“High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.”

American diplomat, political scientist, and politician

Henry Kissinger was an American diplomat, political scientist, and politician. Born in 1923 and active in the Republican Party, he served in senior U.S. foreign policy posts under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He was national security advisor from 1969 to 1975 and secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. His public life is tied to American diplomacy and strategy, and to the debates those roles continue to provoke.