Kissinger, Henry

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Henry Kissinger

Born May 27, 1923

Füurth, Germany

U.S. secretary of state and foreign policy expert

"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full."

Henry Kissinger, who immigrated to the United States as a teenager, was one of the most powerful American officials during the presidencies of Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74) and Gerald R. Ford (1913–; served 1974–77). He is widely credited with negotiating an end to the Vietnam War (1954–75), as well as opening a new era of improved relations with the Soviet Union (a country made up of fifteen republics, the largest of which was Russia, that in 1991 became independent states) and the People's Republic of China. Critics of Kissinger, however, also blamed him for supporting the brutal anticommunist policies of governments in South America that resulted in violations of human rights. Kissinger, who came to the United States as a child refugee from Nazi Germany in 1938, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his work in ending the Vietnam War.

Beginnings in Germany

Alfred Heinz (Henry) Kissinger was born in Füurth, Germany, in 1923, the son of a Jewish schoolteacher. In 1933, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) came to power in Germany, partly on the strength of the party's strong anti- Jewish program.

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