and statesmens convictions shapes events.

In my archival research, I have relied on my copies of official records deposited since 1977 in the Library of Congress. The originals of these official records are in the files of either the State Department, the National Archives (for the Nixon period), or the Gerald R. Ford Library. I want to thank Samuel R. Berger, President Clintons Assistant for National Security Affairs, and Deputy Assistant Major General Donald L. Kerrick for reviewing and clearing all excerpts from classified material. The deletions they requested have been made.

This book could not have been written without the invaluable assistance of dedicated associates. Foremost among them are Peter W. Rodman and Rosemary Neaher Niehuss. Associate, confidant, and friend of many decades, Peter did indispensable research, particularly with respect to Indochina, Europe, China, and Southern Africa. In addition, he reviewed the entire manuscript for content, accuracy, and style.

Rosemary Niehuss, trusted associate since my government service, did key substantive research on the Middle East and Lebanon. In addition, she supervised the entire research effort, served as the liaison to the Library of Congress, and coordinated the production process with the publisher.

Gina Goldhammer went over the entire manuscript indefatigably several times with a fine editorial eye and is responsible for many invaluable improvements.

Fredrica Friedman reviewed the early chapters and offered useful comments.

I cannot say enough for the dedication of Jody Iobst Williams and Theresa Cimino Amantea. Jody typed the entire manuscript more times than I can count from my nearly indecipherable handwriting and made extremely helpful editorial suggestions. Theresa organized the interaction of research, fact-checking, publishers and authors schedules with extraordinary efficiency and unflagging good cheer. Gratitude is also due to Suzanne McFarlane, who had to shoulder additional tasks to ensure the smooth operation of my office while her colleagues were working on this book.

I have imposed on other associates who had served with me in government and on friends familiar with particular subject matter to check my account against their recollections and to assist with research.