Henry Alfred Kissinger (born May 27, 1923) is an American diplomat who played an important part in foreign affairs via his role in several Republican administrations between 1968 and 1976.

Kissinger was born in Fuerth, Germany. In 1938, fleeing Hitler's persecution of Jews, his family came to New York City; Kissinger was naturalized a United States citizen on June 19, 1943.

He spent his high school years in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan, but has never lost his pronounced German accent. 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.

Henry Kissinger received the BA Degree Summa ***** Laude at Harvard College in 1950. Urban legend has it Kissinger is the only person to receive a perfect grade point average from Harvard, but in fact received one 'B' senior year. He received the MA and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University in 1952 and 1954 respectively. His doctoral dissertation was titled A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-22.

Politically ambitious, he cultivated relations with Nelson Rockefeller. When, in 1968, it became clear that Richard Nixon would be elected President, Kissinger became an advisor to Nixon.

But both men were loners, shy and introverted, who liked to think of themselves as cool and masterful strategic thinkers. Both men idealized "strength" and despised weakness.

While working for Nixon, Kissinger established the policy of detente with the Soviet Union. He also negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (culminating in the SALT I treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. In July and October of 1971, Kissinger made two secret trips to the People's Republic of China to confer with Zhou Enlai and set the stage for the groundbreaking summit undertaken by Richard Nixon in 1972, and the normalization of relations between the PRC and the United States.

He was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize along with Le Duc Tho of Vietnam, for his work on the Vietnam peace accords. Kissinger and Nixon had come to office in 1968 on a promise of a quick end to the Vietnam War, but the intervening years saw an escalation in conflict as well as its extension to an illegal bombing campaign (overseen by Kissinger) in Laos and Cambodia. Tho refused the prize rather than share it with Kissinger, and the satirical musician Tom Lehrer famously said "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."

Kissinger served as the Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977 in the Nixon (1973-1974) and Ford administrations.

Kissinger may have played a role in the September 11, 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet against the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende. Documentary evidence shows CIA involvement throughout the coup, but Kissinger says he reversed his initial position supporting a coup well before it happened.

Despite the occasional allegation of planning a shady plot in a foreign country, Kissinger was largely popular with the public, becoming one of the better liked members of the increasingly unpopular Nixon administration. Kissinger had little involvement with the Watergate scandal that would eventually bring down Nixon and many of his closest aides- a fact which greatly increased Kissinger's reputation as the "clean man" of the bunch. At the height of his popularity he was even regarded as somewhat of a sex symbol, and was seen dating starlets like Jill St. John, Shirley MacLaine and Candice Bergen.

When Nixon resigned in 1974 Kissinger remained Secretary of State under new President Gerald Ford.

In December of 1975, Kissinger and Ford met with General Suharto of Indonesia, approving his invasion of East Timor, which led to the massacre of 200,000 Timorese. Until the release of documents confirming his foreknowledge of the invasion, Kissinger claimed that he was unaware of Suharto's intentions when he left Jakarta.

Following the Ford Administration, he played a relatively minor role in subsequent governments (perhaps, some have alleged, due to a bad relationship with George Bush), although he continued to participate in policy groups such as the Trilateral Commission and do political consulting, speaking, and writing.

In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Kissinger to chair a committee to investigate the events of the September 11 attacks. His appointment led to widespread criticism, generally taken from the position that Kissinger has never been supportive of the public's right to know, but also from the position that Kissinger is viewed by some as a war criminal in his own right (see "Accusations Against Henry Kissinger", below).

In response, Congressional Democrats insisted that Kissinger file financial disclosures to reveal any conflicts of interest. Both Bush and Kissinger claimed that Kissinger did not need to file such forms, since he would not be receiving a salary. When the Democrats insisted, however, Kissinger resigned from the commission. On December 13, 2002 he stepped down as the chairman of a panel citing conflict of interest with his clients.

With his first wife, Ann Fleischer, he had two children, Elizabeth and David. He currently lives with his second wife, the former Nancy Maginnes, in Kent, Connecticut. He currently is the head of Kissinger and Associates, a consulting firm.