Henry Alfred Kissinger (b.1923) is a German-born American diplomat and academic. As national security adviser (1969–75) and secretary of state (1973–77) under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Kissinger put into practice a significant reorientation of American foreign policy.
Born of in Fürth, Bavaria, Kissinger left Adolf Hitler’s Germany in 1938 and became an American citizen five years later. After serving in the U.S. Army as a sergeant, he attended Harvard and became a professor of government.
As America’s principal diplomat overseas, Kissinger helped to improve relations with both China and the Soviet Union. He negotiated the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam, an effort that won him the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. He later restored diplomatic relations with Egypt following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Kissinger has since served as a consultant and a respected commentator on international affairs. He has published two volumes of memoirs, The White House Years (1979) and Years of Upheaval (1982,) and many other books including Diplomacy (1995) and World Order (2015.)
Kissinger’s diplomacy during the Vietnam War and the covert American bombing of Cambodia (1969–70) that led to a catastrophic civil war are very controversial. Anglo-American journalist Christopher Hitchens published The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001) denouncing Kissinger as a war criminal. Hitchens also alleged that Kissinger contributed to politically-motivated mass murders in Chile, Cambodia, East Timor, and elsewhere.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Henry Kissinger
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Absence, Decisions
The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it’s their fault.
—Henry Kissinger
If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Politicians, Politics
The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Anxiety, Fear, War, Reality, Opportunities
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Leadership, Leaders
We cannot always assure the future of our friends; we have a better chance of assuring our future if we remember who our friends are.
—Henry Kissinger
Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Power
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Reputation, Politicians, Politics
The true conservative is not at home in social struggle. He will attempt to avoid unbridgeable schism, because he knows that a stable social structure thrives not on triumphs but on reconciliations.
—Henry Kissinger
The most fundamental problem of politics, which is not the control of wickedness but the limitation of righteousness.
—Henry Kissinger
There can’t be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
—Henry Kissinger
Topics: Crises
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