Henry Kissinger: The Declassified Obituary and Other Resources

The National Security Archive has published a selection of declassified Henry Kissinger records – including memos, memcons, and “telcons” – to contribute to a balanced evaluation of his legacy at the White House and Department of State. 

Documents included in the Archive’s latest posting shed light on Kissigner’s role in the overthrow of democracy and the rise of dictatorship in Chile; disdain for human rights and support for dirty, and even genocidal, wars abroad; secret bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia; and involvement in the Nixon administration’s criminal abuses, among them the secret wiretaps of his own top aides.

“Henry Kissinger’s insistence on recording practically every word he said, either to the presidents he served (without their knowledge that they were being taped) or the diplomats he cajoled, remains the gift that keeps on giving to diplomatic historians,” remarked Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. “Kissinger’s aides later commented that he needed to keep track of which lie he told to whom. Kissinger tried to keep those documents under his own control. His deed of gift to the Library of Congress would have kept them closed until five years from now, but the Archive brought legal action and forced the opening of secret documents that show a decidedly mixed picture of Kissinger’s legacy, and enormous catastrophic costs to the peoples of Southeast Asia and Latin America.”

The Declassified Obituary is the latest in dozens of postings by Archive analysts examining Kissinger’s career. Other notable postings available on the National Security Archive website include:

• The Kissinger Telcons
• Archive Sues State Department Over Kissinger Telcons
• The Kissinger Telcons: New Documents Throw Light on Sensitive Ford and Kissinger Views
• The Kissinger Telcons: The Dobrynin File
• ”Dr. Kissinger, Mr. President”: More Kissinger Telcons and Nixon Tapes
• The Kissinger State Department Telcons
• Archive Hails Final Turnover of Kissinger Telcons
• Stopping Korea from Going Nuclear, Part I
• Stopping Korea from Going Nuclear, Part II
• Kissinger Told Soviet Envoy during 1973 Arab-Israeli War: “My Nightmare is a Victory for Either Side” – The Soviet Agreed
• Kissinger State Department Insisted that South Koreans Break Contract with French for Reprocessing Plant
• Kissinger’s ”Salted Peanuts” and the Iraq War
• Nixon, Kissinger, and the Madman Strategy during Vietnam War
• Kissinger Considered Attack on Cuba Following Angola Incursion
• Declassified Documents Show Henry Kissinger’s Major Role in the 1974 Initiative That Created the Nuclear Suppliers Group
• Kissinger to Ford: ”Smash” Rumsfeld
• Kissinger and Chile: The Declassified Record
• Kissinger Blocked Demarche on International Assassinations to Condor States
• CUBA and the U.S.
• ”We can bomb the bejesus out of them all over North Vietnam.”
• New Kissinger ’Telecons’ Reveal Chile Plotting at Highest Levels of U.S. Government
• Kissinger Conspired with Soviet Ambassador to Keep Secretary of State in the Dark
• Massive Collection of Formerly Secret and Top Secret Transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s Meetings with World Leaders Published On-Line
• New Documentary Reveals Secret U.S., Chinese Diplomacy Behind Nixon’s Trip
• Kissinger to The Argentine Generals in 1976: ”If There Are Things that Have to Be Done, You Should Do Them Quickly”
• Indonesia’s 1969 Takeover of West Papua Not by ”Free Choice”
• Nixon’s Trip to China
• Kissinger to Argentines On Dirty War: ”The Quicker You Succeed the Better”
• The Beijing-Washington Back-Channel and Henry Kissinger’s Secret Trip to China
• Secret Diplomacy to Normalize Relations with Cuba
• Nixon/Kissinger Saw India as ”Soviet Stooge” in 1971 South Asia Crisis
• Archive Hails Turnover of Kissinger Papers

Archive analysts have also written and contributed to numerous books on Kissinger, including:

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