Henry Kissinger

1. Henry Kissinger Abigail Amey Mr. Chiumento Monday June 11, 2012

2. Thesis • Henry Kissinger’s policies and ideas on vietnamization and the war were justified and helped with the war efforts.

3. Kissinger: —when they did try to assassinate somebody, it took three attempts— Nixon: Yeah. Kissinger: —and he lived for three weeks afterwards. (Nixon and Kissinger)

4. This was a private conversation between Kissinger and Nixon. I think Kissinger was stating that Kissinger was telling Nixon that a military could not succeed in Chile because there were no officers that were both willing and able to carry one out. That no one was willing to have a military that could be successful.

5. “I am convinced of the meaninglessness of military victories in Vietnam,...unless they brought about a political reality that could survive our ultimate withdrawal“ (Kissinger).

6. I think this means that Kissinger is trying to say that we can have all the victories we want in Vietnam, but nothing we be a bigger victory then a permanent solution to get us out of the war. He wanted to get us out of war, and he knew that other then that we couldn’t be totally successful.

7. "A crisis does not always appear to a policymaker as a series of dramatic events. Usually it imposes itself as an exhausting agenda of petty chores demanding both concentration and endurance“ (Kissinger).

8. Not all crisis have to be dramatic, that is what he is saying. That sometimes it takes a long time, is painful, and you need to have concentration. If you care that much about something then you have to do what it takes to get there, which is what he did with the secret talks to create peace.

9. <- Henry Kissinger “Nixon had three goals: to win by the biggest electoral landslide in history; to be remembered as a peacemaker; and to be accepted by the ‘Establishment’ as an equal. He achieved all these objectives at the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973. And he lost them all two months later-partly because he turned a dream into an obsession” (Kissinger).

10. Henry Kissinger worked closely with President Nixon and he stated his three goals. Once he achieved the goals, he lost all of them. He would say this because Nixon tried helping the war efforts and be a good president and it didn’t take long for Nixon to ruin all of that, his mind went to being powerful instead of working together. Watergate changed they way everyone viewed him and ruined everything he had accomplished.

11. Kissinger began secret talks with North Vietnam in 1969 in the hopes of reaching a settlement to the Vietnam War. At the same time, though, he counseled Nixon to increase bombing of North Vietnam and to expand the war into Cambodia and Laos.(PBS)

12. Kissinger was a national security adviser, he wanted to improve relations and create a balance of power. He wanted to end our involvement in the Vietnam war, but expand it outward. He talked secretly to Le Duc Tho trying to end this war.

13. Vietnamization was a U.S. policy during the Vietnam War of giving the South Vietnamese government responsibility for carrying on the war, so as to allow for the withdrawal of American troops. (History)

14. Nixon introduced this aiming at ending American involvement In the war. It lets the American troops come home and letting South Vietnam troops to go in. I think it let the South Vietnamese take responsibly for what they has done and still let the U.S. with honor and respect to our foreign allies.

15. Once in office, Kissinger and Nixon said they were seeking "peace with honor": the abandonment of our South Vietnamese allies would be a dishonorable betrayal and would undermine our credibility in the world. (We ended up abandoning them anyway.) Even overlooking for the moment how the whole thing turned out, the "peace with honor" formulation was riddled with flaws. And the South Vietnamese regime was known to have been inept and hopelessly corrupt. (Smithsonian)

16. Both Nixon and Kissinger were trying to what was best for the United States. “Peace with honor” was a big part of that. As it states they wanted peace, but wanted to be respectful and still have honor and be honorable. They knew that it has some big flaws in it, but getting out of the war was their idea and they were going to do what no matter what it took.

17. During most of 1972, President Richard Nixon sent Henry Kissinger to negotiate a ceasefire with the North Vietnamese. A temporary ceasefire was completed in October 1972 which helped secure Nixon's reelection as president. By January 27, 1973, America and North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords which ended the war. This included the immediate release of American prisoners and the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam within 60 days. (Vietnam Ceasefire)

18. This is the reason Henry Kissinger is famous in history. He got the North Vietnam to sigh the Paris Peace Accords. This ended the war. It kept all of the Americans safe. He will win a Nobel Peace Prize for this action. This also helped Nixon win his second term as president.

19. Work Cited Kissinger, Henry. Years of Upheaval. Simon & Schuster, 2011. Web. "Henry Kissinger." Image. National Archives. American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 10 June 2012. "Henry A. Kissinger (b. May 27, 1923)." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/china/peopleevents/pande02.html>. "Vietnamization." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://www.history.com/topics/vietnamization>. "Smithsonian.com." Smithsonian Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Henry_Kissinger_on_Vietnam.html?c=y>. "Vietnam Ceasefire." Vietnam Ceasefire 30 Mar 1972 - 28 Jan 1973. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2012. <http://www.ichiban1.org/html/history/1969_1973_vietnamization/17_vietnam_cease_fire_1972_1973.htm>. "Nixon and Kissinger joked over Chile assassination". The Washington Post. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/07/nixon_tape_reveals_oval_office.html. White House Years, pp. 231-32. Henry A. Kissinger. Boston: Little, Brown & co., 1979