Welcome to the final installment of Great Americans. All month, we’ve been counting down to our country’s 250th birthday by bringing you writers we love on Americans they love. Yesterday, we turned the series over to you, in a special edition featuring nominations from The Free Press Forum, our new space for debate, discussion, and discovery, open exclusively to paid subscribers. Today, we conclude with our columnist Niall Ferguson, who pays tribute to the penniless Jewish refugee who rose through the ranks to become this nation’s secretary of state: Henry Kissinger. —The Editors
In which other country in the world could Heinz Alfred Kissinger—born in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1923—possibly have become secretary of state? Such an ascent, from penniless Jewish refugee to the center of power, could have happened only in the United States.
Kissinger’s was the quintessential American success story not only because he was an immigrant—his first job was in a shaving brush factory in New York City and his path to Harvard and academic success led through the battlefields of Nazi-occupied Europe. But equally American has been the bitter controversy engendered by his eight years at the helm of U.S. foreign policy.
