White House Whiz Kid: Kissinger Serves World But Leaves Harvard Behind

Though it is now more than two decades since Henry A. Kissinger '50 left his job as Richard M. Nixon's secretary of state, the foreign policy whiz kid has not lost his reputation as one of the greatest analysts of international affairs of the 20th century.

The summa cum laude government graduate remains at the forefront of American foreign policy debate, recently endorsing presidential hopeful George W. Bush and lending his weight to a proposal to cut nuclear reserves.

Last year, Kissinger published the third volume of his well-received series of memoirs and has maintained a heavy schedule of international speaking engagements.

But the one-time Harvard professor has not officially ventured back to his alma mater for more than 20 years.

"To the best of my knowledge, [Kissinger] has not attended any University function in Cambridge since the end of the Vietnam War," says University Marshal Richard M. Hunt. And Kissinger has declined to attend his 50th reunion, refusing interviews and photo requests.

The break with Harvard occurred in the midst of the Vietnam War. Many of Kissinger's Harvard colleagues vehemently opposed his policies as secretary of state, leading many to speculate that political bitterness has created a permanent rift between Kissinger and the University.

Years of Service

Kissinger is best known for his work as a diplomat in the 1960s and 1970s.

An expert on the defense policy, he advised presidential administrations from 1955 to 1968, before officially joining Nixon's staff. He received international recognition for his studies of the Cold War. In the 1960 work The Necessity for Choice, he originated the "missile gap" hypothesis, and he was later instrumental in engineering the first strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1969.

With his official entrance into the government as Nixon's national security advisor, Kissinger became one of the primary crafters of United States policy in Vietnam, facing the protests of numerous anti-war activists.

But Kissinger's lengthy negotiations in 1973 brought about the final cease-fire of the war and engineered peace between North and South Vietnam. For his efforts, Kissinger shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam.

In addition, Kissinger played an instrumental role in opening relations with the People's Republic of China. His efforts at rapprochement culminated in the 1972 meeting between Nixon and Chinese premier Mao Zedong, the first official contact between the United States and China since the victory of Communist forces in 1949.

Kissinger also won international acclaim for his work in the Mideast peace process. After the Egyptian invasion of Israel in 1973, Kissinger adopted a policy later coined "shuttle diplomacy," travelling throughout the region to orchestrate a truce in the conflict.

Kissinger also advised both the Ford and Reagan administrations, but in recent years has devoted most of his efforts to speaking and writing. He also heads an international consulting, Kissinger Associates, based in New York.

The Whiz Kid

Born in Furth, Germany on May 27, 1923, Kissinger and his family immigrated to the United States in 1938 to escape anti-Semitism.

He arrived at Harvard on the G.I. Bill after service in the U.S. Army in World War II and immediately distinguished himself academically.

His senior thesis, "The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant," extended to 388 pages and necessitated an introduction explaining its "inordinate length."

Kissinger wrote the thesis under the direction of eminent political scientist William Yandell Elliott.

Weatherhead University Professor Samuel P. Huntington says he envied the time Kissinger spent with Elliott, who worked in Cambridge only two days per week.

"I would wait and wait and wait [for Elliott]," he says. "Eventually the door would open and this pudgy undergraduate would wander out having taken two or three hours of his time, and that was Henry."

Huntington described the finished thesis as "brilliant," and Kissinger was granted Phi Beta Kappa his senior year.

Kissinger received his doctorate from Harvard in 1954 and went on to become first a lecturer and later a professor in the government department. In 1958, he was recognized as one of the nation's "Ten Outstanding Young Men." While at the University, he advised the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations on foreign policy, but continued his teaching duties.

Kissinger left Harvard in 1969 to become Nixon's national security advisor--taking a leave of absence from his professorial duties.

He never returned.

The War at Harvard

Many of Kissinger's duties in the Nixon administration--first as national security advisor and later as secretary of state--focused on United States policy in Vietnam.

As the war escalated, Kissinger's hawkish stance provoked strong opposition from many students and faculty at Harvard, including his colleagues in the government department.

In 1970, a group of 13 Faculty members traveled to Washington to confront Kissinger about America's invasion of Cambodia.

Thomas C. Schelling, then a professor of economics, led the delegation.

"I had the impression that he was very deeply affected by what we told him," says Schelling, who is currently Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. "I would say it was somewhat emotionally charged because they were all people who had considered him a friend and a colleague...[and] on the whole the group was essentially breaking relations with him."

"He sank lower and lower in his chair, and his face lost color," Schelling recalls. "When we went out I thought we had a significant impact, but I never saw any evidence afterward."

Kissinger remained silent during most of the 90 minutes meeting, refusing to speak openly about the administration's policies.

"[The meeting] did not go well," says Huntington, who did not attend the meeting but has remained in touch with Kissinger. "Henry has never gotten over it."

Schelling says he did not speak with Kissinger again until the Carter Administration.

Harvard students also blasted Kissinger for his role in the Vietnam War. On the eve of Kissinger's 1973 appointment as secretary of state, The Crimson ran an editorial titled "Kissinger: No" which called for the Senate to reject Kissinger, accusing him of warmongering and dishonesty in Southeast Asia.

"The blood of dead and homeless Indochinese is on Kissinger's hands," the editorial stated. "He has no place anywhere in the United States government."

Despite the political clash over Vietnam, the government department retained a high opinion of Kissinger's ability as a scholar and academic.

Kissinger's leave of absence--strictly limited to two years by University policy--expired in 1971, but the government department preserved a chair for him for two additional years in an unorthodox decision.

"This was an unusual action, prompted by the view of his former colleagues that there was not...a scholar in the field of international relations whom the department would prefer to him," said James Q. Wilson, then chair of the government department, in a 1973 statement.

Wilson, currently professor emeritus of political science at the University of California at Los Angeles, says Harvard repeatedly asked Kissinger to return.

"The department would have been pleased to have him back," he says. "He had a reputation as an excellent lecturer and excellent seminar leader."

But Kissinger refused the offers.

"What makes you think I would want to go back?" Kissinger said at the time.

Kissinger's decision forced the University to sever all official ties with him in 1973.

The Cold Shoulder

Almost three decades later, Kissinger has yet to return to Harvard in an official capacity, despite repeated invitations.

"He does not have by and large warm feelings to the University," Huntington says.

Huntington says he thinks the conflict over Vietnam is the principal cause of Kissinger's absence.

"It's still important to him all these 30 years later," Huntington says. "Lots of people at Harvard, if they didn't say so explicitly, implicitly thought of Henry as something of a war criminal." "I think he sensed that," he added.

Schelling says he thinks the Harvard faculty's opposition to the war impacted Kissinger's view of the University.

"I should think it couldn't help but

color his view of Harvard," he says.

"I think through his tenure as secretary of state and sometime afterward he would have felt that students and faculty, [even] some of his former colleagues, would have been quite hostile."

Unlike many prominent American leaders, Kissinger has never appeared at the Institute of Politics (IOP). His one contact with the University's primary forum for political discussion was a private luncheon at the personal behest of IOP Director Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator.

"People were surprised he was having lunch," says Catherine A. McLaughlin, the executive director of the IOP. "He's never come up here to do something for the Institute of Politics. I know that we've invited him and he's never been able to come."