Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski dies at 89
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Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter talks with Zbigniew Brzezinski, July 29, 1976
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President-elect Jimmy Carter talks with his new appointees, Dec. 17, 1976
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Zbigniew Brzezinski, Pres. Carter and China’s Huang Chen meet, Feb. 8, 1977
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Zbigniew Brzezinski, Walter Mondale and Cyrus Vance chat, July 19, 1977
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Zbigniew Brzezinski chats with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, July 20, 1977
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Zbigniew Brzezinski, Oct. 29, 1977
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Zbigniew Brzezinski, first lady Rosalynn Carter and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński meet on Dec. 30, 1977
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Zbigniew Brzezinski during talks with Iran, Dec. 31, 1977
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Zbigniew Brzezinski and Stansfield Turner, Jan. 24, 1978
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Zbigniew Brzezinski with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Oct. 3, 1978
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Zbigniew Brzezinski and Pres. Carter greet members of the Egyptian delegation, Oct. 11, 1978
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Zbigniew Brzezinski toasts with China’s Chai Tse-Min, Jan. 2, 1979
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Pres. Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance, Feb. 14, 1979
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Pres. Carter, Cyrus Vance and Zbigniew Brzezinski, March 2, 1979
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Pres. Jimmy Carter, Cyrus Vance and Zbigniew in Egypt, March 9, 1979
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Zbigniew Brzezinski speaks at a news briefing, May 11, 1979
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The American and at right the Soviet delegation meet, June 17, 1979
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Zbigniew Brzezinski and his aide Jerrold Schecter jog, Aug. 6, 1979
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Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance chat, Sept. 11, 1979
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Zbigniew Brzezinsk attends a dinner, Sept. 17, 1979
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Zbigniew Brzezinski looks on as Pres. Carter faces reporter, Dec. 28, 1979
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Sen. Claiborne Pell, left, talks with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Sept. 17, 1980
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Zbigniew Brzezinski prepares for a TV appearance, April 27, 1980
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Zbigniew Brzezinski receives the Medal of Freedom, Jan. 17, 1981
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Zbigniew Brzezinski is interviewed, March 26, 1981
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Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping talks with Zbigniew Brzezinski, July 19, 1981
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Pope John Paul II shakes hands with Zbigniew Brzezinski, April 18, 1983
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Zbigniew Brzezinski rides an elephant, April 15, 1984
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Zbigniew Brzezinski speaks, March 1989
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Zbigniew Brzezinski and retired Army General Wesley Clark on Capitol Hill, Sept. 13, 2006
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Brent Scowcroft, left, and Zbigniew Brezezinski arrive on Capitol Hill, March 5, 2009
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Zbigniew Brzezinski testifies on Capitol Hill, Jan. 21, 2015
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Zbigniew Brzezinski and Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Oslo, Dec. 11, 2016
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish Polish-born Cold War strategist and former top aide to US president Jimmy Carter, has died, his family said. He was 89.
“My father passed away peacefully tonight,” MSNBC journalist Mika Brzezinski said on Instagram late on Friday.
“He was known to his friends as Zbig, to his grandchildren as Chief and to his wife as the enduring love of her life. I just knew him as the most inspiring, loving and devoted father any girl could ever have,” she wrote.
Born in Warsaw to a diplomat father, Brzezinski moved with his family to Canada in the late 1930s. He went on to attend McGill University in Montreal then earned a doctorate from Harvard, later becoming a US citizen.
After serving under president Lyndon Johnson, he went on to become Carter’s national security adviser during the Iranian hostage crisis.
He was a driving force behind the failed US commando mission to rescue the hostages, after which he resigned. He believed Soviet influence would sweep through Iran if US strength did not prevail in the drama.
Nominally a Democrat, he leaned conservative on security matters. A tough critic of the Soviet Union, he also helped broker the Camp David accords and worked on normalizing relations with China.
Though a rigorous anti-communist, he held that US interests around the world should be addressed in terms of strategy and practicality, not ideology. (AFP)
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