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Secretary of State Henry Alfred Kissinger


Self Description

April 2008: "Henry Alfred Kissinger was sworn in on September 22, 1973, as the 56th Secretary of State, a position he held until January 20, 1977. He also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from January 20, 1969, until November 3, 1975. In July 1983 he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America until it ceased operation in January 1985, and from 1984-1990 he served as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. From 1986-1988 he was a member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council and Defense Department. He is currently a member of the Defense Policy Board.

At present, Dr. Kissinger is Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm. He is also a member of the International Council of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Chairman of the International Advisory Board of American International Group, Inc.; a Counselor to and Trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; an Honorary Governor of the Foreign Policy Association; and an Honor Member of the International Olympic Committee. Among his other activities, Dr. Kissinger is a member of the Board of Directors of ContiGroup Companies, Inc. and an Advisor to the Board of Directors of American Express Company. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Forstmann Little and Co.; a Trustee Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a Director Emeritus of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.; and a Director of the International Rescue Committee.

Among the awards Dr. Kissinger has received have been the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty (given one time to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986.

Dr. Kissinger was born in Fuerth, Germany, came to the United States in 1938 and was naturalized a United States citizen in 1943. He served in the Army from 1943 to 1946. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1950 and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954.

From 1954 until 1969 he was a member of the faculty of Harvard University, in both the Department of Government and the Center for International Affairs. He was Director of the Harvard International Seminar from 1952 to 1969.

Dr. Kissinger is the author of numerous books.

He has also published numerous articles on United States foreign policy, international affairs and diplomatic history. His column, syndicated by Tribune Media Services International, appears in leading newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. Kissinger is married to the former Nancy Maginnes and is the father of two children by a previous marriage."

http://www.henryakissinger.com/biography.html

Third-Party Descriptions

October 2001: "For most of the Cold War, this was understood: The United States backed the development policies of the World Bank, it pushed for democratization in such places as South Korea and the Philippines, and the State Department established its Office of Humanitarian Affairs in 1975, when arch-realist Henry Kissinger presided over it. If the Communist threat did not lead us to abandon a broad conception of foreign policy, surely the terrorist threat need not induce a fit of monomania."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31249-2001Oct21.html

October 2006: In his writing, speeches and private comments, Kissinger claimed that the United States had essentially won the war in 1972, only to lose it because of the weakened resolve of the public and Congress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000293.html

September 2006: Woodward writes that former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger has played a key role as an outside adviser to Bush on the Iraq war. Kissinger, according to Woodward, sees Iraq through the prism of his experience in the Nixon administration during the Vietnam War, and has counseled Bush to 'stick it out' and not even entertain the idea of withdrawing troops.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901527.html

October 2001: Born 1923 in Germany, refugee to US in 1938. Prof. of international relations at Harvard, Advisor on national security to Pres. Richard Nixon, later Secretary of State under Nixon and Pres. Gerald Ford. Won 1973 Nobel Prize for negotiating cease-fire with North Vietnam. http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1973/kissinger-bio.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) American Express Company Organization Apr 1, 2008
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) American International Group Inc. (AIG) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) ContiGroup Companies (CGC) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Forstmann Little and Co Organization Apr 1, 2008
Student/Trainee (past or present) Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Harvard University Organization Apr 1, 2008
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) International Rescue Committee, The (IRC) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) JPMorgan Chase & Co. Organization Apr 1, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Founder/Co-Founder of Kissinger Associates, Inc. (KAI) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Kissinger McLarty Associates Organization Mar 11, 2005
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Metropolitan Museum of Art Organization Apr 1, 2008
Member of (past or present) President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, The (PFIAB) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) State Department/Department of State (DOS) Organization Apr 1, 2008
Cooperation (past or present) Tribune Media Services (TMS) Source Apr 1, 2008
Member of (past or present) US Army Organization Apr 1, 2008
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) US Federal Government - Executive Branch Organization
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) President George W. Bush Person Oct 1, 2006
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Vice President Richard ("Dick") B. Cheney Person Oct 1, 2006
Colleague/Co-worker of (past or present) Supervisor of (past or present) Lawrence S. Eagleburger Person Apr 14, 2008
Subordinate of (past or present) President Gerald R. Ford Person Apr 1, 2008
Research/Analysis Subject Mr. Walter Isaacson Person Nov 30, 2011
Subordinate of (past or present) Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) President Richard M. Nixon Person Apr 1, 2008
Supervisor of (past or present) Joseph J. Sisco Person Jul 25, 2008
Supervisor of (past or present) Frank G. Wisner Person Jul 25, 2008

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 29, 2008 The Beautiful Machine: Greed on Wall Street and blindness in Washington certainly helped cause the financial system's crash. But a deeper explanation begins 20 years ago [...] Part 1 of 3

QUOTE: Over the past two decades, their enterprise, AIG Financial Products, evolved into an indispensable aid to such investment banks as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, as well as governments, municipalities and corporations around the world....the story of Financial Products is not about math and financial formulas. It is a parable about people who thought they could outwit competitors and market forces alike, and who behaved as though they were uniquely positioned to sidestep the disasters that had destroyed so many financial dreams before them.

 Washington Post
May 24, 2008 Food Costs Push Bangladesh to Brink of Unrest

QUOTE: Frustrations over inflation have become increasingly common here, particularly among garment workers such as Dulalmia who, while never well off, had at least managed to feed themselves. Many now fear, however, that those frustrations could ultimately undermine the stability of the entire country, one of the world's poorest.

 Washington Post
Jun 06, 2007 Judge orders jail time for Libby in CIA leak case: The former White House aide was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in jail, plus a fine of $250,000.

QUOTE: Libby's lawyers had asked for probation for their client, who in March was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in the 2003 outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Instead, US District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Libby to 2-1/2 years in jail, plus a fine of $250,000.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jun 06, 2007 Libby Given 30 Months for Lying in C.I.A. Leak Case

QUOTE: I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and one of the principal architects of President Bush’s foreign policy, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison for lying during a C.I.A. leak investigation...If Mr. Libby goes to prison, he will be the first senior White House official to do so since the days of Watergate.

 New York Times
Oct 01, 2006 STATE OF DENIAL

QUOTE: There was a vast difference between what the White House and Pentagon knew about the situation in Iraq and what they were saying publicly. But the discrepancy was not surprising. In memos, reports and internal debates, high-level officials of the Bush administration have voiced their concern about the United States' ability to bring peace and stability to Iraq since early in the occupation.

 Washington Post
Sep 30, 2006 Book Says Top Aide Urged Bush to Fire Rumsfeld

QUOTE: Former White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. on two occasions tried and failed to persuade President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld....Card left the administration in March, convinced that Iraq would be compared to Vietnam and that history would record that no senior administration officials had raised their voices in opposition to the conduct of the war.

 Washington Post
Aug 21, 2006 Cold War Missiles Target of Blackout: Documents Altered To Conceal Data

QUOTE: "It would be difficult to find more dramatic examples of unjustifiable secrecy than these decisions to classify the numbers of U.S. strategic weapons," wrote William Burr..."The Pentagon is now trying to keep secret numbers of strategic weapons that have never been classified before."

 Washington Post
Dec 18, 2005 The Restless Children of the Dalai Lama

QUOTE: Pictures of Ngodup in flames are ubiquitous in Dharamsala, the town in the Himalayan foothills of northern India that has served as the capital of the Tibetan exile community since 1960. He is a martyr and hero to a new generation of Tibetans born and educated in India - a generation that is beginning to call into question the longstanding Western idea of the Tibetans as devout Buddhists, willing to embrace only the quietest ways of protest and political engagement. They speak of Ngodup as the kind of freedom fighter Tibet urgently needs: someone who acts out of his own feelings and conviction, rejecting the passivity required of him by the Tibetan leadership.

 New York Times
Feb 27, 2005 A Plot Thickens: Three Decades After Chile's Right-Wing Coup, Historians Have Yet to Dot All the i's. But One Thinks He May Have Crossed a K.

QUOTE: Did the [Council on Foreign Relations--Ed.] cave to pressure from Kissinger and his allies and stop Maxwell's writings about Chile?

 Washington Post
Oct 09, 2002 U.S. Presses for Total Exemption From War Crimes Court

QUOTE: The United States hopes to sign agreements with 190 countries exempting all Americans from the reach of the court in their territories.

 New York Times
Sep 28, 2002 Six Degrees of Preemption

QUOTE: ...the merits, risks, consequences and significance of the president's new national security doctrine [of preemption], which some have called the most profound shift in U.S. foreign policy in the last 50 years.

 Washington Post
Aug 27, 2002 Cheney Says Peril of a Nuclear Iraq Justifies an Attack

QUOTE: Vice President Dick Cheney today presented the administration's most forceful and comprehensive rationale yet for attacking Iraq, warning that Saddam Hussein would "fairly soon" have nuclear weapons.

 New York Times
Oct 22, 2001 Practical Idealism

QUOTE: Realists hold that foreign policy is about relations between nation states, not about the political, economic or human-rights conditions within particular countries. Meddling in other nations' internal affairs only invites conflict....How useful is Rice's recommended focus now? The United States is at war not with a great power but with a transnational network.

 Washington Post
May 19, 2001 Africa On the Agenda

QUOTE: Skeptics may see American politics as one reason for the interest in Africa. I prefer to see a chance for this country, especially Colin Powell, to help resolve the profound problems afflicting that vast continent.

 New York Times