Henry A. (Heinz Alfred) Kissinger - People - Department History - Office of the Historian Henry A. (Heinz Alfred) Kissinger - People - Department History Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Henry A. (Heinz Alfred) Kissinger (1923–) Introduction Henry Alfred Kissinger was appointed Secretary of State on September 21 by President Richard M. Nixon and served in the position from September 23, 1973 to January 20, 1977. With his appointment, he became the first person ever to serve as both Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, a position he had held since President Nixon was sworn into office on January 20, 1969. However, on November 3, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford removed him from his National Security Adviser position while keeping him as Secretary of State. Henry A. Kissinger, 56th Secretary of State Rise to Prominence Kissinger was born as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Germany. After the Nazis seized power, state sanctioned anti-Semitism made life for the Kissinger family, which was Jewish, very difficult.

In 1938, Kissinger’s family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York, and Kissinger’s name was changed to Henry. During World War II, Kissinger became a naturalized citizen and served in the U.S. Army as a German interpreter. After the war, he attended Harvard University, earning a B.A. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1954. He stayed at Harvard to join the faculty and in 1957 he became the Associate Director of Harvard’s Department of Government and Center for International Affairs. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he served as a consultant to several government agencies, including the National Security Council’s Operations Coordinating Board, the Department of State, the Operations Research Office, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In 1968, President-elect Richard Nixon chose Kissinger to be his National Security Adviser. After working closely with Nixon during his first presidential term, Nixon decided to make an unprecedented move by appointing Kissinger as his new Secretary of State while also keeping him in the role of National Security adviser.

Influence on American Diplomacy Kissinger entered the State Department just two weeks before Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. The October War of 1973 played a major role in shaping Kissinger’s tenure as Secretary. First, he worked to ensure Israel received an airlift of U.S. military supplies. This airlift helped Israel turn the war in Israel’s favor, and it also led members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to initiate an oil embargo against the United States. After the implementation of a United Nation’s sponsored ceasefire, Kissinger began a series of “shuttle diplomacy” missions, in which he traveled between various Middle East capitals to reach disengagement agreements between the enemy combatants. These efforts produced an agreement in January 1974 between Egypt and Israel and in May 1974 between Syria and Israel. Additionally, Kissinger’s efforts contributed to OPEC’s decision to lift the embargo. On August 9, 1974, the Watergate scandal compelled President Nixon to resign, but Kissinger stayed on in his dual roles under President Gerald Ford.

Kissinger helped Ford acclimate to the international scene and both men worked to continue policies implemented by Nixon and Kissinger previously, including détente with the Soviet Union, establishing relations with the People’s Republic of China, and negotiations in the Middle East. Kissinger also played a major role in the negotiations leading to the August 1975 Helsinki Accord, an agreement signed by 35 countries and addressing many issues that promised to improve relations between East and West. In September 1975, Kissinger helped conclude a second disengagement agreement between Egypt and Israel that moved both countries closer to a peace agreement. Kissinger’s tenure as Secretary comprised many controversial issues, including his role in influencing U.S. policies towards countries such as Chile and Angola. Additionally, he engaged in new international issues such as law of the sea, which became more prominent for U.S. foreign policy in the decades ahead. Born 1923 Entry on Duty: September 22, 1973 Termination of Appointment: January 20, 1977 Served concurrently as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs until Nov 3, 1975.

Henry Kissinger Biography - life, family, school, information, born, college, house, time Henry Kissinger Biography Furth, Germany German-born American government official Aleading expert on international relations since the 1950s, Henry Kissinger was secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon (1913–1994) and Gerald Ford (1913–). His impressive career also includes becoming the cowinner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Early life and education Henry Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in Furth, Germany. He was the first of the two sons of Paula Stern Kissinger and Louis Kissinger. His father was a teacher who lost his job and career when the Nazis, carrying out the orders of Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), began persecuting (causing people to suffer for their beliefs) Jewish people in Germany. (The Nazi party was in control of the government of Germany from 1933 to 1945.) As a boy Kissinger loved sports but was a better student than athlete.

When German anti-Semitism (hatred of Jewish people) increased, the family decided to leave Germany in 1938, moving first to England and then several months later to the United States. The family settled in New York City, where Kissinger completed high school and began taking night classes at City College with the intention of becoming an accountant. While attending college he worked at a factory during the day. During World War II (1939–45; a war involving the United States and many other countries in the world in which millions of people lost their lives) Kissinger joined the military and served in Germany, working in Army Intelligence. He also became an American citizen during the war. Following the war Kissinger remained in Europe as an instructor at the European Command Intelligence School in Germany. In 1947 he returned to the United States and enrolled at Harvard University. He graduated in the class of 1950 with a degree in government. He continued his studies as a graduate student, earning his master's degree in 1952 and his Ph.D. in 1954, while also teaching at the university.

An expert on international affairs Between 1952 and 1969 Kissinger directed the Harvard International Seminar, a type of study in which advanced students, led by a professor, conduct research, share their findings, and contribute to discussions. The seminar was held during the summer months. In this position, he was visited by many international figures with whom he would later deal as a foreign-affairs official. As part of the Council on Foreign Relations he published Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, which added to his reputation as a leading expert on international relations and national defense policy. For eighteen months beginning in 1956 he was director of a Rockefeller Brothers Fund special studies project—a program developed to investigate possible domestic and international problems. In 1957 he became a lecturer (public speaker) at Harvard. He was promoted to professor in 1962. Kissinger served as a consultant (one who gives professional advice) to the National Security Council, to the Arms Control Disarmament Agency, and to the Rand Corporation. From 1962 to 1965 he worked full time at Harvard. In 1965 he became a consultant to the State Department on Vietnam.

He visited Vietnam several times between 1965 and 1967. Most of 1968 he spent working on the unsuccessful bid of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) for the Republican nomination for the presidency. In spite of Rockefeller's defeat by Richard Nixon, at Rockefeller's urging Nixon considered and appointed Kissinger to head the National Security Council. Kissinger did not agree with the U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union that had been developed under former presidents. He thought their positions had been inconsistent and too friendly. Kissinger viewed the Soviet Union as the main opponent of the United States in international affairs, but he had respect for the role of the Soviet Union as one of the superpowers. His attempts to ease tensions, known as détente (day-TAHNT), Henry Kissinger. AP/Wide World Photos . improved relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. As a result, one of Kissinger's early successes during this period of détente was the completion of talks on the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT). SALT was an agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States to limit the number of nuclear weapons in each country.

The discussions lasted for nearly three years and ended with the signing of an agreement in Moscow, Russia, by President Nixon and Soviet Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982). Kissinger also played an important part in the settlement of the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin, Germany, in September 1971. Berlin had been the source of problems between the East and West for many years, particularly after the creation of the Berlin Wall by the East German government in 1961 to prevent people from leaving the country. Through official negotiations (giveand-take discussions to settle an issue) handled by Ambassador Kenneth Rush (1910–1994), and secret negotiations directly involving Kissinger, an agreement was made to make it easier to travel between East and West Berlin. This agreement also improved relations between the United States and the former Soviet Union. China, Vietnam, Middle East Another of Kissinger's successes (and one that caught the media by surprise) was the organization of Richard Nixon's approach to China.

The United States had refused to recognize the People's Republic of China following the civil war that left Communists under Mao Zedong (1893–1976). Communists believe in revolution to establish a system in which the means of production—land, factories, mines, and so on—are owned by all people in common. Early in Nixon's first term as president, efforts were made to allow interaction between China and the United States. Taking advantage of international conditions and moving secretly with the help of Pakistani President Yahya Khan (1917–1980), Kissinger flew to China and arranged for an invitation for Nixon to make an official state visit. Nixon's visit to China in 1972 provided guidelines for the establishment of U.S.-China relations. During his eight years in the National Security Council and State Department, Kissinger flew to China a total of nine times. Kissinger was criticized most and forgiven least for his handling of the fighting in Southeast Asia. The U.S.

involvement in the Vietnam War (1955–75) had driven President Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973) from office, and it had been the desire of the Nixon administration to seek "peace with honor." The Vietnam War was a war in which the government of South Vietnam, with U.S. assistance, fought against a Communist takeover by North Vietnam. Kissinger's approach was to negotiate from a position of strength. The direct U.S. involvement in Vietnam reflected this position, but the secret bombing of Cambodia—referred to as the "secret war"—was criticized as an excessive use of military strength to force U.S. opponents to agree to end the war. All U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia was an attempt to keep Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos from becoming controlled by Communist groups. The secret bombing of Cambodia was eventually stopped by actions of Congress. Kissinger successfully negotiated a truce with his North Vietnamese counterpart Le Duc Tho (1911–1990) in Paris and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 with him.

Kissinger had gone along with the wishes of Secretary of State William Rogers (1913–2001) while on the National Security Council. Following his appointment as secretary of state in 1973, he changed his hands-off policy toward the Middle East. During the three years he was secretary of state, Kissinger conducted what became known as "shuttle" diplomacy (negotiations between nations). He served as the middleman in negotiations to restore peace among Middle Eastern nations. Kissinger would often fly from Egypt to Israel to Syria or elsewhere and back again as he worked to help develop agreements to secure peace. In all, Kissinger made eleven "shuttle" missions, the longest lasting nearly a month. Out of office After leaving office following Ford's loss to Jimmy Carter (1924–) in the 1976 presidential election, Kissinger was self-employed as the director of a consulting firm dealing with international politics. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest award given to a civilian (nonmember of a military, police, or fire-fighting unit), in 1977.

He also received the Medal of Liberty, an award that was given only once, in 1986, to ten foreign-born American leaders. Kissinger produced two books of memoirs (accounts of his experiences) to explain events that had happened while he was in office. These explanations did not change the views of many critics, who believed that Kissinger had made major mistakes in developing U.S. foreign policy. In 1997 former Secretaries of State Kissinger and Alexander Haig (1924–) came under fire for their roles in helping U.S.-China trade. Some said that they stood to profit from contracts with the Chinese and that some of their dealings put the United States in a vulnerable (open to attack or damage) position. In 2001 Kissinger was named chancellor (president) of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. For More Information Hersh, Seymour M. The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House. New York: Summit Books, 1983. Isaacson, Walter. Kissinger: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Kalb, Marvin, and Bernard Kalb.

Kissinger. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974. Kissinger, Henry. The White House Years. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Kissinger, Henry. Years of Upheaval. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. Kissinger, Henry. Years of Renewal. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. User Contributions: White House Staff - Cabinet - Administration Archives - Gerald R. Ford Foundation Don Rumsfeld Donald Rumsfeld served with Gerald R. Ford in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a four-term Congressman from Illinois. In the Nixon Administration, he served in the Office of Economic Opportunity, Counselor to the President, and as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO. President Ford appointed him as his White House Chief of Staff […] Henry Kissinger Henry Kissinger served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State to President Gerald R. Ford. He also served in both positions for President Richard Nixon. In 1973, Dr. Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1977, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Ford.

He is a Trustee of the Gerald […] Dick Cheney Dick Cheney served as Chief of Staff to President Gerald R. Ford. He was the youngest person in U.S. history to serve in that position. He served as the U.S. Congressman from the state of Wyoming from 1979 until 1989. President George H.W. Bush appointed him Secretary of Defense. Cheney served two terms as Vice […] Benton Becker Benton Becker played an important role in President Ford’s decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon in 1974. Becker is a former Department of Justice trial attorney and U.S. Attorney. He is also a Trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. Bob Barrett Robert Barrett served as the Army Military Aide to President Gerald R. Ford. After leaving the military, Barrett served for several years as former President Ford’s Chief of Staff. He is a Trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. Stu Spencer Stu Spencer is a political consultant who served as Deputy Chairman for Political Organization in the re-election campaign of President Gerald R. Ford. Stu Spencer was interviewed for the Gerald R.

Ford Oral History Project on December 2 & 3, 2008 by Richard Norton Smith. David Kennerly Prior to joining the Ford Administration, David Kennerly worked as the staff photographer for a number of newspapers and magazines, including Time magazine. In 1972 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for the photo collection he took while covering the Vietnam War. Kennerly was appointed as Personal Photographer to the President the day President […] David Mathews Forrest David Mathews served under President Gerald R. Ford as the 11th Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Mathews currently serves as president and CEO of the Kettering Foundation. He is a Trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. Mel Laird Mel Laird served with Gerald R. Ford in Congress for many years. Laird served as the Congressman from the 7th District from Wisconsin. He became Secretary of Defense under President Richard Nixon. President Ford awarded Laird the Medal of Freedom in 1974. After government service, he remained active and served on the board of directors […] Paul O’Neill Paul O’Neill served as President Gerald R. Ford’s Deputy Director of the Office Management and Budget.

After leaving the Ford Administration, he served as President of International Paper, Chairman of the Rand Corporation and President and CEO of Alcoa. He later served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush. He is […] Carla Hills Carla A. Hills was appointed by President Gerald R. Ford as the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. She was the third woman in U.S. history to hold a Cabinet position. Hills previously served President Ford as U.S. Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department […] Bill Coleman Bill Coleman served as Secretary of Transportation to President Gerald R. Ford. After leaving government, Coleman became a partner in the Washington office of O’Melveny & Myers law firm. Coleman was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. President George W. Bush appointed him to the United States Court of Military […] James Baker James Baker served as Undersecretary of Commerce for President Gerald R. Ford and ran the President Ford’s 1976 campaign. He later served as White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan. President George H.W.

Bush appointed him as Secretary of State and later as White House Chief of Staff. […] Red Cavaney Red Cavaney served as the Assistant to the President and Director of Scheduling and Advance for President Gerald R. Ford. He also served on the staff of Presidents Nixon and Reagan. After leaving government, Cavaney pursed a successful career in business and governmental affairs including becoming President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute and […] Gail Raiman Gail Raiman was a staff member in Gerald R. Ford’s congressional office. She would later join his White House staff. Gail Raiman was interviewed for the Gerald R. Ford Oral History Project on May 6, 2011 by Richard Norton Smith. David Gergen David Gergen served as Director of Communications for President Gerald R. Ford. David has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties including Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. Currently, he is a Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Kissinger, Henry (Alfred) - definition of Kissinger, Henry (Alfred) by The Free Dictionary Kissinger, Henry (Alfred) - definition of Kissinger, Henry (Alfred) by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia . Kis·sin·ger (kĭs′ĭn-jər), Henry Alfred Born 1923. German-born American diplomat who was national security adviser (1969-1975) and US secretary of state (1973-1977) under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for helping negotiate the Vietnam cease-fire. Kissinger (ˈkɪsɪndʒə) n (Biography) Henry (Alfred). born 1923, US academic and diplomat, born in Germany; assistant to President Nixon for national security affairs (1969–75); Secretary of State (1973–77): shared the Nobel peace prize 1973 Kis•sin•ger (ˈkɪs ən dʒər) n.

Henry A(lfred), born 1923, U.S. secretary of state 1973–77, born in Germany: Nobel peace prize 1973. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Kissinger Becomes Secretary of State - Short History - Department History - Office of the Historian Kissinger Becomes Secretary of State - Short History - Department History A Short History of the Department of State Kissinger Becomes Secretary of State During 1973, the Watergate scandal proved a major distraction to the nation and overshadowed any achievements President Nixon gained in foreign affairs. When the President focused on foreign policy, he was accused of trying to distract public attention from charges of abuse of power and avoiding the impeachment process. Disappointed by the Watergate scandal and tired of fighting bureaucratic battles, Secretary Rogers resigned on September 3, 1973. President Nixon named Kissinger as Secretary of State—in addition to his role as National Security Adviser. With one man doing both jobs, the problems that Rogers faced disappeared, but Kissinger at times found himself in an awkward position when, as National Security Adviser, he had to make judgments on the Department of State’s position.

Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger Many of Kissinger’s NSC staff moved to important positions in the Department, creating an inner circle within the agency. In 1973, Winston Lord became Director of the Policy Planning Staff, and Helmut Sonnenfeldt became Counselor. In 1975, Lawrence Eagleburger was confirmed as Under Secretary of State for Management, and Harold Saunders took over as the Director of Intelligence and Research. Kissinger was a very demanding Secretary of State; he was hard on his staff and hard on himself. He worked a brutal number of hours seven days a week, and he expected his aides to do the same. In the course of his tenure as Secretary of State, he flew 565,000 miles, making 213 visits to foreign countries. He once visited 17 countries in 18 days, and after the October 1973 war, Kissinger spent 33 consecutive days in the Middle East negotiating disengagement between Israel and Syria. Despite his self-admitted “merciless driving” of his staff, morale improved at the Department during his tenure as Secretary. Foreign Service officers and Civil Servants appreciated his conceptual abilities as a strategist.

They were also relieved that under his stewardship the Department of State was once again at the center of the foreign policy process. As Kissinger tackled all the complexities that faced a Secretary of State, he came to rely more and more upon the Department’s permanent staff. Because of growing Congressional and public disapproval of the fact that Kissinger was wearing two hats, he resigned as National Security Adviser in late 1975. Nixon’s successor, President Gerald R. Ford, named Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft, Kissinger’s deputy at the NSC, as National Security Adviser. The Ten Best Secretaries Of State… | American History Lives at American Heritage The Ten Best Secretaries Of State… Email When the first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, took office in 1790, his entire staff consisted of just six people, including himself and a part-time translator. The current Secretary presides over almost fifteen thousand employees scattered around the globe. During the intervening years, of course, the challenges facing Jefferson’s successors have changed dramatically as the infant republic has grown into a world power. Not long ago, David L.

Porter, associate professor of history at William Penn College in Oskaloosa, Iowa, became curious as to who had been the best and who the worst among them. A poll of diplomatic historians seemed the best way to find out. There were professional precedents for such a survey: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., twice asked historians to rank the nation’s Presidents, and Professors Roy M. Mersky and Albert Blaustein had more recently polled legal scholars as to the performance of Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Porter sent questionnaires to fifty of the nation’s leading diplomatic historians, asking each to nominate his candidates for the ten best—and five worst- Secretaries of State. All fifty-six secretaries from Jefferson to Edmund Muskie were eligible. Each nominee was to be assessed solely on his record in that office. Among the suggested criteria: the Secretary’s success in defining and achieving his diplomatic goals; the political and moral leadership he exerted on foreign affairs; the impact of his actions on the course of American history. Some historians did not respond, apparently feeling that there were too many imponderables to make such a poll legitimate.

But more than half the historians did respond, and we present their choices in descending order of preference. 1. John Quincy Adams, who served (1817-25) under President James Monroe, was the first choice of over 80 per cent of the respondents. Stern, cerebral, conscientious, and articulate, he negotiated the acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819 and collaborated with the President in formulating the Monroe Doctrine. 2. William H. Seward served (1861-69) Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He helped keep France and Britain from recognizing the Confederacy during the Civil War, persuaded France to withdraw her troops from Mexico after that war ended, and successfully engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. 3. Hamilton Fish served (1869-77) President Ulysses S. Grant.

Calm, judicious, and untainted by the corruption that permeated the Grant administration, he helped settle the thorny Alabama Claims controversy with Britain in 1871, directed negotiations that settled American claims against Spain, and signed a commercial reciprocity treaty with Hawaii in 1875, helping to pave the way for later annexation. 4. Charles Evans Hughes served (1921-25) Presidents Harding and Coolidge. He presided over the Washington Conference for Limitation of Armament (1921-22) that froze for a decade naval armament among the United States, Britain, and France, and he brought about the 1922 Nine Power Treaty, which called upon its signatories to maintain an Open Door policy toward China and respect her independence. 5. George C. Marshall served (1947-49) President Harry Truman. The first professional soldier ever to become Secretary—and the man who held the post for the shortest time among the top ten—he helped establish the postwar policy of containment.

He promulgated the Truman Doctrine that provided military aid for Greece and Turkey, developed the Marshall Plan for rebuilding postwar Europe, and helped foster the Organization of American States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 6. Dean Acheson, Marshall’s successor, also served (1949-53) President Truman. He helped create NATO, brought West Germany into the European defense system, and implemented a policy of armed intervention in Korea. 7. Henry Kissinger, our only foreign-born Secretary of State, served (1973-77) under Presidents Nixon and Ford. After four enormously influential years as Nixon’s special adviser on national security affairs, he sought, as Secretary, to relax tensions and promote trade with China and the Soviet Union and pioneered the art of “shuttle diplomacy,” traveling 560,000 miles in search of peace. 8. Daniel Webster, one of only two Secretaries of State to hold non-consecutive terms, served under three Presidents: William Henry Harrison and John Tyler (1841-43) and Millard Fillmore (1850-52).

He negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, averting war with Britain over Maine’s boundary, and asserted America’s right to recognize republican Hungary and other popular governments in Europe. 9. Thomas Jefferson served (1790-93) President George Washington. As our first Secretary of State he established a host of diplomatic and administrative precedents and, when war broke out between France and Britain in 1793, subsumed his own sympathy for the French Revolution to successfully administer a policy of strict neutrality. 1 Henry Kissinger Biography (U.S. Secretary of State) U.S. Secretary of State Best known as: U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford Name at birth: Heinz Alfred Kissinger Henry Kissinger was an advisor and Secretary of State to President Richard Nixon , and a key player during the Vietnam War. Henry Kissinger came to the United States from Germany in 1938. He served in the Army and was educated at Harvard University, where he then served on the faculty from 1954-71. In the Nixon administration, Kissinger served as the president's National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State.

Kissinger was the go-between in the secret negotiations that eventually opened relations between the U.S. and communist China. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his role in arranging a ceasefire in North Vietnam. In the 1980s and '90s Kissinger continued to write, lecture and appear on TV as a foreign affairs expert, but he also made the news when international human rights groups called him a war criminal for his role in the bombing of Cambodia and for propping up Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet . An elder statesman with international ties to business and politics, he is the chairman of Kissinger Associates in New York, a consulting firm for multinational corporations. In November of 2002 George W. Bush named Kissinger to head a government inquiry into the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The next month Kissinger stepped down, citing potential conflicts of interest with his private political consulting firm. Extra credit: Kissinger is supposed to have once said “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

Advertisement Advertisement Henry Kissinger | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet Henry Alfred Kissinger, who served as Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford , seemed to be the invisible president during those eight years. Foreign and domestic leaders sought him for guidance and advice or blamed him for the American policy failures. Born on May 27, 1923, in the Bavarian city of Fuerth , he was the second son of Paula (Stern) and Louis Kissinger. The elder Kissinger was a school teacher and after Hitler's rise to power, the family immigrated to London in 1938. After a short stay, they moved to Washington Heights in New York City . Kissinger attended high school at night and he worked in a shaving brush factory during the day. While attending City College of New York, in 1943, he was drafted into the Army and became a German interpreter for the 970th Counter-intelligence Corps. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, Kissinger held various positions in the military government. After his discharge, he went to Harvard, where he earned his B.A. Degree SUMMA CUM LAUDE in 1950.

He then went on to earn his M.A. and his Ph.D. by 1954. He used his doctoral thesis as a basis for his first book, A World Restored: Castlereagh, Metternich and the Problems of Peace (Boston, 1957), where he saw history as a struggle between revolutionary and conservative forces. By 1962, he became a professor at Harvard University and he associated himself with the Council on Foreign Relations and with Governor Nelson Rockerfeller. He wrote a book, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy (New York, 1957), in which he took the position that America's survival and victory depended not only on its strength, but also on its ability to recognize and fight aggression In all of its forms. The publication of this book established his reputation. When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, Kissinger was brought into the administration, later to become Secretary of State. During the presidencies of Nixon and Ford, he emerged as a very powerful man. Kissinger initiated shuttle diplomacy, played a major role in negotiating the Middle East peace treaty , and in negotiating a Vietnam peace treaty after many ups and downs in the fighting.

He initiated detente with the Russians and established relations with China. Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973. He shared this award with Le Duc Tho, a North Vietnamese peace negotiator. Henry Alfred Kissinger has always been the target of political criticism for he had the courage to follow-up on what he thought was the best course to take at the given time. Time will place Henry Alfred Kissinger in his proper place in American history. In 1977, President Gerald Ford awarded Kissinger the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the U.S.'s highest civilian honor. Sources: This is one of the 150 illustrated true stories of American heroism included in Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America : 150 True Stories of American Jewish Heroism , ï¿½ 1996, written by Seymour "Sy" Brody of Delray Beach, Florida, illustrated by Art Seiden of Woodmere, New York, and published by Lifetime Books, Inc., Hollywood, FL.

Henry Kissinger - Political Scientist, Diplomat - Biography.com Henry Synopsis Born on May 27, 1923, in Fürth, Germany, Henry Kissinger became a Harvard professor before assuming leadership in U.S. foreign policy. He was appointed secretary of state in 1973 by President Richard Nixon and co-won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Vietnam War's Paris accords. He was later critiqued for some of his covert actions at home and abroad. Kissinger is also a prolific author. Early Life Henry Kissinger was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in Fürth, a city in the Bavaria region of Germany. Kissinger's mother, Paula Stern, came from a relatively wealthy and prominent family, and his father, Louis Kissinger, was a teacher. Kissinger grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, and during his youth he spent two hours each day diligently studying the Bible and the Talmud. The interwar Germany of Kissinger's youth was still reeling from its defeat in World War I and the humiliating and debilitating terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

Such national emasculation gave rise to the intense German nationalism of Nazism, in which many Germans increasingly treated Germany's Jewish population as outsiders and scapegoats for their misfortunes. As a child, Kissinger encountered anti-Semitism daily. An avid soccer fan, he defied laws banning Jews from professional sporting events to attend matches, receiving several beatings at the hands of the stadium guards. He and his friends were also regularly abused by local gangs of Nazi youth. These experiences understandably made a lasting impression on Kissinger. One of his childhood friends said, "You can't grow up like we did and be untouched. Every day there were slurs in the streets, anti-Semitic remarks, calling you filthy names." Kissinger was a shy, introverted and bookish child. "He withdrew," his mother remembered. "Sometimes he wasn't outgoing enough, because he was lost in his books." Kissinger excelled at the local Jewish school and dreamed of attending the Gymnasium, a prestigious state-run high school. However, by the time he was old enough to apply, the school had stopped accepting Jews.

Sensing the impending tragedy of the Holocaust, his family decided to flee Germany for United States in 1938, when Kissinger was 15 years old. On August 20, 1938, the Kissingers set sail for New York City by way of London. His family was extremely poor upon arrival in the United States, and Kissinger immediately went to work in a shaving brush factory to supplement his family's income. At the same time, Kissinger enrolled at New York's George Washington High School, where he learned English with remarkable speed and excelled in all of his classes. One of his teachers later recalled of Kissinger, "He was the most serious and mature of the German refugee students, and I think those students were more serious than our own." Kissinger graduated from high school in 1940 and continued on to the City College of New York, where he studied to become an accountant. Time at Harvard In 1943, Kissinger became a naturalized American citizen and, soon after, he was drafted into the army to fight in World War II.

Thus, just five years after he left, Kissinger found himself back in his homeland of Germany, fighting the very Nazi regime from which he had once fled. He served first as a rifleman in France and then as a G-2 intelligence officer in Germany. Over the course of the war, Kissinger abandoned his plan to become an accountant and instead decided that he wanted to become an academic with a focus on political history. In 1947, upon his return to the United States, he was admitted to Harvard University to complete his undergraduate coursework. Kissinger's senior thesis, completed in 1950, was a 383-page tome that tackled a vast subject matter: the meaning of history. It became Harvard lore that his daunting manuscript which, though unrefined, showed flashes of brilliance, prompted Harvard to impose a rule limiting the length of future theses, but according to Walter Issacson’s 1992 biography, this “Kissinger Rule” is most likely a myth. Upon graduating summa cum laude in 1950, Kissinger decided to remain at Harvard to pursue a Ph.D. in the Department of Government.

His 1954 dissertation, A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822, examined the efforts of Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich to reestablish a legitimate international order in Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. Metternich proved a profound influence on Kissinger's own later conduct of foreign policy, most notably in his firm belief that even a deeply flawed world order was preferable to revolution and chaos. After receiving his doctorate in 1954, Kissinger accepted an offer to stay at Harvard as a member of the faculty in the Department of Government. Kissinger first achieved widespread fame in academic circles with his 1957 book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, opposing President Dwight Eisenhower's policy of holding out the threat of massive retaliation to ward off Soviet aggression. Instead, Kissinger proposed a "flexible" response model, arguing that a limited war fought with conventional forces and tactical nuclear weapons was, in fact, winnable. He served as a member of the Harvard faculty from 1954-69, earning tenure in 1959.

Washington Career However, Kissinger always kept one eye outside academia on policymaking in Washington, D.C. From 1961-68, in addition to teaching at Harvard, he served as a special advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on matters of foreign policy. Then in 1969, Kissinger finally left Harvard when incoming President Richard Nixon appointed him to serve as his National Security Advisor. As National Security Advisor from 1969-75, and then as Secretary of State from 1973-77, Kissinger would prove one of the most dominant, influential and controversial statesmen in American history. The great foreign policy trial of Kissinger's career was the Vietnam War. By the time Kissinger became National Security Advisor in 1969, the Vietnam War had become enormously costly, deadly and unpopular. Seeking to achieve "peace with honor," Kissinger combined diplomatic initiatives and troop withdrawals with devastating bombing campaigns on North Vietnam designed to improve the American bargaining position and maintain American credibility with its international allies and enemies. On January 27, 1973, Kissinger and his North Vietnamese negotiating partner Le Duc Tho finally signed a ceasefire agreement to end direct American involvement in the conflict.

Both men were honored with the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, although Duc declined, leaving Kissinger the sole recipient of the award. Nevertheless, Kissinger's handling of the Vietnam War was highly controversial. His "peace with honor" strategy prolonged the war for four years, from 1969-73, during which 22,000 American troops and countless Vietnamese died. Furthermore, he initiated a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia that ravaged the country and helped the genocidal Khmer Rouge take power there. In addition to ending the Vietnam War, Kissinger also accomplished a host of other foreign policy achievements. In 1971, Kissinger made two secret trips to the People's Republic of China, paving the way for President Nixon's historic visit in 1972 and the normalization of Chinese-American relations in 1979. Kissinger was also instrumental in bringing about the early 1970s détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1972, he negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, helping to ease tensions between the two Cold War superpowers.

When détente was threatened by the October 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel, an American ally, and Egypt, a Soviet ally, Kissinger proved crucial in leading diplomatic efforts to prevent the war from escalating into a global confrontation. Kissinger stepped down as secretary of state at the conclusion of the Ford administration in 1977. Since, then Kissinger has continued to play a major role in American foreign policy. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, and from 1984-90, under Presidents Reagan and Bush, he served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Kissinger founded the international consulting firm Kissinger Associates in 1982, and he serves as a board member and trustee to numerous companies and foundations. Kissinger has authored several books and countless articles on American foreign policy and diplomatic history. Henry Kissinger stands out as the dominant American statesman and foreign policymaker of the late 20th century. With his intellectual prowess and tough, skillful negotiating style, Kissinger ended the Vietnam War and greatly improved American relations with its two primary Cold War enemies, China and the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, Kissinger's ruthlessly pragmatic, sometimes Machiavellian tactics have earned him as many critics as admirers. The writer Christopher Hitchens, for example, has castigated Kissinger for bombing Cambodia, endorsing the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and orchestrating the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende. Regardless of whether they praise or despise him, commentators agree that the current international order is the product of Kissinger's policies. As Kissinger himself put it, "Only rarely in history do statesmen find an environment in which all factors are so malleable; before us, I thought, was the chance to shape events, to build a new world, harnessing the energy and dreams of the American people and mankind's hopes." Personal Life Kissinger is married to Nancy Maginnes. He has two children with his former wife, Ann Fleicher, whom he divorced in 1964. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information

Question: What German-born Secretary of State served under Presidents Nixon and Ford?
Answer: Henry Kissinger