Henry Kissinger rose to prominence in the late 1960s and into the
1970s, when he established himself as one of the most influential people
in international affairs.
Heinz Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923, in Germany. His Jewish
family fled Germany in 1938, just before the Holocaust. They initially
found safety in London, England, but immigrated to the United States
several months later. Kissinger became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943.
Young Kissinger changed his first name to Henry upon arriving in
New York City. There he worked during the day to help support his family and attended high school at night. He studied accounting at the City
College of New York in 1941 and was drafted into World War II
(1939–45) in 1943. After the war, he took a teaching job at the
European Command Intelligence School.
Enters politics
Kissinger returned to America and entered Harvard University as a sophomore on several scholarships in 1947. He eventually received a doctorate
in 1954. He accepted a job teaching at Harvard that same year and was a
lecturer from 1957 to 1959. From 1959 to 1962, he was an associate professor; from 1962 to 1971, he was a professor of government. He served
Harvard as a faculty member in the Center for International Affairs from
1957 to 1971 and was director of the Defense Studies Program from 1958
to 1971. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Kissinger was an unofficial
advisor to the administrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969;
served 1953–61), John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63), and
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973; served 1963–69). During these years,
he wrote and published books on policy.
Kissinger was an advisor and speechwriter for presidential candidate
Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) in 1968. Although Rockefeller did not win the Republican nomination, he recommended Kissinger to
President Richard Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74) and suggested
he be named director of the National Security Council. It was in this position that Kissinger became more influential than even some of the senior cabinet members. While director, he also served as special assistant to
the president. In this capacity, he conducted secret negotiations with
North Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union. While his Republican colleagues wanted the United States to be the dominant superpower in
global relations, Kissinger sought more of a balance of power in the
hopes of maintaining stable international relations.
Kissinger’s theory worked well, and he was instrumental in bringing
the Vietnam War (1954–75) to an end. In 1973, he shared the Nobel
Peace Prize with Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho (1911–1990).
After Nixon was reelected in 1973, he named Kissinger his secretary
of state. The Arab-Israeli War erupted that same year, and Kissinger was
immediately thrust into the conflict. Although he had previously remained neutral regarding Middle Eastern conflicts, he became integrally
involved as secretary of state. He visited diplomats and government officials often in Egypt, Syria, and Israel to help those leaders wage peace.
Even after Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal,
Kissinger stayed on as secretary of state for President Gerald R. Ford
(1913–2006; served 1974–77).
After the White House
Kissinger left his position in the federal government after Ford was defeated in his bid for reelection by Jimmy Carter (1924–; served
1977–81) in 1976. Kissinger established his own consulting firm and
took a post as professor of diplomacy in the School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He served as a paid senior
fellow at the Aspen Institute, an advisor to Goldman Sachs brokerage
firm, and a consultant to Chase Manhattan Bank. He also toured the
country as a lecturer.
Although busy with these responsibilities, Kissinger longed to be involved in government again. He served as an unofficial advisor to
President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; served 1981–89) and was believed to be the mastermind behind Reagan’s Middle East policy. Despite
the absence of an official title, Kissinger traveled to China and met with
the country’s leaders. This led to criticism in the 1990s, however, when some reporters accused Kissinger of using his political clout to forge ties
for clients of his private firm.
In addition to writing books on policy, Kissinger has written three
memoirs chronicling his years with Nixon and Ford. These autobiographies provide details of the inside workings of contemporary history, and
two of them were on the best-seller list. There had never before been a
foreign policy maker with the level of power and influence Kissinger
enjoyed, and there has not been one since. Even his critics recognize his
genius.
Kissinger married Ann Fleischer in 1949, and he and his wife had a
son and daughter. The couple divorced in 1964. In 1974, he married
Nancy Maginnes. Although still consulted from time to time in politics
even in the twenty-first century, Kissinger largely remained uninvolved,
although he did endorse Republican candidate John McCain (1936–)
for president in the 2008 election.