“My view of my role is that together with like-minded men and women, I could help contribute to a bipartisan view of American engagement in the world for another period; I could do my part to overcome this really, in a way, awful period in which we are turning history into personal recriminations, depriving our political system of a serious debate.”

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.