How the strategist-turned-consultant ushered in a half-century of American darkness.
With Henry Kissinger’s death, a more honest evaluation of his life and legacy becomes possible. Far from the image of a master strategist, Kissinger was an improviser. His sophisticated persona, shaped by his early years in Nazi Germany, concealed deeply held racist beliefs, such as his derogatory remarks about Indigenous peoples. His refined Old World accent, cultivated after fleeing Germany as a teenager in 1938, thickened over time, hinting at his true nature.
Kissinger, though often portrayed as a calm and calculating intellect, was in fact a temperamental figure, even within the emotional chaos of Richard Nixon’s White House. Nixon himself remarked in 1971, “That poor fellow is an emotional fellow,” and his adviser John Ehrlichman suggested that Kissinger simply needed psychotherapy. His temper tantrums, jealous rages, and bouts of depression often frustrated Nixon and his staff, according to historian Barbara Keys.
But the most enduring myth of Kissinger’s career was his supposed realpolitik. Rather than being a cool-headed diplomat, his brand of political realism was deeply tied to the projection of American military power. His legacy, shaped in the decades after he left public service in the 1970s, recast his impulsive actions as necessary for creating a more orderly world—despite the chaos they often caused.
Kissinger’s influence in the White House began in 1969 when he was appointed national security adviser by Nixon. From his first day, he sought to remake the bureaucratic structure of American foreign policy, consolidating power in his own hands. His appointment was itself surprising, given his previous role as a foreign policy advisor to the liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller, who had been defeated by Nixon in the 1968 primaries. Despite his public doubts about Nixon during the campaign, Kissinger maneuvered his way into a central role in Nixon’s administration.
