‘American Concern’ Enabled Exodus
When questioned about his truly shocking statement that if Soviet Jews were put into gas chambers, it would not be “an American concern,” Henry Kissinger has since responded that this quote “must be viewed in the context of the time,” namely the early-1970s debates over how to help Jews escape the Soviet Union.
During the 1980s, I served as assistant secretary of state for human rights and was deeply involved in this issue. My experience leads me to very different conclusions than those offered by President Nixon’s secretary of state and national security adviser.