Kissinger Appearance Draws Controversy

The cancellation of a landmark return to Cambridge last week by controversial statesman Henry A. Kissinger ’50 has critics crying foul.

Kissinger, a former secretary of state and national security adviser, bowed out of the Harvard Book Store event only days before he was supposed to discuss his new book, “Does America Need a Foreign Policy? Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century.” He was to field questions from an overflow audience of 300.

The event would have been Kissinger’s first public appearance in Harvard Square since the former professor left over four decades ago to join the Nixon administration. Harvard’s prodigal son is said to have held a grudge against Harvard ever since his former colleagues turned into vocal critics of Nixon’s Vietnam policies.

According to Tracy Guest, Simon and Schuster’s Assistant Director of Publicity, the event was canceled when Kissinger told the publisher that he had a scheduling conflict. The book store was notified just under a week before the event.

Kissinger was unavailable for comment, according to Simon and Schuster.

But as seems true of everything Kissinger does, the appearance was itself enveloped in controversy—from internal controversy to a planned face-off and protests by Amnesty International.

From the beginning Kissinger’s talk drew internal criticism at the book store, as some staffers, including Assistant Manager Mark Lamphier, argued that Kissinger’s appearance was inconsistent with the store’s mission—a disagreement that turned public in dueling columns published in the book store’s monthly newsletter.

“An exchange of ideas is the lifeblood of a bookstore, and it should be anathema for us to sponsor an appearance by a man who…has sought to deny freedom of expression to others,” Lamphier wrote.

He charged that Kissinger “has repeatedly sought to suppress the publication of books he believes will be unfriendly to him.” He also accuses Kissinger of consistently evading critics.

The forum, Lamphier argued, would allow Kissinger to promulgate his version of history unquestioned.

Lamphier declined to comment further for this article.

Frank Kramer, who as owner of the book store had the final say on Kissinger’s appearance, wrote a statement of his own contending that safeguards had been built in to ensure that there would be balance to Kissinger’s presentation.

In an interview Kramer cited as evidence of the book store’s attempts to balance Kissinger’s appearance the impartiality of moderator David Gergen—a Kennedy School professor and former presidential advisor in four administrations—and the scheduling of Christopher Hitchens, a prominent Kissinger critic, for an event two nights later, as evidence.

Kramer also trusted the critical Cambridge audience to do its part. “Why would Henry Kissinger come to Cambridge to speak? He would not have believed that he would get an uncritical audience,” Kramer says.

But Kissinger might have begun to expect the audience to do too good a job, critics said. In fact, Hitchens takes credit for scaring Kissinger off.

On tour promoting his new book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Hitchens has been conducting a one-sided war of words with Kissinger. The British author argues that Kissinger, who he calls a war criminal, has exhibited a pattern of extralegal and illegal behavior to profit his ego and his wallet.

After months of ignoring Hitchens—or, as Hitchens says, “evading”—Kissinger finally responded angrily on two news shows last month when interviewers questioned him about Hitchens’ criticisms. On “The News with Brian Williams,” Kissinger described Hitchens as “a man who attacked Mother Teresa, Jackie Kennedy, [and] has said the Holocaust never existed.”

Kissinger was apparently referring to an incident in which Hitchens had defended an author’s right to publish a book in which questions about the Holocaust’s extent were raised.

Hitchens responded that the “Holocaust denier” label was libelous and says he was considering legal action against the statesman.

Hitchens said that he hoped to attend Kissinger’s appearance in Cambridge and ask Kissinger to repeat the allegations.

Against this backdrop of charges and countercharges, Hitchens says Kissinger decided to run rather than face him during the Cambridge talk.

“He has gone to ridiculous lengths to prevent me from getting to ask him a perfectly polite question,” Hitchens said.

According to Hitchens, Kissinger had previously canceled an event in Kissinger’s hometown of Washington, Conn., where Hitchens had been booked to counter an event where Kissinger was being honored by the local library.

When Kissinger made the “sudden discovery of a scheduling conflict,” the library invited Hitchens in his place, he says. “I ate Henry Kissinger’s dinner,” Hitchens jokes.

Again this time, “I chased him out of town,” Hitchens says.

Kramer disputed that Hitchens played a role in Kissinger’s cancellation of the Harvard Book Store appearance, and said that after talking with the Kissinger publicists, he accepted their explanation of a scheduling conflict.

Guest said that Hitchens’ planned presence did not have anything to do with the cancellation. She said Kissinger had done question and answer sessions in New York and Chicago and that they “went fantastically.”

But Hitchens wasn’t the only one planning to question Kissinger. Amnesty International, the activist group, was in the process of planning a demonstration.

Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional director for Amnesty, explained that the group was not going to be protesting Kissinger’s appearance, but were demonstrating to raise the issue of his evasion of the European and South American summons. They planned to picket with signs and to handout a flier with suggested questions for audience members.

Despite the initial controversy, the planned demonstrations and ultimately the cancellation, Kramer has no regrets. “This is exactly what a bookstore should do—and controversy is important,” Kramer said. And as he later mentioned, “its great publicity.”

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.