American Secretaries of State: Henry A. Kissinger

First appointed by President Richard Nixon and then President Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger served from September 22, 1973 – January 20, 1977. Mr. Kissinger was interviewed for the American Secretaries of State Project in November 2014, during which he noted, “I think that in every negotiation you are trying to affect the conclusions of the other side, and you are trying to find something that both sides find sufficiently in their interest to adopt. That’s the essence of negotiation.” Early in his tenure, Kissinger found himself negotiating a series of “shuttle diplomacy” missions between Middle East capitals in order to reach disengagement agreements between enemy combatants. These efforts produced agreements between Egypt and Israel (January 1974), and Syria and Israel (May 1974), and contributed to the lift of OPEC’s U.S. embargo.