Henry Alfred Kissinger (né Heinz; May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was a German-born American politician, diplomat, political scientist and geopolitical consultant who served as United States secretary of state and national security advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977, pioneering the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrating an opening of relations with the People's Republic of China, engaging in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East to end the Yom Kippur War, and negotiating the Paris Peace Accords, which ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. After leaving government, he formed Kissinger Associates, an international geopolitical consulting firm. Kissinger wrote over a dozen books on diplomatic history and international relations. Description above from the Wikipedia article Henry Kissinger, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.