Photo/Illutration Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state and national security advisor, attends a banquet for Korean War veterans in Seoul on July 25, 2003. (Reuters Photo)

Like in a spy novel, they decided to call themselves Dr. Jones and Mr. Yoshida so they could phone each other as many times as necessary from their respective countries--the United States and Japan--without revealing their real identities to telephone operators.

They also agreed to refer to their respective bosses as “Friend.”

The reason for such a cloak-and-dagger exercise was that in 1969, both were involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations concerning the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control.

The negotiations resulted in a secret pact to allow the United States to bring nuclear weapons back into Japan “in an emergency.”

Mr. Yoshida was actually Kei Wakaizumi (1930-1996), who was Prime Minister Eisaku Sato’s (1901-1975) secret emissary.

And Dr. Jones was actually Henry Kissinger (1923-2023), who would serve as U.S. secretary of state from 1973 to 1977.

Kissinger, who died on Nov. 29 at age 100, was known as a man with many faces--a secretive individual who loved to plot and connive; the recipient of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize; the ultimate realist, and so on.

For Kissinger to be remembered as such, he must have been a complex person.

He was 15 when he arrived in the United States as a Jewish refugee from Germany.

In his 20s, Kissinger wrote in a letter that Holocaust survivors had learned “weakness (was) synonymous with death.” He believed that power, not justice, brought order.

Kissinger manipulated China and held the Soviet Union in check to maintain U.S. supremacy. In the 1970s, he conducted diplomacy based on the balance of power.

The U.S.-China relationship, of which he personally paved the way to establish, must have been a source of lifelong concern. Until late in his life, Kissinger warned to the effect that the challenge facing the two countries is to achieve a relationship in which both can continue competing without inviting another “holocaust.”

It is not easy for two superpowers to walk the high road of cooperation and Kissinger knew it. Still, he was said to often note that all great achievements were mere concepts before they were realized.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 1

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.