|
Defense Secretary Ash Carter on May 9, 2016 ... presented former
Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger with the Department of Defense
Distinguished Public Service Award, the department's highest
honorary award for private citizens and foreign nationals
|
May 9, 2016 - Defense Secretary Ash Carter shakes former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger's hand during an award ceremony at the Pentagon honoring Kissinger for his years of distinguished public service, . Kissinger received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award.
(DoD photo by Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz)
|
The award citation notes that Kissinger is recognized for his
distinguished public service since January 1969. He served as
national security advisor and also as secretary of state to
Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford and as a consultant
to the U.S. government throughout his career. The citation credits
him with orchestrating countless foreign policy victories.
Through strategic thought, leadership and shuttle democracy, the
citation continued, Kissinger pioneered detente with the Soviet
Union, orchestrated opening and formalization of relations with
China and negotiated the 1973 Paris peace accords that ended the
Vietnam War.
Kissinger also
helped to end the 1973-1974 Organization of Oil Exporting Countries
oil embargo, supported the 1974-1975 Middle East disengagement
agreement among Egypt, Israel and Syria, and helped to negotiate the
1975 Helsinki Accord, signed by 35 countries and addressing many
issues that promised to improve relations between the Communist Bloc
and the West.
Strategic Perspective
“Our defense is so vital,” Carter said in his remarks, “that we
must shepherd it from strategic era to strategic era, from
administration to administration, across parties and across our
government, including the State Department and the National Security
Council, which Henry Kissinger ran.”
Cultivating the strategic perspective
Kissinger personifies means keeping the world in synoptic view, the
secretary added, seeing all its parts and problems at once and using
the physical and moral strength of the nation wisely to protect its
people and make a better world.
“It means knowing which mix
of the full range of foreign policy tools -- including but not
limited to the finest fighting force the world has ever known -- is
best for a given situation,” he added.
U.S. strategic
objectives must be clearly framed and pursued across the whole of
government and with the support of every government agency and every
instrument of American power, Carter added.
Leveraging All Resources
“Although the terms ‘whole of government' and ‘smart power' are
relatively new, the basic concept clearly isn't,” Carter said. “As
Dr. Kissinger knows well, these terms have been applied from Sung
China to the Holy Roman Empire. The idea of leveraging all resources
of state is an enduring principle of strategy and statecraft.”
Battle-tested soldiers, sailors,
airmen and Marines have come to see that in virtually any context
ensuring victory requires more than guns and steel, the secretary
noted. In conflict zones, he added, it requires good governance,
reconciliation, education and the rule of law. Combining the threat
of force with economic and diplomatic leverage also is essential in
addressing a catalogue of strategic challenges, he said.
“Today we are applying a whole-of-government approach to addressing
two problems Henry Kissinger could not have anticipated decades ago
but continues to write and advise about,” Carter said, adding that
one is the U.S.-led coalition strategy to defeat the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant.
Close Work
With State Department
Defeating ISIL in a lasting way,
he said, “will require DoD's
continued close work with the State Department to support the
government of Iraq. It will require us to continue working with our
State counterparts to galvanize financial support and accelerate the
activities of our coalition partners.”
It also will require,
Carter added, that the Treasury Department continues to squeeze
ISIL's finances while the Department of Homeland Security, the
intelligence community and law enforcement work together to prevent
attacks on the homeland.
The second problem is securing
cyberspace, he said.
Delivering
Insights
“For our part, we at DoD have stood up [U.S.] Cyber Command, but this is ... an
enterprise supported by the National Security Agency and the rest of
the intelligence community and in close collaboration with Homeland
Security,” the secretary said. “At the same time, the State
Department continues to push forward tentative efforts to achieve
international agreements to apply a rules-based order to behavior in
cyberspace.”
Kissinger has emphasized that the potential
dangers in cyberspace, and of technologies that have outstripped
doctrines and strategies to counter them, present real dangers to
global order and stability, Carter added, noting that this is from a
92-year-old statesman who has lived since long before the Internet
was imagined.
Kissinger continues to deliver insights of
incomparable strategic value to the nation and the defense mission,
Carter said, and he shows no signs of slowing down.
“While
his contributions are far from complete, we are now beginning to
appreciate what his service has provided our country, how it has
changed the way we think about strategy, and how he has helped
provide greater security for our citizens and people around the
world,” the secretary added.
The DoD Distinguished Public
Service Award recognizes those who have performed exceptionally
distinguished service of significance to the DoD as a whole, or
service of such exceptional significance to a DoD component or
function that recognition at the component level is insufficient,
according to DoD civilian award criteria. The nominee may have
rendered service or assistance at considerable personal sacrifice
and inconvenience that was motivated by patriotism, good
citizenship, and a sense of public responsibility.
To be
eligible, the nominee must be an individual who does not derive his
or her principal livelihood from the federal government, such as a
private citizen, a political appointee, or an employee on a term
appointment that is not expected to extend for a significant
duration.
By Cheryl Pellerin
DOD News
Copyright 2016
Comment on this article |
