More Videos Brzezinski: America needs global vision Story highlights Zbigniew Brzezinski was a Polish-born strategist and foreign policy intellectual He joined President Jimmy Carter's campaign as a foreign policy adviser. He died Friday at the age of Brzezinski served as Carter's principal foreign policy adviser during the campaign and as national security adviser from Carter described Brzezinski as brilliant, dedicated, and loyal. Read More. He was an important part of our lives for more than four decades and was a superb public servant," the former president said in a statemen t.
In he visited Poland for the first time since his childhood, and his travels in Europe, as well as his later friendship with leading eastern Europeans such as Adam Michnik, reinforced his view that there were profound divisions in Soviet-dominated eastern Europe, a view he developed in his first book, The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict Politically, Brzezinski was a centrist, or conservative, Democrat. Brzezinski was active in many establishment foreign policy institutions, such as the Council on Foreign Relations , and the Bilderberg meetings.
In , with the backing of David Rockefeller , he helped to found the Trilateral Commission , where he consistently advocated moderation in US policies. All three institutions were the target of paranoid suspicion on the American right. It was through the Trilateral Commission, which advocated co-operation between the US, Europe and Japan, that he met Carter, then known mainly as a liberal governor of Georgia.
Probably the most controversial of his policy decisions in the White House was his response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in The question is clouded by secrecy and contradictory recollections by those involved, but Brzezinski himself recalled that a month or so after the Soviet invasion, he went to Pakistan to co-ordinate the distribution of money to the mujahideen to fight the Red Army. It has also been suggested that Brzezinski actually encouraged the Soviet Union to invade because of the damage he saw this would do to Soviet interests in the long run.
Kennedy and served in the Johnson administration. In December , Carter offered Brzezinski the position of national security adviser. He had not wanted to be secretary of state because he felt he could be more effective working at Carter's side in the White House.
Brzezinski often found himself in clashes with colleagues like Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. For the White House, the differences between Vance and Brzezinski became a major headache, confusing the American public about the administration's policy course and fueling a decline in confidence that Carter could keep his foreign policy team working in tandem. We are remembering my father tonight with the love of his life who inspired him and shared in his wonderful life over six decades.
Zbigniew Brzezinski's brilliant strategic mind enriched American foreign policy for decades--his distinctive voice will be greatly missed. The Iranian hostage crisis, which began in , came to dramatize America's waning global power and influence and to symbolize the failures and frustrations of the Carter administration. Brzezinski, during the early months of , became convinced that negotiations to free the kidnapped Americans were going nowhere.
Supported by the Pentagon, he began to push for military action. Carter was desperate to end the standoff and, over Vance's objections, agreed to a long-shot plan to rescue the hostages.
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