A Fear and Loathing of Detente: Perspectives on Criticisms of Henry Kissinger in The National Review and The New Republic

Abstract

As National Security Advisor and (later) Secretary of State under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, Dr. Henry A. Kissinger was responsible for crafting policies aimed both at a diplomatic rapprochement with mainland China and seeking a strategic accommodation with the Soviet Union. However, many critics of this policy maintained that détente was a nouveau form of appeasement under an elaborate geopolitical scheme. One of the main targets of the Right was Kissinger who was believed to be the intellectual godfather of the Nixon and Ford foreign policy stratagems. This paper is a general analysis of the criticisms of Henry Kissinger in The National Review and The New Republic between 1970 and 1976. While their criticisms were salient among many voters and critics, writers often overstated and oversimplified many of the key areas of their disagreements with Kissinger on the overall détente policy