Henry Kissinger was born in the Bavarian city of Fuerth. He was a son of Louis and Paula Stern Kissinger. The elder Kissinger was a school teacher and after Hitler's rise to power, the family immigrated to London in 1938. After a short stay, they moved to Washington Heights in New York City. Recruited by Fritz Kraemer during WWII. Served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps 1943-1946. According to Hersh, Kissinger stayed on active duty in West Germany after the war and was eventually assigned to the 970th CIC Detachment, whose functions included support for the recruitment of ex-Nazi intelligence officers for anti-Soviet operations inside the Soviet bloc. Captain in the Military Intelligence Reserve 1946-1949. Went to Harvard in 1947, where he was picked by the Rockefellers, three of whom were overseers there at the time. Executive director Harvard International Seminar 1951-1969. Became an consultant to the Operations Research Office in 1951. According to Hersh, that unit, under the direct control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducted highly classified studies on such topics as the utilization of former German operatives and Nazi partisan supporters in CIA clandestine activities. Became a consultant to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board in 1952, a covert arm of the National Security Council. The first director (and primary founder) was Gordon Gray, who served in this position from June 1951 to May 1952. Under Eisenhower, on September 2, 1953, the role of this department was expanded and the name became Operations Coordinating Board (OCB). Became an consultant to the Operations Coordinating Board in 1955, which was then the highest policy-making board for implementing clandestine operations against foreign governments. JFK would abolish the OCB in 1961 although a similar unacknowledged structure would remain operational. Became known as the most trusted aide to Nelson Rockefeller in the mid 1950s, who by then had served as Eisenhower's Special Assistant for Cold War Planning and overseer of all the CIA's clandestine operations. Member of the Department of Government, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1954-1969. Study director of nuclear weapons and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations 1955-1956. Director Special Studies Project for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund 1956-1958, which worked out basic cold war policy manifestoes (hardline). They were in large part adopted by successive administrations in Washington. Author of 'Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy', released in 1957. Consultant Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1959-1960. Consultant National Security Council 1961-1962. Consultant RAND Corporation 1961-1968. Consultant United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 1961-1968. Consultant to the Department of State 1965-1968. Right-hand man to Nelson Rockefeller during the 1968 Republican nomination campaign. Nixon's National Security Advisor 1969-1973. Chairman of the secretive Forty Committee, the covert apparatus of the National Security Council, from at least 1969 to 1976, which oversaw the CIA's clandestine operations. Nelson Rockefeller, even in his Senate bio, has been named as an (earlier) chairman of the Forty Committee. As head of this committee Kissinger had access to more information than the other members and he is said to have distorted it at times. During this same time period Kissinger also set up and headed the Washington Special Action Group (WSAG), another very important foreign policy group. Committee Secretary of State 1973-1977. Made two secret trips to China in 1971 to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai. Together with David Rockefeller involved in setting up the National Council for US-China Trade in 1973. Negotiated the SALT I and ABM treaty with the Soviet Union. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Made other secret trips to China in later years to make extremely sensitive intelligence exchanges. Robert C. McFarlane was among those who went to China with Kissinger, in his case between 1973 and 1976. Negotiated the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Said to have played a role in the 1973 Augusto Pinochet coup. Approved President Suharto's invasion of East-Timor in 1973, which resulted in a bout 250,000 dead communists and socialists. Suspected of having been involved in Operation Condor which started around 1975 and was an assassination and intelligence gathering operation on 3 continents. Director Council on Foreign Relations 1977-1981. Together with Cyrus Vance and David Rockefeller he set up the US-China Business Council in 1979, the sucessor to the Council for US-China Trade. Annual visitor of Bilderberg since at least the 1970s. Annual visitor of the Trilateral Commission since the late 1970s. Visited Le Cercle. Member of the 1001 Club and the Pilgrims Society. Visitor of Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay. Founder of Kissinger Associates in 1982, a secretive consulting firm to international corporations. Some of the first members to join Kissinger Associates were Brent Scowcroft (vice-chairman), Lawrence Eagleburger (president), Lord Carrington, Lord Roll of Ipsden, and Pehr Gyllenhammar. Some served until 1989, others were still active for Kissinger Associates in the late 1990s. Chairman National Bipartisan Commission on Central America 1983-1984. Set up the America-China Society in 1987, together with Robert McFarlane and Cyrus Vance. Appointed chairman of AIG's advisory council in 1987. Director of the Atlanta branch of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) from 1985 to 1991. This was during the 1989 BNL Affair (Iraq Gate) in which it became known that the Atlanta branch had made $4 billion in unreported loans to Iraq. After the revelation, the money was said to be used by the Iraqis to buy food and agriculture equipment, but in reality they were buying loads of military equipment. His consultancy firm, Kissinger Associates, set up the China Ventures fund with CITIC in 1989, which would be in the same year that he defended the Tiananmen Square massacre, arguing against sanctions being placed on China. In 1990, he sat on boards of American Express, Union Pacific, R.M. Macy, Continental Grain, CBS, and the Revlon Group. Also a consultant to ABC news at this time. Member Atlantic Council of the United States. Member of the Council of Advisors of the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. Trustee of the Center Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Arthur F Burns Fellowship, the Institute of International Education, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Honorary Governor of the Foreign Policy Association. Patron of the Atlantic Partnership and the New Atlantic Initiative. Chairman of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships, the Nixon Center, and the American Academy in Berlin. Co-chairman of the Editorial Board of 'The National Interest' magazine. Chancellor of the College William and Mary. Honorary chairman World Cup USA 1994 (Kissinger has attended football matches with his friend and colleague Etienne Davignon). Named Honorary Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George, 1995. Director Freeport-McMoRan 1995-2001. Director of Conrad Black's Hollinger International Inc. Member of J.P. Morgan's International Advisory Council. Former member of the Advisory Council of Forstmann Little & Co. and American Express. Advisor to China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC). Member of the Europe Strategy Board of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. Director of Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the American International Group (AIG), a partner of Kissinger Associates. Also chairman of the Advisory Boards of AIG Asian Infrastructure Funds I & II and a director of AIG Global. In 1997, Kissinger became the central advisor to the Business Coalition for US-China Trade, a group of about a 1000 leading companies willing to invest in China. In 2000, Henry Kissinger was quoted by Business Wire: "Hank Greenberg, Pete Peterson and I have been close friends and business associates for decades." Maurice Greenburg is head of AIG and Peter G. Peterson is head of The Blackstone Group, which is the other major partner of Kissinger Associates. Peterson is also a former chairman of Lehman Brothers. Kissinger is a friend of Lynn Forester and introduced her to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild at the 1998 Bilderberg conference. They would soon become married. After Pulitzer Price winning journalist Peter Arnett produced a CNN report on Operation Tailwind (a Vietnam operation in which US Special Forces allegedly killed US defectors with Sarin) in 1998, Kissinger and his friends called up CNN to demand that the news network should distance itself from the story (a story which CNN initially approved) and made sure that the producers of the show were publicly humiliated and fired. Arnett was fired again by NBC and National Geographic in March 2003 immediately after he said the Bush Administration was looking for a plan B now that Iraqi resistance turned out to be much more intense than expected. Within 24 hours the Daily Mail hired him. When Henry Kissinger is invited to speak at the United Nations Association on April 11, 2001 Lord Jacob Rothschild is flanking his side. Picked as the initial head of the 9/11 investigating committee in 2003, although he turned out to be too controversial to remain in that position. Henry Kissinger is a patron of the Open Russia Foundation since 2001, together with Lord Jacob Rothschild. The Foundation was set up by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a controversial oligarch, later locked up by Putin. Honorary trustee of the Aspen Institute. Because of previous international attempts by European and South American judges to question him, he is known to take legal advice before traveling to certain countries in either continent. When Otto von Habsburg visited the United States in April 2005, one of the few people he spoke with, besides the general meetings, was Henry Kissinger.
