Jimmy Carter’s security adviser dead

Washington, May 27

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who helped topple economic barriers between the Soviet Union, China and the West as President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, has died. He was 89.

Earnest and ambitious, Brzezinski helped Carter bridge wide gaps between the rigid Egyptian and Israeli leaders, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, leading to the Camp David accords in September 1978. Three months later, US-China relations were normalised, a top priority for Brzezinski.

Born in Warsaw and educated in Canada and the United States, Brzezinski was an acknowledged expert in Communism when he attracted the attention of US policymakers. In the 1960s, he was an adviser to John F. Kennedy and served in the Johnson administration.

In December 1976, 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 headache, confusing the American public about the administration’s policy course and fuelling a decline in confidence that Carter could keep his foreign policy team working.

Brzezinski went on to ruffle the feathers of Washington’s power elite with his 1983 book, “Power and Principle”, which was hailed as a kiss-and-tell memoir. — AP