Henry Kissinger's World War II

Warfare History Network ^ | June 2018 | Tim Miller

[SunkenCiv]

In November 1944, a young American soldier wrote back to his parents in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Six years earlier, he and his family had fled Germany for the United States, only weeks before Kristallnacht, the infamous Night of Broken Glass.

Now here he was, having returned to the place where, had they stayed, he and his family may well have already perished. "So I am back where I wanted to be," the young man wrote. "I think of the cruelty and barbarism those people out there in the ruins showed when they were on top. And then I feel proud and happy to be able to enter here as a free American soldier."

...Kissinger's Jewishness also came into play: his dog tag identified his religion, and if captured he undoubtedly would have been killed immediately, as had happened to German-Jewish interrogators taken in early 1945...

Kissinger remained in Germany until 1947, long after he could have returned home. Writing back to his family in the United States who wished to see him, he said, "I agreed that no matter what happened, no matter who weakened, we would stay to do in our little way what we could to make all previous sacrifices meaningful. We would stay just long enough to do that. Continuing to work with CIC (also in the ranks was author J.D. Salinger), he helped both transition intelligence focus to the Soviet Communist threat and continuing to round up fugitive Nazis and make more pragmatic judgments about other Germans who also remained.

"We have not come here for revenge," one of Kissinger's secretaries recalled him saying, and indeed the complexity of these events lies in a small anecdote.

[SunkenCiv]

subtitled, "After emigrating to the United States with his family, Henry Kissinger enlisted in the U.S. Army."

[SunkenCiv]

Yup. It should be interesting to see the DNC talking point venom (disguised of course as conservatism) against Dr. HK emerge around here over the foreseeable.

• Henry Kissinger, "It was a serious mistake to let in so many people with completely different cultures, religions and concepts. [11/30/2023]
• Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dead at 100 [11/29/2023]
• Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state whose complicated legacy shaped decades of U.S. policy, dies at 100 [11/29/2023]
• Henry Kissinger, Former Secretary of State, Dies at 100 [11/29/2023]
• Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state and presidential adviser, dies at 100 [11/29/2023]
• The tragedy behind Kissinger's realpolitik [11/30/2023]
• 'A Friend of Ours Forever': Chinese Communists Celebrate Henry Kissinger [11/30/2023]

[SunkenCiv]

https://search.brave.com/search?q=84th+Division

[ifinnegan]

And he became a traitor to the nation that gave him refuge, switching his allegiance to the Chinese Communists.

[SunkenCiv]

No, he didn’t.

[Captain Rhino]

Great read. Thanks for posting it.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[gleeaikin]

I read the entire article at the link provided in the introduction. It has a lot more detail, which makes Kissinger a lot more understandable. Thanks

[Jacquerie]

I read it all.

Superb article.

[xzins]

When stationed in Germany in the early 70s as an E4, I attended a US Army school that boasted their most famous graduate had been Sgt Henry Kissinger. In a beautiful part of then, West Germany, it was hard work but also a lot of fun.