Anecdotes

Portrayed by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live (1975)

Mentioned in a song by Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University

While in Russia negotiating the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) treaty, he jokingly suggested that perhaps the cameras in the chandelier overhead could duplicate a few pages that he needed copied.

Became the first foreign-born U.S. Secretary of State, and is tied with Madeleine Albright as being the highest U.S. cabinet position for any foreign-born U.S. politician.

Kissinger earned his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in political science from Harvard College in 1950, where he lived in Adams House and studied under William Yandell Elliott.

Though he has largely been identified as Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, he was only that for Nixon's last eleven months, he continued to serve that position under Gerald Ford. For most of the time before that, he was Nixon's National Security Advisor.

During Nazi rule, Kissinger and his friends were regularly harassed and beaten by Hitler Youth gangs.

In 2023, he received the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art from Minister-President of Bavaria Markus Söder.

In September 2023, Kissinger met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York City, on which occasion they discussed his change in position on Ukraine's NATO membership ambitions.

During 1955 and 1956, he was also study director in nuclear weapons and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He released his book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy the following year. The book, which criticized the Eisenhower Administration's massive retaliation nuclear doctrine, caused much controversy at the time by proposing the use of tactical nuclear weapons on a regular basis to win wars.

On April 3, 2020, Kissinger shared his diagnostic view of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it threatens the "liberal world order". Kissinger added that the virus does not know borders although global leaders are trying to address the crisis on a mainly national basis. He stressed that the key is not a purely national effort but greater international cooperation.

In 1973, Kissinger received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

He was given charge of a team in Hanover assigned to tracking down Gestapo officers and other saboteurs, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Kissinger's doctoral dissertation was titled Peace, Legitimacy, and the Equilibrium (A Study of the Statesmanship of Castlereagh and Metternich). Stephen Graubard, Kissinger's friend, was perhaps right in asserting that Kissinger primarily pursued such endeavor to instruct himself on the history of power play between European states in the 19th century.

During the American advance into Germany, Kissinger, though only a private (the lowest military rank), was put in charge of the administration of the city of Krefeld because of a lack of German speakers on the division's intelligence staff. Within eight days he had established a civilian administration. Kissinger was then reassigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), where he became a CIC Special Agent holding the enlisted rank of sergeant. Kissinger recalled that his experience in the army "made me feel like an American".

In 1976, Kissinger became the first honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

In 1980, Kissinger won the National Book Award in History for the first volume of his memoirs, The White House Years.

He's an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Henry Kissinger is a third cousin, twice removed, of actor Ben Barnes, as Henry is a third cousin of Ben's maternal grandfather, Emil Becker. Henry's great-great-grandfather, Meyer Loeb Kissinger, was Ben's great-great-great-great-grandfather. Henry and Ben are each descended from a different wife of Meyer's, Henry from Meyer's second wife and Ben from Meyer's first wife (his wives, Schoenlein David-Stahl and Marianne David-Stahl, were sisters).

While not a handsome man, he became an unlikely sex symbol during the 1970s, and was often photographed in public with models and film actresses.

Has received many awards, including Nobel Peace Prize (1973), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1965-1966), the Woodrow Wilson Prize for the best book in the fields of government, politics and international affairs (1958), the American Institute for Public Service Award (1973), the International Platform Association Theodore Roosevelt Award (1973), the Hope Award for International Understanding (1973), and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Medal (1973), the Bayerischer Verdienstorden (highest Bavarian state decoration) (14 July 2005).

U.S. National Security Adviser (1969-1975) and U.S. Secretary of State (1973-1977).

In a final statement a month before his death, Kissinger responded to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and outbreak of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, saying that the goals of Hamas "can only be to mobilize the Arab world against Israel and to get off the track of peaceful negotiations," and issued a statement denouncing Muslim immigration into Germany in response to celebrations of the attack by some Arabs in Germany. "It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts, because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that," Kissinger declared.

Kissinger described Diplomacy as his favorite game in a 1973 interview.

Due to his adherence to an approach to politics called Realpolitik, which prioritizes pragmatic geopolitical considerations over moral or ideological values, Kissinger has been criticized for turning a blind eye to war crimes committed by American allies during his tenure.

In 1946, Kissinger was reassigned to teach at the European Command Intelligence School at Camp King and, as a civilian employee following his separation from the army, continued to serve in this role.

Kissinger was an immensely beloved figure within China, with China News Service describing him in his obituary as someone "who had a sharp vision and a thorough understanding of world affairs".

In December 2016, Kissinger advised President-elect Donald Trump to accept "Crimea as a part of Russia" in an attempt to secure a rapprochement between the United States and Russia, whose relations soured as a result of the Crimean crisis. When asked if he explicitly considered Russia's sovereignty over Crimea legitimate, Kissinger answered in the affirmative, reversing the position he took in his Washington Post op-ed.

He has been widely considered by scholars to be an effective Secretary of State and condemned for turning a blind eye to war crimes committed by American allies due to his support of a pragmatic approach to politics called Realpolitik. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances.

Kissinger served on the board of Theranos, a fraudulent health technology company, from 2014 to 2017.

Played tennis with Jimmy Connors at producer Robert Evans' Beverly Hills estate, where he was a frequent VIP guest.

Subject of the book 'The Trial of Henry Kissinger' by Christopher Hitchens.

Was good friends to former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

Is portrayed by Theodore Bikel in The Final Days (1989), Paul Sorvino in Nixon (1995), and Ron Silver in Kissinger and Nixon (1995). Oddly, all three of these actors have predeceased Kissinger himself.

Due to his fame/impact in the 1970s, surveys/studies have found Kissinger to be the most famous U.S. politician, --apart from U.S. Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Presidential Candidates.

Kissinger was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.

In 2002, Kissinger became an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.[.

Dated Barbara Howar.

Has two children, Elizabeth and David.

Brother of Walter Kissinger.

Since his childhood, Kissinger had been a fan of his hometown's soccer club, SpVgg Fürth (now SpVgg Greuther Fürth). Even during his time in office, the German Embassy informed him about the team's results every Monday morning. He was an honorary member with lifetime season tickets. In September 2012 Kissinger attended a home game in which SpVgg Greuther Fürth lost, 0-2, against Schalke, after promising years previously that he would attend a Greuther Fürth home game if they were promoted to the Bundesliga, the top football league in Germany, from the 2. Bundesliga.

Daryl Grove characterized Kissinger as one of the most influential people in the growth of soccer in the United States. Kissinger was named chairman of the North American Soccer League board of directors in 1978.

In 1952, while still a graduate student at Harvard, he served as a consultant to the director of the Psychological Strategy Board,[34] and founded a magazine, Confluence. At that time, he sought to work as a spy for the FBI.

Following high school, Kissinger enrolled in the City College of New York, studying accounting. He excelled academically as a part-time student, continuing to work while enrolled. His studies were interrupted in early 1943, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

He became the Honorary Chair of the advisory board for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in 2018.

Passed away just ten days after former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter and just two days before former Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor (whom like Kissinger also made a big mark on American politics).