Helmut Sonnenfeldt

Helmut Sonnenfeldt (September 13, 1926 – November 18, 2012), also known as Hal Sonnenfeldt, was an American foreign policy expert. He was known as Kissinger’s Kissinger for his philosophical affinity with and influence on Henry A. Kissinger, the architect of American foreign policy in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

He was a veteran staff member of the United States National Security Council, and held several advisory posts in the U.S. government and the private sector. Later in life he was a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Early life Sonnenfeldt was born in 1926 in Berlin, Germany, to Drs. Walther and Gertrud (Liebenthal) Sonnenfeldt. His family was Jewish. He spent his childhood in Gardelegen, Germany, where his parents had a family medical practice. In 1938, Sonnenfeldt was sent to Anna Essinger's Bunce Court School in England, as was his brother, Richard Sonnenfeldt.

On the 7th January 1971 Sonnenfeldt, in a memo regarding US / Soviet relations complained to Henry Kissinger that he had been excluded from Kissinger's confidence. "My undoubted personal disappointment that you have almost completely excluded me from participation in or even knowledge of the more sensitive aspects of our dealings with the USSR."

After leaving government service, he was a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Since 1978, he had been a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

Family In 1953, he married Marjorie Hecht. They had three children: Babette Hecht, Walter Herman and Stewart Hecht.

Death Sonnenfeldt died on Sunday, November 18, 2012 after a long illness, leaving behind his wife and their three children. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease. His brother was Richard Sonnenfeldt, an American engineer also noted for being the U.S. prosecution team's chief interpreter in 1945 at the Nuremberg Trial after World War II.

Publications Books Soviet Style in International Politics. Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy (1985) Soviet Politics in the 1980s. Boulder: Westview Press (1985) Soviet Perspectives on Security. Adelphi papers, no. 150. London: International Institute for Strategic Studies (1979) – with William G. Hyland

Book contributions "The Chinese Factor in Soviet Disarmament Policy" (Chapter 4). In: Halperin, Morton H. (editor). Sino-Soviet Relations and Arms Control. Cambridge: MIT Press (1967): 95-113. "Written under the auspices of the Center for International Affairs and the East Asian Research Center, Harvard University."

Interviews Kennedy, Charles Stuart. "Interview with Helmut Sonnenfeldt." Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (July 24, 2000) Foreign Affairs Oral History Project.

Awards 1997 Leo Baeck Medal U.S. Navy Superior Public Service Award

Sonnenfeldt has also been honored by the governments of France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Sweden.