Henry Kissinger Fact Sheet: Who was Henry Kissinger? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times and history of Henry Kissinger.

Henry Kissinger Fact File Biography: Lifespan: 1923 - Present *** Full Name: Heinz Alfred Kissinger *** Occupation: American Diplomat and Political Scientist *** Date of Birth: Henry Kissinger was born on May 27th 1923 *** Place of Birth: Henry Kissinger was born in Furth, Bavaria, Germany *** Family background: His father was Louis Kissinger had been a schoolteacher and his mother was Paula Stern who was a homemaker. The family were of German Jewish descent and the family fled Nazi persecution originally moving to London in England before travelling on to New York in 1938 *** Early life and childhood: He grew up with an older brother, Walter *** Education: Henry Kissinger attended George Washington High School before enrolling in the City College of New York ***

Henry Kissinger Fact 1: Henry Kissinger was born on May 27th 1923 and during the 20th century period in history when so many wonderful and terrible events shaped the world. World War I and World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War but also such marvels as advances in medicine, technology, travel, the expansion of car travel and air travel and a massive change within the industry of entertainment.

Henry Kissinger Fact 2: His first job in the America when he finished school was in a shaving brush factory while he attend night school.

Henry Kissinger Fact 3: However, his studies would be interrupted when he was drafted in the United States Army in 1943.

Henry Kissinger Fact 4: He completed his basic training at Camp Croft in South Carolina. At twenty years of age he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen and he was sent to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania to study engineering but they cancelled the program and instead he was sent to join the 84th Infantry Division.

Henry Kissinger Fact 5: Amongst the other recruits was a fellow immigrant, Fritz Kraemer who noticed Henry’s fluent German accent and made arrangements for Henry to be assigned to the military intelligence division.

Henry Kissinger Fact 6: He would see combat with his division and even volunteered for dangerous missions during the Battle of the Bulge.

Henry Kissinger Fact 7: Post war Henry returned to his studies and received his AB degree summa cum laude in political science as well as an MA and PhD degrees from Harvard College.

Henry Kissinger Fact 8: He stayed on at Harvard as a faculty member in the Department of Government. In 1955 he became the consultant to the National Security Council’s Operations Coordinating Board and the following year he became the study director in nuclear weapons as well as foreign policy at the Council for Foreign Relations.

Henry Kissinger Fact 9: Between 1956 and 1958 he went to work for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as the director of the Special Studies Project and between 1958 and 1971 he was Harvard Defense Studies Program director as well as director of the Harvard International Seminar.

Henry Kissinger Fact 10: During President Nixon’s administration Kissinger served as his National Security Advisor and his Secretary of State and would continue as Secretary of State in President Gerald Ford’s administration.

Henry Kissinger Fact 11: While working for Nixon as National Security Advisor he was the pioneer of the détente policy with the Soviet Union and he would negotiate the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Leonid Brezhnev who was the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

Henry Kissinger Fact 12: He would also be responsible for the formation of the tacit strategic anti-Soviet alliance between the United States and China thus ending the twenty three year hostilities.

Henry Kissinger Fact 13: Kissinger would play a key role in the work that would lead up to the Paris Peace Accords on “Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” for which Henry Kissinger would be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize even though peace had not actually been achieved.

Henry Kissinger Fact 14: Kissinger would be involved in many events globally including the Bangladesh War, the Israeli policy and Soviet Jewry, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Rhodesia and East Timor as well as Cuba in which Marine battalions were based at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.

Henry Kissinger Fact 15: In the 1976 presidential elections when Republican Gerald Ford was ousted by the Democratic Jimmy Carter, Kissinger decided to leave office although he continued to take part in political writing, speaking and consulting engagements.

Henry Kissinger Fact 16: During 2002 President George W. Bush appointed him as Chair of the newly established National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in order to investigate the attacks of September 11th although it was a position he held for a very short time because of potential conflict of interests.

Henry Kissinger Fact 17: He currently lives in Kent, Connecticut and in New York City with his second wife Nancy Maginnes with whom he has been married to since 1974 ten years after his marriage ended in divorce from Ann Fleischer with whom he had two children Elizabeth and David.

Influence & Legacy of Henry Kissinger: Kissinger’s legacy appears to be as yet undecided as to whether or not he has served his country to the best of his ability or whether he has been callous and careless.