In the second part of its deep examination of Henry Kissinger, the series documents the apex of his power and the moral compromises that defined it. With the Vietnam War dragging on, Kissinger engineered a stunning diplomatic coup: a secret visit to Mao Zedong’s China that remade the global chessboard and sidelined the Soviet Union.
This triumph, however, cast a long and dark shadow. The episode chronicles how Kissinger’s focus on global stability often required him to ignore human rights atrocities, from the genocide in East Pakistan to the CIA-backed effort to destabilize Chile’s democratically elected government. As the Watergate scandal consumed the Nixon administration, Kissinger was celebrated on magazine covers as “Super-K,” the globe-trotting peacemaker. Was this the full picture, or was his celebrity a mask for a ruthless practitioner of power politics?
American Experience airs Tuesday October 28, at 9/8c on PBS.
