Item COLD WAR 27/126 - Transcript of interview with politician and diplomat Henry Kissinger, 1997

Typescript transcript of interview with Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger, US National Security Adviser, 1970-1972, and US Secretary of State, 1973-1977, relating to rapprochement between the USA and the People's Republic of China, 1972-1979; the reaction of the USSR to the improved relations between the USA and China, 1972; the US aim of isolating North Vietnam by improving relations with the People's Republic of China, 1972; Kissinger's arrival in Beijing, China, 1972; the visit to China by US President Richard Milhous Nixon, Feb 1972; the importance of the 'back channel' negotiations between Kissinger and Anatoly Fedorovich Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the USA, 1962-1986, during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), 1969-1972; the omission of discussions on the limitation of multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, 1969-1972; the achievements of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty I (SALT I), 1972; the policy of détente between the USA and the USSR, 1969-1975; the influence of détente in Third World nations, notably in the civil war in Angola, 1975; US opposition to the administration of Salvador Allende (Gossens), President of Chile, 1970-1973; US relations with Israel during the Yom Kippur War, Oct 1973; the US armed forces being placed on alert following the Soviet threat to intervene in the Middle East in support of the Arabs, 20 Oct 1973; Willy Brandt, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany, and the policy of 'Ostpolitik' (Eastern policy), accepting the existence of the German Democratic Republic and of its eastern border with Poland, the Oder-Neisse line, 1969-1974; Kissinger's negotiated agreement with North Vietnam to end the Vietnam War, Oct 1972; the rejection of the peace settlement by Nguyen Van Thieu, President of the Republic of South Vietnam, 1972; the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam, 1973; the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), Apr 1975; the impact of the Watergate scandal on US support for the Republic of South Vietnam, 1974-1975; the inclusion of the human rights clause in the Helsinki accords, Jul-Aug 1975; the end of the Cold War, 1989-1990; the US Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 1983-1986; the reformist policies of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, 1985-1991, and President of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1988-1991; the importance of a vigorous US foreign policy on the end of the Cold War, 1989-1990. 35pp