Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 6 P19 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 168 KISSINGER HENRY ALFRED Henry Kissinger. JOE CORRIGAN GETTY IMAGES Born May 27 1923 in Furth Germany and given the first name Heinz Kissinger was the son of middle-class Jewish parents who fled Nazi persecution while he was a teenager. The family immigrated to the United States in 1938 and Kissinger became a . citizen in 1943. Service in the . Army took Kissinger back to Europe during world war ii. Following combat and intelligence duty he served in the post-war . military government in Germany from 1945 to 1946. Decorated with honors and discharged from the service he earned a bachelor of arts degree summa cum laude in government studies at Harvard College in 1950 then added a master s degree and in 1954 a doctorate. While teaching at Harvard in the 1950s Kissinger came to national attention with his book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy 1957 . The book was a bold argument against narrow cold war views of military strategy. It took aim at the reigning defense doctrine of the day which was an all-or-nothing approach holding that the United States should retaliate massively with nuclear weapons against any aggressor. Kissinger proposed a different solution based on the approach of Realpolitik the German concept of an intensely pragmatic rather than idealistic vision of international relations. The United States should deploy nuclear weapons strategically around the world as a deterrent he argued while relying on conventional non-nuclear forces in the event of aggression against it. The idea gradually took hold over the next decade. Kissinger viewed the Soviet Union as the chief adversary of the United States but also as the only other superpower and therefore to be dealt with in a consistent and rational fashion. He helped develop the concept of détente which allowed for the easing of relations between the United States and the . and also paved the way for the opening of relations with China. Kissinger directed the Harvard International Seminar
