Henry Kissinger

About the author

Henry Alfred Kissinger (1923–2023) was one of the most consequential and controversial figures in twentieth-century American foreign policy. Born in Fürth, Germany, he fled Nazi persecution as a Jewish refugee in 1938, later serving in the U.S.

Army before earning academic distinction at Harvard, where he became a professor of government. As national security advisor and secretary of state under Nixon and Ford, he championed Realpolitik, pioneering détente with the Soviet Union, opening relations with China, and negotiating the Paris Peace Accords — earning the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. His legacy remains deeply contested.