page_title: Henry Kissinger
section_title: Awards, honors, and associations
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Kissinger / Awards, honors, and associations
caption_attribution_description: English: Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State and national security advisor for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, discusses the Vietnam War with LBJ Presidential Library director Mark Updegrove on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. Kissinger, who played a leading role in U.S. diplomatic and military policy during the Vietnam War, was the keynote evening speaker on the first day of the LBJ Presidential Library’s three-day Vietnam War Summit.
context_page_description: Henry Alfred Kissinger is an American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and U.S. Secretary of State in 1973. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances, with two members of the committee resigning in protest.
  A practitioner of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with the People's Republic of China, engaged in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East to end the Yom Kippur War, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War.
context_section_description: Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were jointly offered the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Paris Peace Accords which prompted the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam war. (Le Duc Tho declined to accept the award on the grounds that such "bourgeois sentimentalities" were not for him and that peace had not actually been achieved in Vietnam.) Kissinger donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony and would later offer to return his prize medal after the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese forces 18 months later.
  In 1973, Kissinger received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
  In 1976, Kissinger became the first honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
  On January 13, 1977, Kissinger received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.
  In 1980, Kissinger won the National Book Award in History for the first volume of his memoirs, The White House Years.
  In 1986, Kissinger was one of twelve recipients of the Medal of Liberty.
  In 1995, he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George.
  In 2000, Kissinger received the Sylvanus Thayer Award at United States Military Academy at West Point.
  In 2002, Kissinger became an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.
  On March 1, 2012, Kissinger was awarded Israel's President's Medal.
  In October 2013, Kissinger was awarded the Henry A. Grunwald Award for Public Service by Lighthouse International
  Kissinger was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.
  Kissinger is a member of the following groups:
  Aspen Institute
  Atlantic Council
  Bilderberg Group
  Bohemian Club
  Council on Foreign Relations
  Center for Strategic and International Studies
  Kissinger served on the board of Theranos, a health technology company, from 2014 to 2017.
  He received the Theodore Roosevelt American Experience Award from the Union League Club of New York in 2009.
  He became the Honorary Chair of the Advisory Board for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum  in 2018.
caption: Kissinger at the LBJ Library in 2016
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