Kissinger, Henry Alfred

1923 - born - May 27th - Furth, Germany

1938 - Kissinger's family emigrated to U.S. from Germany, to escape Nazis persecution in 1938

(naturalized US citizen 1943)

1943-46 - US Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, Military Intelligence (1946-49)

1949-1964 - Married to Ann Fleisher, they have son and daughter. 

1950 - BA, Harvard University (summa cum laude)

1952 - MA, Harvard University

1954 - PhD International Relations, Harvard University

1955-1971 - director of Defense Studies Program at Harvard University (on leave 1969-1971)

1965 - As the Vietnam War intensified, Kissinger was drawn deeply into efforts to end it. He undertook an important diplomatic mission for President Lyndon B. Johnson (1967), but his attempt to arrange a cease fire faltered when the U.S. government refused to promise an unconditional halt to bombing of all North Vietnam.

1969 - President Richard M. Nixon named him national security adviser in 1969; in September 1973, Kissinger was also confirmed as secretary of state, a position he held concurrently until November 1975, when President Gerald R. Ford appointed Brent Scowcroft national security adviser; Kissinger remained secretary of state until the end of Ford's administration in 1977.

1972 -  Time Man of the Year

1973 - Nobel Prize in Peace for negotiating end to Vietnam War

1974 - Married Nancy Maginnes

1985-1989 - Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

1986-96 - Member of the Board of American Express

1999 - Member of the Board of Gulfstream Aerospace

2002 - 1st chairman of 9/11 Commission

2002 - Writes and releases Vietnam: A Personal History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War (memoir)