(1923– )
a US Secretary of State (1973–7), born in Germany. He was a special assistant to President Nixon on National Security Affairs (1969–75). Kissinger’s reputation was based on his ‘shuttle diplomacy’, in which he travelled regularly around the world to improve US relations with other countries and to find solutions to international conflicts and he was given the Nobel Prize for peace in 1973. Since then his reputation has been damaged by many accusations in relation to his actions concerning the bombing of Cambodia, the Pinochet coup in Chile and the invasion of East Timor.