Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Kissinger in 1923) is a German-American writer, geopolitical analyst, consultant, and former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State to presidents Richard Nixon (ESI) and Gerald Ford (SLI), having the distinction of being the only person in history to have held both titles at the same time. Kissinger’s reputation is controversial. He is praised by some for his use of realpolitik, an approach to diplomacy that chooses to eschew ideology or morality in favor of pragmatism. He is also praised by many for his achievements, including his pivotal role in pursuing détente with the Soviet Union, opening negotiations with the diplomatically isolated Maoist China, negotiating a ceasefire to the Yom-Kippur war, setting the stage for long-lasting peace between Israel and Egypt (completed during the Carter administration), and negotiating the end of America’s involvement in the Vietnam war. However, Kissinger is also routinely criticized for his amoral approach to diplomacy, often called a 'war criminal' for his involvement in bombing campaigns in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as his support of right-wing dictators throughout Latin America, among other actions he took while in power.
Henry Kissinger’s most notable personality trait, and one of his greatest strengths, is his analytical ability and strategic mind. Kissinger, and even his critics would admit this, has a masterful understanding of the long-term geopolitical implications of any one event or idea. Biographer Walter Isaacson said of him: “Likewise, his fingertip feel for the world’s webs of interdependence – how an event in one corner of the planet will reverberate in another – has become more important in an era of complex globalization.” Kissinger was known to analyze every situation with a long-term strategy. When writing about Kissinger’s time as a consultant in the Kennedy administration, Walter Isaacson also stated “... (John F.) Kennedy (EIE), who considered Kissinger brilliant but tiresome, was driven to distraction by his ponderous insistence that all issues be put in a long-range, strategic context,” which was a focus that Kissinger had throughout his time in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Even before joining Nixon’s administration, and after leaving the president’s cabinet with the defeat of Gerald Ford to Jimmy Carter (SEI) in the 1976 election, Kissinger continued writing books and articles about geopolitics where he commented on the current trends and where they would likely lead the world in the future. Most of Kissinger’s books are meant to analyze the contemporary geopolitical trends and predict where these trends will lead in the future. For the ones that do not concern contemporary geopolitics, such as ‘A World Restored’ or ‘Diplomacy’, Kissinger still explains events and trends in sequential order, how one leads into the next, and what the modern world can learn from analyzing the past. Kissinger’s strategic thought process and long-term thinking, his desire for every action to lead toward a specific end-goal, and his masterful understanding of the global and long-term consequences of any action or event, as well as his “fingertip feel” for geopolitics, and his constant focus on how current trends will affect future outcomes, make a strong case for T1.
Kissinger’s approach to foreign policy had a distinct pragmatism to it, with Kissinger being one of the most committed pragmatists to influence US foreign policy during the twentieth century, eschewing moral concerns on the basis that a country’s only duty is to maintain its own power to prevent any foreign threats against it. While many politicians used moralistic rhetoric to pursue practical ends, and some actively pursued a moralistic foreign policy, Kissinger openly and unashamedly practiced realpolitik, the term coined in the 19th century to describe the approach Otto Von Bismarck (SLE) took in foreign policy, one of ignoring moral and ideological concerns in favor of purely power-based diplomacy. In fact, it is no surprise that when Charles de Gaulle (ESI) asked Kissinger who his favorite diplomat was, he answered that it was Otto Von Bismarck. Kissinger makes use of a plethora of facts and information in his analyses, which can be seen most clearly in his books, which are packed with context, events, and examples, all of which are synthesized to form a cohesive analysis, and presented in a very dry and factual way, with little emotion or moralism to be found. Kissinger took the same approach in his memoirs. He explained the events of his years in power in clear, factual terms, and made a point of relying as little on memory as possible and using the plethora of documents available to him (as well as his personal diary from the time period) to describe events. Kissinger’s strong usage of facts and data as well as his dry presentation to explain his analyses of long-term trends seems indicative of P2 supporting T1.
Kissinger had a seemingly ideological devotion to the idea of pragmatism in foreign policy. He would explain his views in a clear, structured way, and views geopolitics through a systematic lens, often utilizing structural analysis to promote his pragmatic views. Notably though, Kissinger only used this sort of ideological framework to promote a pragmatic foreign policy which he saw as the end goal in and of itself. This is most consistent with L8 supporting P2, all of which fed his T1 motivations.
In his promotion of a pragmatic foreign policy, Kissinger states plainly his belief that the only purpose of foreign policy is to promote a country’s power and protect its national security. He is quite forthright in his lack of moral considerations, and while he does defend his views as being the most moral, often using the Metternich system which set up a balance of power in Europe that (mostly) maintained peace for a century as an example of his principles in action, he sees no point in masking his cynical calculus with something that would be more acceptable to the average person. Regardless of the objective merits of a purely pragmatic foreign policy, it is not something most average people find appealing given the inherent amorality of it, and most politicians would at least make an attempt to sound more appealing when presenting their ideas. Kissinger, on the other hand, saw no purpose in playing these games to make his ideas more palatable. While previous politicians, although promoting continued involvement in Vietnam, talked about promoting democracy and self-determination in order to stop the spread of communism, Kissinger (and Nixon) instead talked about pragmatic concerns of how a sudden withdrawal would affect America's other alliances, as well as linkage (linking geopolitical concerns in one area to the concerns in a different area to gain more leverage in negotiations). In fact, contrary to the common media narrative, Kissinger is unique, not because of his realpolitik approach (other presidential administrations before and after had the a similar approach), but he is unique because of how openly cynical he was with regard to foreign policy. This is consistent with E4.
While showing very few signs of R on the surface, Kissinger in his memoirs, whenever introducing a new person, always makes a point of describing not just their personalities but also his view of them, making his opinion clear with his descriptions, such as describing someone as being “a man of integrity and honesty” and often saying outright how much he admired certain individuals based on their character traits. On the rare occasion that Kissinger describes an event in emotional terms, it is often framed from his personal perspective. For example, in his chapter on what he called “the agony of Vietnam”, he spends little time discussing the severe agony of Indochina during a period of war, instead focusing on the United States, specifically because of his personal attitude toward it: “I cannot yet write about Vietnam except with pain and sadness…” he wrote in his first of three memoirs, ‘The White House Years’, and after describing the severe reaction of US citizens to the war, how it divided the country, he explains his pain at seeing America tear itself apart, saying “The principles of America’s honor and America’s responsibility were not empty phrases to me. I felt them powerfully. I had been born in Germany in the Bavarian town of Fuerth, six months before Hitler’s attempted beerhall putsch in Bavaria’s capital, Munich. Hitler came to power when I was nine years old… Until I emigrated to America, my family and I endured progressive ostracism and discrimination… Through this period America acquired a wondrous quality for me. When I was a boy it was a dream, an incredible place where tolerance was natural and personal freedom unchallenged… I therefore have always had a special feeling for what America means, which native-born citizens perhaps take for granted… The domestic turmoil of the Vietnam debate therefore pained me deeply… I believed in the moral significance of my adopted country.” Therefore, while tangents involving Kissinger’s emotional attachment to certain issues were rare, when he did write emotionally, it heavily concerned his personal views written from his perspective, rather than a general, emotionally charged description like one would find in E valuing types.
However, despite Kissinger frequently commenting on R related things, the vast majority of his written work concerns analysis of trends using factual data, including in his memoirs. Kissinger’s ability to establish relations with individuals on the world stage was lacking, with him often requiring others to bridge the gap. For example, while negotiating a ceasefire to the Yom Kippur war, Kissinger faced difficulty getting along with Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, but was helped in his efforts due to Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat’s ability to easily establish a rapport with Kissinger. Kissinger primarily showed valued R in his memoirs, where the reader is given access to his personal thought process, showing that R is certainly valued and focused on somewhat, but overall remains a less important and less noticeable part of his personality than T and P, consistent with R6.
Henry Kissinger’s other most notable personality trait is his desire for power. Throughout his life he was always looking for a way to gain more influence. Kissinger himself would often say “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” and one of his brief girlfriends (one of many, he was quite a womanizer) said of Kissinger that “for him, power was an aphrodisiac, but it was also the climax”. This, in addition to his view of the world as an endless competition between opposing forces, is enough to confidently say that F is a valued element for him.
Conversely, Kissinger himself often lacked the aggression needed to make his mark and acquire what he wanted. The extent of his personal assertiveness were his common fits of anger and Kissinger frequently needed to attach himself to other more powerful individuals. After being drafted into the US army in World War II, Kissinger joined the military intelligence part of his division and eventually was put in charge of the German city Krefeld solely due to establishing his connection with a strong-willed, assertive, and eccentric officer named Fritz Kraemer. Later, in Kissinger’s political career, he would become known due to his personal and advisory relationship to Governor Nelson Rockefeller (SEE), only gaining real political power when he was hired to be president Richard Nixon’s national security advisor. In addition, Henry’s wife, Nancy Kissinger, is described as being strong-willed and assertive, readily using aggression in public, such as one event where Henry was accosted by a cultist at an airport and Nancy was the one who pushed her aside and threatened to “slug” the cultist so she would go away. In fact, despite what one would expect based on traditional gender roles, it was said that Nancy was the one who felt protective of Henry. While it is a minor point, Kissinger eventually settling down with a strong-willed assertive woman would indicate that he not only sought people with powerful personalities for the sake of his career, but also because he liked assertive people in general. Therefore, Kissinger’s love of power and influence, along with his own lack of assertiveness, and his desire to attach himself to other more assertive individuals for both his career and love life, indicates F in his super-id, most consistent with F5.
Overall, it’s been argued that Henry Kissinger’s personality best fits T1, P2, E4, F5, R6, and L8, making ILI the most likely type for him.
To learn more about ILI, click here.
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Sources
My main source was Walter Isaacson’s biography, simply titled ‘Kissinger’.
For a much more detailed (though naturally biased) look at Kissinger’s years in power, one could read his set of gargantuan memoirs, titled (in order of release) ‘The White House Years’, ‘Years of Upheaval’, and ‘Years of Renewal’.
For a look at Kissinger’s worldview which his geopolitical analysis is filtered through, one could read his 1994 magnum opus ‘Diplomacy’.
