(born 1923) National security advisor and Secretary of State during the Nixon administration.

Born in Germany he fled Nazi persecution of the Jews in 1938, and, after the war, became a foreign policy and defense studies expert at Harvard University. Kissinger made a name for himself as a hawk, advocating a hard line towards the Soviet Union and other communist nations. During the Vietnam War, he pushed for the bombing of Cambodia, but also led the negotiations with the North Vietnamese—for which he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In the year prior to his appointment as Secretary of State in 1973, he advocated a policy of détente, and continued on this path until Gerald Ford’s defeat in 1976 terminated his diplomatic career.