There was only one Henry Kissinger

The obituaries of Dr Henry Kissinger suggest that there were two Henry Kissingers: a brilliant diplomat who tried to end the Cold War and an unindicted war criminal implicated in the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians and East Timorese.

In fact, there was no contradiction between these two images. Kissinger was consistent: he was a Realist in International Relations, with an eye for the main chance.

Kissinger's approach takes us to the heart of the formal study of International Relations.

The formal academic study of International Relations began about a century ago, right after the trauma of World War I. University departments were created.

Two theoretical approaches in International Relations were created: Realism and Liberalism. In recent years there have been additional approaches, such as Peace Studies, with an emphasis on what unites people and states rather than what divides them, and Gender Studies, which has been a response to the domination of males in IR and International Law and the neglect of some issues such as the use of rape in war.

The author of the Realist/ Idealist distinction was the British historian Edward Hallett Carr (1892-1982), who is best known today for his book The Twenty Years' Crisis 1919-39.

Carr respected power over the illusions of liberal morality and expecting the best of other people and governments. He was critical of the Inter-War "peace through international law" movement, which was the belief that international law could provide a new route to the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

Carr received great deal of publicity because in those days there were so few professors of IR. He taught at the then University College of Wales Aberystwyth (Aberystwyth University remains a great university for IR).

He was no great supporter of Nazi Germany but (like many British Appeasers) he believed that the Germans had been treated unduly harshly by the Versailles Peace Treaty and that therefore Hitler's demands should be met.

During World War II he was working for The Times (London) writing pro-USSR editorials (though no great supporter of the USSR either). He continued to create controversy. He argued that the USSR was now the new force in politics and so had to be accommodated.

In other words, a person has to overlook their own personal preferences and morality, and simply go for the best deal available. Power and pragmatism - and not morality - should be the guiding principle. This is the works of Machiavelli applied to IR.

Kissinger has to be understood in this context. This provides the consistent thread throughout Kissinger's foreign policy. You don't have to "like" a foreign leader to do a deal with that person. Foreign policy is not for the squeamish or high-minded.

Kissinger became national security advisor and then secretary of state to President Richard Nixon and his successor Gerald Ford (1969-77).

Kissinger had been skeptical of the US ever being able to win in Vietnam. But he was also aware of the perceived risks of the US being seen to lose and so he spent four years trying to negotiate a US exit out of the war which would not look like defeat.

There had to be a decent interval between a peace agreement (January 1973) and the eventual inevitable North Vietnamese/ Viet Cong takeover in the South (April 1975). This attempted protection of US prestige overseas cost thousands of lives by prolonging the conflict.

The dramatic improvement in US-China relations was partly based on a misunderstanding of China's influence over North Vietnam. Richard Nixon had made his political reputation partly over this hostility towards China.

But Kissinger and Nixon thought that if China were offered the chance to improve its relations with the US, China could use its influence on North Vietnam to end the conflict or at least be more accommodating in Kissinger's secret peace negotiations.

Ironically Kissinger misunderstood Vietnamese history. There are two millennia of hostile relations between China and Vietnam. The Vietnamese leaders were nationalists who remembered their nation's checkered history with China and so were not willing to be manipulated by China. Playing the China card did not work, and the Vietnam conflict continued.

But Kissinger received the credit for bringing China in from the cold. The 1972 meeting between Nixon and Chairman Mao threw both the global left-wingers and right-wingers into political confusion. Here were two archenemies now on friendly terms.

Three years after Chairman Mao died, in 1979, the new Chinese leadership began the Chinese economic revival which continues (albeit now with some problems) to this day. China started to rejoin the global economy.

While some US media coverage of Kissinger's legacy has been hostile, in China he has been universally viewed as the country's "most valued friend". Kissinger was one of the few people on close terms with all the Chinese leaders since Chairman Mao.

Kissinger and Nixon also threw both the left and right into confusion by improving relations between the US and USSR. Again, Nixon had made a name for himself by being hostile towards the USSR (and accusing his early political opponents of being soft on communism).

However, Kissinger was aware of the long-standing animosity between China and the USSR (and Czarist Russia) with a long-standing history of border disputes in the Soviet Far East. He figured he could use the threat of improved relations with the USSR as leverage over China, as well as negotiating nuclear arms control agreements.

Kissinger and Nixon initiated a policy of easing tensions between the US and USSR via "detente". This led to major nuclear arms control breakthroughs (more than we have seen in recent years between the US and Russia, which seem to be now to be gearing up for a nuclear confrontation).

An important part of Realism is being willing to turn a blind eye to human rights violations in the interests of furthering great power relations. This meant that Kissinger supported the 1973 overthrow of the Allende government in Chile and giving Indonesia the go-ahead in its 1975 invasion of East Timor.

Finally, Kissinger was also a realist about his own personal advancement. In 1968 he stopped advising Republican president hopeful Nelson Rockefeller (Rockefeller family money had helped finance his academic endeavors for over a decade) and jumped ship for another hopeful: Richard Nixon.

Once out of office Kissinger became very wealthy vis Kissinger Associates privately advising people, governments and corporations he had encountered in his US government roles. After the 2001 "9/11" terrorist attacks he was invited by President Bush to chair a commission of enquiry. He had to resign because he would not disclose the list of clients advised by Kissinger Associates (which may have included Arab governments). He made a lot of money out of his friendship with the Chinese government.

In short, Kissinger was a major figure in both the study and practice of International Relations. His adherence to Realism enabled him to be seen both as a person who worked to improve US relations with traditional enemies and yet also a person who sacrificed others to achieve those ends.

Owing to the fear that Kissinger would be sought as a war criminal, the US government refused to join the International Criminal Court – national political interests and prestige were derailed to protect one individual. Now that he has gone, this would be a good time for the US to join its allies (such as Australia and the UK) as a party to the ICC.