'Master tactician' turns 80

The frontiers of American foreign policy have been shaped by numerous figures, none of whom have surpassed the 56th U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who just turned 80 last month.

"Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem", he once claimed. Throughout his life, Kissinger lived the life that of a celebrity, as he manoeuvred through the tides of politics and waltzed under the limelight of the world of entertainment, dubbed 'President for Foreign Affairs'.

"The nice thing about being a celebrity", says Kissinger, is that "when you bore people, they think it's their fault."

But what Kissinger has achieved thus far on the international scene is anything but a bore. His intellectual designs and policy formulations have charted the course of American foreign policy for decades during the late 1960s and early 1970s in his capacity as a public servant, an influence that was evident even after leaving office in 1977.

Kissinger's imprint on diplomacy has become part of history, and until today, his input in the field of international relations is undeniable by both admirers and critics alike.

Described as the most influential figure in America's foreign policy, Kissinger managed to continuously attract curiosity and unabated opposition over his stances and opinions regarding how the U.S. should deal with the global community. Shrouding all his dealings with absolute secrecy, the 'master tactician' can only be described as a true Machiavellian student.

"The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mould reality in the light of their purposes", Kissinger once professed. In fact, it is this 'realpolitik' approach towards world affairs that would align his reputation with controversy throughout his life.

"Power is the greatest aphrodisiac," Kissinger once claimed and it is this obsession with power that lured him into the playground of world politics.

The German-born Kissinger fled his hometown, Feurth, with his family in 1938 at the age of 15. Soon, he opted to change his first name from Heinz to Henry, as the U.S. became the family's new home.

In 1943, he became a naturalised U.S. citizen, joining the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps until 1946. When the Allied Forces stormed Germany, Kissinger returned to his country of birth, working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. Between 1946-1949, Kissinger was a captain in the Military Intelligence Reserve.

After completing his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1954, Kissinger remained with the institution until 1971 as a faculty member in the Department of Government and the Centre for International Affairs.

He held the position of the Centre's Associate Director between 1957 and 1960, and Director of the Harvard Univer-sity Defence Study Programmes (1958-1969).

Kissinger worked for the Council of Foreign Relations as Study Director, Nuclear Wea-pons and Foreign Policy, between 1955-1956, followed by the position of Director of the Special Studies Project for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (1956-1958). He held the position of Director of the Harvard International Seminar (1951-1971) as well as that of Director of Harvard Defence Studies (1958-1971).

Eventually, Kissinger served in several official capacities – with the Operations Research Office (1951), Operations Coordinating Board (1955), Director of the Psychological Strategy Board (1952), consultant to the Department of State (1965-68), United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1961-68), Rand Corporation (1961-68), National Security Council (1961-62), Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1959-60), and Chairman of the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America (1983-84), member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council & Defence Department (1986-1988), and member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1984-1990).

But it was during the presidency of Richard Nixon that Kissinger achieved fame and immense power, moulding America's foreign policy. This was the age of a bi-polar world in the divisive era of the Cold War, a time when some policy-makers such as Kissinger advocated an American leadership.

"America's ultimate challenge is to transform its power into moral consensus, promoting its values not by imposition but by their willing acceptance in a world that, for all its seeming resistance, desperately needs enlightened leadership", Kissinger reiterated. "Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision."

What distinguished Kissinger's abilities was his practicality in transforming what was unimaginable into a possibility regardless of the fact that the world was living by divisions made up by ideological camps.

It was Kissinger's efforts that paved the way for the establishment of a line of communication with communist China, which was crowned by Nixon's visit to the country in 1972. This charted relations between the two countries into a new era. This same approach would also be followed with regard to relations with then staunch rival superpower, the USSR, culminating with Nixon's visit to Moscow the same year.

These were groundbreaking steps in Sino-American relations. 'Détente' was in fashion as Kissinger advocated a policy of ''flexible response', that is counter-balancing communism with the use of conventional as well as strategic and tactical nuclear strength.

Has it not been for Kissinger's behind the scenes diplomacy with Chinese and Soviet officials, it would not have been feasible to pursue these two tracks. The book, The Kissinger Transcripts, edited by William Burr, highlight that official documents and numerous transcripts reveal that Kissinger followed a parallel track approach – a secret line to establishing a 'tacit alliance' with China while at the same time concealing the matter from the Soviets.

Kissinger, according to the book, continuously offered intelligence to China between 1971 and 1973. This was followed in 1975 with shipments of high-speed computers and a hotline for early warning on the movements of Soviet troops.

But these are only part of a larger archive of notes and transcripts to which only Kissinger has access. They are safeguarded at the Library of Congress and will only become public five years after Kissinger's death.

The approach used with the Chinese and the Soviets would soon prove to be the only means through which the U.S. could become free from paying the price for an agonising war in Vietnam. It would highlight Kissinger's mastery at playing according to the rules of 'real- politik' to end a war that he knew America could not win.

Secret channels were opened with South Vietnam to find a way of reaching a cease-fire and ending the war. This course of action was followed again in the Middle East as Kissinger's 'shuttle diplomacy' resulted in a cease-fire in the 1973 war.

The 'master of diplomacy' has become a celebrity, evidenced by a Gallop poll conducted in the U.S., the results of which describe him as 'the most admired man in America'. In addition, Kissinger was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the same year for his role in the peace negoti