Interview with Henry Kissinger, 1986

Item Information

Title:
Interview with Henry Kissinger, 1986
Description:
Henry Kissinger, U.S. national security adviser from 1969 to 1973 and then secretary of state until 1977, was the dominant figure in creating the foreign policy of the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. Kissinger’s interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: “One Step Forward” touches on points contained in his blueprint for détente: a relaxing of tensions between the superpowers. Détente was designed to “contain” Soviet influence and power, based on a combination of pressures and inducements. He discusses the concept of “linkage”: interlocking U.S. arms-control negotiations with leveraging Soviet behavior and policy. Kissinger speaks to issues of nuclear parity, its influence on negotiations, and the breakthrough in Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) once the Soviet Union agreed to link offensive and defensive weapons. He also addresses the significance of opening relations with China; his “back channel” diplomacy with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin independent of the SALT delegation; the controversy surrounding multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs); and the significance of the SALT I Treaty as a frame of reference for future negotiations. What followed, Kissinger recalls, was a general antagonism toward SALT II, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to link trade with improving human rights within the Soviet Union, and the problems for arms control created by MIRVs—all of which coincided with the fall of Nixon.
Interviewee:
Kissinger, Henry, 1923-
Date:
November 26, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Antimissile missiles
Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Middle East
Nuclear arms control
United States. Joint Chiefs of Staff
Watergate Affair, 1972-1974
Detente
International relations
Mutual assured destruction
Brezhnev, Leonid Il'ich, 1906-1982
Nuclear weapons
Soviet Union
Soviet Union. Treaties, etc. United States, 1972 May 26 (ABM), 1972 May 26 (ABM)
McNamara, Robert S., 1916-2009
Dobrynin, Anatoly, 1919-2010
Jackson, Henry M. (Henry Martin), 1912-1983
Gromyko, Andrei Andreevich, 1909-1989
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994
Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
United States. Congress
Places:
New York > New York
China
India
Extent:
00:54:04:14
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E5272F54DB36402784861F03357A25F2
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_E5272F54DB36402784861F03357A25F2