Charlie Summers
Times of Israel, Nov. 30, 2023
“As Nixon’s right-hand man, Kissinger often bore the brunt of the president’s antisemitic remarks. The president would publicly embarrass Kissinger by referring to him as his “Jew boy,” including during a meeting with Egyptian foreign minister Ismail Fahmi.”
Henry Kissinger, the controversial diplomat responsible for some of the United States’ most pivotal foreign policy decisions during the Cold War, died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut. He was 100 years old.
A mainstay in the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Kissinger served Nixon as national security adviser, and later secretary of state. He played a central role in Nixon’s diplomatic agenda, and led the way on American rapprochement with China and the relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union in a major break from the conventional wisdom of containment that held sway at the time.
Due to his cold, calculating style of diplomacy, which prioritized national interests over humanitarian ones, Kissinger’s name has become almost synonymous with realpolitik.
As the United States’ first Jewish Secretary of State, Kissinger made an effort to distance himself from his background. He was an opponent of the Soviet Jewry movement, and occasionally waded into antisemitic tropes when discussing organized Jewish life in America.