Date of Award
Fall 12-2018
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Dr. Gunter Bischof
Second Advisor
Dr. Robert Dupont
Third Advisor
Dr. Marc Landry III
Abstract
Despite historians describing the 1970s as a time of détente, both National Security Advisors that dominated America’s foreign policy pursued harsh stances against the Soviet Union. Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski sabotaged peace talks in order help the United States keep its edge against the other world superpower. Most historians point to the similarities between these two men, but what is most often left out of the narrative is that both men witnessed persecution at the hands of totalitarian governments: Kissinger by the Nazis and Brzezinski by both the Nazis and the Soviets. This influence is strong in their first works written at Harvard University, where they met Dr. Carl J. Friedrich and Hannah Arendt, both German émigrés. This paper will explore how European intellectuals, as well as their own European heritage, predisposed both Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski in their hawkish stances against the Soviet Union.
Recommended Citation
Sniezak, D'Otta M., "In Response to Totalitarianism: The Hawkish Cold War Foreign Diplomacy of the Europeans Kissinger and Brzezinski during American Détente" (2018). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2570.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2570
Included in
Diplomatic History Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Public History Commons, United States History Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.