Born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923, in Furth, Germany, Kissinger was the son of a teacher who lost his job during the 1930s when the Nazi government persecuted Jews in Germany. The family, which included Kissinger's younger brother, Walter Bernhard, left Germany in 1938, moving first to England and then several months later to the United States. They settled in New York City. Kissinger attended high school for a year and then switched to night school so he could work during the day in a factory.

Kissinger served with the U.S. Army Intelligence during World War II (1939-45). After the war, he was a civilian instructor at the European Command Intelligence School in Oberammergau, Germany. He returned to the United States in 1947 to study at Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1950, a master's degree in 1952, and his Ph.D. in 1954. He began teaching...