Henry Kissinger Biography

Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State and advisor 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.

Dr. Kissinger 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 became 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  September 11, 2001. The next month Kissinger stepped down, citing potential conflicts of interest with his private political consulting firm.