Lecture 9 Henry Kissinger Kissinger born in between wars in Germany he was Jewish became illegal for Jewish children to play with non jewish kids and all his friends were joining Hitler s youth so his family immigrated to New York leaving behind their elderly parents who were later killed in the Holocaust This shaped his childhood and he realized how politics could so intensely effect lives Decided to devote himself fully to his new homeland served in the army went to Harvard undergraduate thesis still legendary he became faculty at Stanford and then was summoned to the white house Worked closely with Nixon as secretary of state had complicated personal relationship because competitive Kissinger lent hand out to Communist China hoping china would put pressure on Vietnamese to end war REALIST what really matters is balance of powers the US does not base its policy solely on Moscow s good intentions We seek regardless of we must oppose aggressive actions but we must not seek confrontations lightly We must maintain a strong national defense while recognizing that in the nuclear age the relationship between military strength and politically usable power is the most complex in all history Kissinger shaped foreign policy through Nixon s presidency Ford kept him on after Watergate scandal Decline of D tente o At the initiative of Senator Henry Scoop Jackson of Washington in 1973 75 Congress attacked what it viewed as Kissinger s lack of interest in American ideals o He co authored Jackson Vanik amendment stipulating that improved trade ties should be linked to improved performance on human rights issues Stalin opposed this amendment Helsinki Final Act CSCE 1975 30 July and 1 august 1975 Signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe CSCE in Helsinki Finland Something signed by countries on both sides of the iron curtain first thing There was never a peace conference after WWII Soviet had gained control of most of eastern Europe Because of Cold war apparent there wasn t going to be a peace treaty that s why they didn t called Helsinki final act a peace treaty Buried in document was a whole bunch of language about human rights freedom of speech etc and the Russians signed it CSCE started to embolden average people in eastern Europe slowly This agreement declared the borders of Europe to be inviolable The Soviets agreed on paper to respect fundamental human rights Example of force of idealism in IR Jimmy Carter Outsider not senator like Scoop Jackson Won upset victory After Watergate scandal national mood was to have someone in office from the outside Gaddis Smith on Carter o the 4 yrs of carter admin was one of most significant in foreign policy in 20th century decisions were made on lasting world order rather than short term calculation of American advantage over soviet union one term president and ended with worst approval rating ever Carter and Environmental issues o OPEC formed restricted supply and raised prices caused oil crisis o Showed that foreign policy didn t simply consist of how US dealt with representatives of the Soviet world and a few of their more important allies Polish Kissinger NAME Concerned about MIRV multiple independent reentry vehicles o In other words putting multiple bombs on a single missile Reagan Reagan new little about the world in which the US had long been the dominant power He ignored briefing books and slept He left the details to others Although he was not a dumb man he had other strengths He was an actor he was a great communicator had uncanny ability to use images to make his point Once he decided an issue was important not often he would put great focus into it although still giving details to his staff Key Reagan Officials o Alex Haig Reagans defense spending o Defense spending increased by 50 o From 1981 86 Pentagons budget rose from 171b to 376b o The national debt doubled in the same span o In particular Pakistan received billions of dollars to fund Muslim rebellion against soviet invasion of Afghanistan o Sources suggest that one recipient of weapons was a young Osama bin Laden Leaders of Soviet in 1980s drop like flies o Brezhnev 1982 o Elderly Head of KGB replaced him and dies two years later o Then replaced by another elderly who died within a year o So they picked a young man next took a risk Gorbachev US Soviet policy was largely reactive Strategic Defense initiative SDI mentioned by Reagan in speech o Surprised most of the world and his staff o Aimed at protecting the US by deploying defensive systems that would render nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete o No prior studies had been done No official tech assessment supported this approach No interagency process had taken place The military had not been consulted Congress was not briefed o Also referred to as Star wars initiative o Technology was not there to actually support it o SDI in 1980s NMD in the 2010s 30 years later still not operational requires cooperation of other sovereign nations causes problems in US Russian relations During the Cold War Soviet Union did not believe that it would be purely defensive For this reason president Bush ended US participation in ABM anti ballistic treaty Treaty 16 11 2011 03 34 00 16 11 2011 03 34 00