Zbigniew Brzezinski

Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (born March 28, 1928) is a Polish-American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman.

Biography

Early years

For historical background on these periods of history, see:

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• History of Poland (1918-1939), and
• Second Polish Republic;
• Weimar Republic, and
• Nazi Germany;
• History of the Soviet Union (1927-1953), and
• Great Purge.

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Zbigniew Brzezinski was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1928. This was a brief period of independence for Poland, after having been erased from the map by neighboring powers: Austria, Prussia, and Russia. He was the son of a Polish diplomat, Tadeusz Brzezi?ski, who had fought in the Polish Army against the Red Army in the 1920 Polish-Soviet War. Tadeusz Brzezi?ski was posted to Germany from 1931 to 1935, and Zbigniew Brzezinski would thus spend some of his earliest years witnessing the rise of the Nazis. From 1936 to 1938, Tadeusz Brzezi?ski was posted to the Soviet Union during Stalin's Great Purge.

Related Topics:
Warsaw - Poland - Austria - Prussia - Russia - Polish Army - Red Army - 1920 - Polish-Soviet War - Germany - 1931 - 1935 - Nazis - 1936 - 1938 - Soviet Union - Stalin - Great Purge

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In 1938, Tadeusz Brzezi?ski was posted to Canada. In 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was agreed to by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and subsequently the two powers invaded Poland, once again erasing Brzezinski's homeland from the map. The Yalta Conference further sealed the fate of Poland, and Brzezinski's family could not safely return to their country.

Related Topics:
1938 - Canada - 1939 - Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - Yalta Conference

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Rising influence

Brzezinski entered McGill University in 1945 to obtain both his BA and MA degrees (received 1949 and 1950 respectively). His Master's thesis focused on the various nationalities within the Soviet Union. Brzezinski went on to attend Harvard University to work on a PhD. He focused on the Soviet Union, and the relationship between the October Revolution, Lenin's state, and the actions of Stalin. He received his doctorate in 1953, and the same year would travel to Munich and meet Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, the head of the Polish desk of Radio Free Europe. He would collaborate with Carl Friedrich to develop the concept of "totalitarianism" and apply it to the Soviets, in 1956.

Related Topics:
McGill University - 1945 - BA - MA - 1949 - 1950 - Thesis - Nationalities - Harvard University - PhD - October Revolution - Lenin - Stalin - 1953 - Munich - Jan Nowak-Jezioranski - Radio Free Europe - Totalitarianism - 1956

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For historical background on major events during this period, see:

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• , and
• 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

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As a Harvard professor he argued against Eisenhower and Dulles's policy of rollback, saying that antagonism would push Eastern Europe further toward the Soviets. The Polish strike and Hungarian Revolution in 1956 lent some support to Brzezinski's idea that the fundamentally non-communist Eastern Europeans could gradually counter Soviet domination. In 1957, visited Poland for the first time since he left as a child, and it reaffirmed his judgment that splits within the Eastern bloc were profound.

Related Topics:
Eisenhower - Dulles - Rollback - Eastern Europe - 1957 - Eastern bloc

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In 1958, he became a United States citizen.

Related Topics:
1958 - United States

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In 1959 Brzezinski was not granted tenure at Harvard, and instead moved to New York City to teach at Columbia University. Here he wrote Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict focusing on Eastern Europe since the beginning of the Cold War. He also became closely associated with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Related Topics:
1959 - New York City - Columbia University - Cold War - Council on Foreign Relations

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For the 1960 presidential elections, Brzezinski was an advisor to the John F. Kennedy campaign, urging a non-antagonistic policy toward Eastern Europe (following from his earlier experiences in the mid-1950s). Seeing the Soviet Union as having entered a period of stagnation, both economic and political, Brzezinski predicted the breakup of the Soviet Union along lines of nationality (expanding on his master's thesis).

Related Topics:
1960 presidential elections - John F. Kennedy - 1950s

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Brzezinski continued to argue for and support détente for the next few years, publishing Peaceful Engagement in Eastern Europe in Foreign Affairs, and supporting non-antagonistic policies after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such policies might disabuse Eastern European nations of their fear of an aggressive Germany, and pacify Western Europeans fearful of a superpower condominium along the lines of Yalta.

Related Topics:
Détente - Foreign Affairs - Cuban Missile Crisis - Western Europe

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In 1964, Brzezinski supported LBJ's presidential campaign and the Great Society and Civil rights policies, while on the other hand he saw Soviet leadership as having been purged of any creativity following the ousting of Khrushchev. Through Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Brzezinski met with Adam Michnik, the future Polish Solidarity activist.

Related Topics:
1964 - LBJ's presidential campaign - Great Society - Civil rights policies - Ousting of Khrushchev - Adam Michnik - Solidarity

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Brzezinski continued to support engagement with Eastern Europe, while warning against De Gaulle's vision of a "Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals." He also supported intervention in Vietnam to counter China's impression of the United States as a paper tiger. From 1966 to 1968, Brzezinski served as a member of the Policy Planning Council of the Department of State (President Johnson's 7 October 1966 "Bridge Building" speech was a product of Brzezinski's influence).

Related Topics:
De Gaulle - Atlantic - Urals - Vietnam - China - Paper tiger - 1966 - 1968 - Policy Planning Council - Department of State - 7 October

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For historical background on events during this period, see:

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• Six-Day War;
• Prague Spring, and
• Socialism with a human face;
• Tet offensive.

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Events in Czechoslovakia further reinforced Brzezinski's criticisms of the right's aggressive stance toward Eastern Europe. His service to the Johnson administration, and his fact-finding trip to Vietnam make him an enemy of the New Left, despite his advocacy of de-escalation.

Related Topics:
Czechoslovakia - New Left

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For the 1968 presidential campaign, Brzezinski was chairman of the Hubert H. Humphrey Foreign Policy Task Force. He advised Humphrey to break with several of President Johnson's policies, especially concerning Vietnam, the Middle East, and condominium with the USSR.

Related Topics:
1968 presidential campaign - Hubert H. Humphrey

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Brzezinski called for a pan-European conference, an idea that would eventually find fruition in 1973 as the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Meanwhile he became a leading critic of both the Nixon-Kissinger détente condominium, as well as McGovern's pacifism.

Related Topics:
1973 - Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe - Nixon - Kissinger - McGovern - Pacifism

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In his 1970 piece Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era, Brzezinski argued that a coordinated policy amongst developed nations was necessary in order to counter global instability erupting from increasing economic inequality. Out of this thesis, Brzezinski co-founded the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, serving as Director from 1973 to 1976. The Trilateral Commission is a group of prominent political and business leaders and academics primarily from the United States, Western Europe and Japan. Its purpose is to strengthen relations among the three most industrially advanced regions of the free world. Brzezinski would select Georgia governor Jimmy Carter as a member.

Related Topics:
1970 - Developed nation - Trilateral Commission - David Rockefeller - 1976 - Western Europe - Japan - Free world - Georgia - Jimmy Carter

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Government

Jimmy Carter announced his candidacy for the 1976 presidential campaign to a skeptical media, and proclaimed himself an "eager student" of Brzezinski's. Brzezinski became Carter's principal foreign policy advisor by late 1975. He became an outspoken critic of the Nixon-Kissinger over-reliance on détente, a situation preferred by the USSR, favoring the Helsinki process instead, which focused on human rights and peaceful engagement in Eastern Europe. Carter beats Ford in foreign policy debates by contrasting the a trilateral vision with Ford's détente to the detriment of Eastern Europe.

Related Topics:
Jimmy Carter - 1976 presidential campaign - Helsinki process - Human rights

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After his victory in 1976, Carter made Brzezinski National Security Adviser. Earlier that year, major labor riots broke out in Poland, laying the foundations for Solidarity. Brzezinski begins by emphasizing the "Basket III" human rights in the Helsinki Final Act, which inspires Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia shortly thereafter.

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Brzezinski had a hand in writing parts of Carter's inaugual address, and this would serve his purpose of sending a positive message to Soviet dissidents. The Soviet Union would complain that this kind of rhetoric ran against the "code of détente" that Nixon and Kissinger had established. Brzezinski ran up against members of his own Democratic Party who agreed with this interpretation of détente, including Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Vance argued for less emphasis on human rights in order to gain Soviet agreement to SALT, whereas Brzezinski favored doing both at the same time. Brzezinski would then order Radio Free Europe transmitters to increase the power and area of their broadcasts, a provocative reversal of Nixon-Kissinger policies. West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt bitterly objected to Brzezinski's agenda, even calling for the removal of RFE from German soil.

Related Topics:
Democratic Party - Secretary of State - Cyrus Vance - SALT - Radio Free Europe - West German - Helmut Schmidt

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The State Department was alarmed by Brzezinski's support for East German dissidents, and strongly objected to his suggestion that Carter's first overseas visit be to Poland. He visited Warsaw, met with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (against the strong objection of the U.S. Ambassador to Poland), recognizing the Roman Catholic Church as the legitimate opposition to Communist rule in Poland.

Related Topics:
East German - Cardinal - Stefan Wyszynski - Roman Catholic Church

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By 1978, Brzezinski and Vance were more and more at odds over the direction of Carter's foreign policy. Vance sought to continue the style of détente engineered by Nixon-Kissinger, with a focus on arms control. Brzezinski believed that detente emboldened the Soviets in Angola and the Middle East, and so he argued for increased military strength and an emphasis on human rights. Vance, the State Department, and the media criticize Brzezinski publicly as seeking to revive the Cold War.

Related Topics:
Arms control - Angola - Middle East

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Brzezinski advised Carter in 1978 to engage China, and travels to Beijing to lay the groundwork for the normalization of relations between the U.S. and China. Polish Cardinal Karol Wojty?a is elected Pope John Paul II—an event which the Soviets believed Brzezinski orchestrated.

Related Topics:
Beijing - Karol Wojty?a

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For historical background on this period of history, see:

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• Iranian Revolution;
• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; and
• Solidarity.

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1979 sees two major strategically important events: the overthrow of the U.S.-ally, the Shah, in Iran, and the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR. The Iranian Revolution precipitates the Iran hostage crisis, which would last for the rest of Carter's presidency. Brzezinski anticipated the Soviet invasion, and created a strategy along with the support of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and China, to counter the Soviet advance.

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Using this atmosphere of insecurity, Brzezinski leads the U.S. toward a new arms buildup, and the development of the Rapid Deployment Forces—policies that are both more generally associated with Reagan now. In 1980, Brzezinski plans Operation Rice Bowl, which was meant to free the hostages in Iran using the newly created Delta Force and other Special Forces units. The mission was a failure, leading to Secretary Vance's resignation.

Related Topics:
Rapid Deployment Forces - Reagan - Operation Rice Bowl - Delta Force

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Brzezinski is criticized widely in the press and becomes the least popular member of Carter's administration. Edward Kennedy challenges President Carter for the Democratic nomination, and at the 1980 Democratic convention his convention delegates loudly boo at Brzezinski. Hurt by internal division within his party, Carter loses the 1980 presidential election in a landslide.

Related Topics:
Edward Kennedy - 1980 Democratic convention - 1980 presidential election

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Brzezinski, acting under a lame duck Carter presidency but encouraged that Solidarity in Poland has vindicated his preference for engagement and evolution in Eastern Europe, takes a hard-line stance against what seemed like an imminent Soviet invasion of Poland. He would even make a midnight phone call to Pope John Paul II—whose visit to Poland in 1979 had foreshadowed the emergence of Solidarity—warning him in advance. The U.S. stance was a dramatic change from previous reactions to Soviet repression in 1956 (Hungary) and 1968 (Czechoslovakia).

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After power

Brzezinski leaves office concerned about the internal division within the Democratic party, arguing that the dovish McGovernite wing would send the Democrats into permanent minority.

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He has mixed relations with the Reagan administration. On the one hand, he supports it as seemingly the only alternative to the Democrat's pacifism, but he also strongly criticizes it as seeing foreign policy in overly "Black & White" terms.

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He remains involved in Polish affairs, critical of the imposition of Martial Law in Poland in 1981, and more so of Western European acquiescence to the imposition in the name of stability. Brzezinski briefed Vice President George Bush before his 1987 trip to Poland, which aided in the revival of the Solidarity movement.

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In 1985, under the Reagan administration, Brzezinski served as a member of the President?s Chemical Warfare Commission. From 1987 to 1988, he worked on the NSC-Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy. From 1987 to 1989 he also served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Related Topics:
1985 - Reagan - Chemical Warfare - 1987 - 1988 - NSC - Defense Department - 1989 - President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

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In 1988, Brzezinski was co-chairman of the Bush National Security Advisory Task Force, and endorses Bush for president, breaking with the Democratic party (coincidentally hurting the career of his former student Madeline Albright, who was Dukakis's foreign policy advisor). Brzezinski publishes The Grand Failure the same year, predicting the failure of Gorbachev's reforms and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
1988 - Bush - Madeline Albright

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In 1989 the Communists failed to mobilize support, and Solidarity swept the general elections. Later the same year, Brzezinski tours Russia and visits a memorial to the Katyn Massacre. This served as an opportunity for him to ask the Soviet government to acknowledge the truth about the event, for which he received a standing ovation in the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Ten days later, the Berlin Wall fell and Soviet-supported governments Eastern Europe were losing power.

Related Topics:
Katyn Massacre - Soviet Academy of Sciences - Berlin Wall fell

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Strobe Talbott, one of Brzezinski's long-time critics, conducted an interview with him for TIME magazine entitled "Vindication of a Hardliner."

Related Topics:
Strobe Talbott - TIME

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In 1990 Brzezinski warned against post-Cold War euphoria. He publicly opposed the Gulf War, arguing that the U.S. would squander the international goodwill it had accumulated by defeating the Soviet Union, and that it could trigger wide resentment throughout the Arab world. He expanded upon these views in his 1992 work Out of Control.

Related Topics:
Gulf War - Arab world

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However, in 1993 Brzezinski was prominently critical of the Clinton administration's hesitation to intervene against Serbia in the Yugoslavian civil war. He also began to speak out against Russian oppression in Chechnya. Wary of a move toward the reinvigoration of Russian power, Brzezinski negatively viewed the succession of former KGB agent Vladimir Putin to Boris Yeltsin. In this vein, he became one of the foremost advocates of NATO expansion.

Related Topics:
Clinton - Serbia - Yugoslavian civil war - Chechnya - KGB - Vladimir Putin - Boris Yeltsin - NATO expansion

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After 9/11 Brzezinski was criticized for his role in the formation of the mujaheddin network, which would later become Al Qaeda. He asserted that rightful blame ought to lay at the feet of the Soviet Union, whose invasion he claimed radicalized the relatively stable Muslim society.

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Brzezinski also became a leading critic of the Bush administration's "war on terror." Some painted him as connected with the neoconservative movement, because of his links to Paul Wolfowitz, and his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard, which frankly discussed U.S. empire. He wrote The Choice in 2004 which expanded upon The Grand Chessboard and sharply criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy.

Related Topics:
Bush - War on terror - Neoconservative - Paul Wolfowitz

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Brzezinski currently lives in the Washington D.C. area. He is married to an internationally recognized sculptress, and has three children: one is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO; another is a partner, McGuire Woods LLP, Washington, DC, and was foreign policy advisor to the Kerry campaign; daughter Mika is a reporter and occasional anchor for CBS-TV ?Evening News.?

Related Topics:
NATO - Kerry campaign - Mika - CBS

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