Historical Dictionary of the Kurds

KISSINGER, HENRY

Kissinger, Henry: translation

(1923- )
Henry Kissinger wasU.S. presidentRichardNixon's national security advisor and later secretary of state when the United States abandoned its support forMulla Mustafa Barzaniand theIraqiKurds in 1975. The support ofIranand the United States had become crucial for the Iraqi Kurds, and when it was lifted,Saddam Husseinand the Iraqi government were able quickly to crush the Kurds. Thus, the Kurds see Kissinger and the United States as having cynically betrayed them. This attitude continues to influence the Iraqi Kurds — especially Barzani's sonMassoud Barzani—to this day.
Kissinger justified his actions at the time by arguing that the initial support the United States and Iran had given the Kurds had enabled the Kurds to tie down several Iraqi divisions that otherwise might have been used againstIsraelduring the October 1973 Middle East War. When further support for the Kurds was no longer feasible, Kissinger cynically justified its termination by declaring that "covert action should not be confused with missionary work." Many years later he elaborated on how there would have been no practical way for Washington to have continued to support the Kurds in such "inhospitable mountains" and that "theShahhad made the decision." Kissinger did grant, however, that for the Kurdish people, perennial victims of history, this is, of course, no consolation.
See alsoPike Committee Report.

  1. kissinger, henry—Kissinger Henry translationb. American politician and scholar of Bavarian origin. He lived in Frth Bavaria as a child but went with his family to the US in . He was draf...Dictionary of Jewish Biography