October 2, 2001 Henry Kissinger to Deliver Inaugural Lecture in the Kissinger Lecture Series at Library of Congress on October 10

Henry Kissinger will deliver the inaugural lecture for the Kissinger Lecture series in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library's Jefferson Building, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 10. Dr. Kissinger's topic for the lecture will be leadership and foreign policy. Admission is free and open to the public.

The lecture series was established last year as part of the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress. Created through the generosity of friends of the former Secretary of State to honor him and emphasize the importance of foreign affairs, the Kissinger programs will support a range of activities in the study of foreign policy and international relations at the Library of Congress.

The Kissinger Lecturer is selected by the Steering Committee of the Kissinger Chair program, which is headed by the Librarian of Congress. The Kissinger Lecturer may be of any nationality and is someone who has achieved distinction in the field of foreign affairs. Each lecture will be published and, every five years, the lectures will be aggregated into an edited volume that may contain additional material.

The announcement of the appointment of Aaron Friedberg, director of the Research Program in International Security and acting director of the Center of International Studies at Princeton University, as the first Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar to inaugurate the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair, was made in April 2001.

Henry Alfred Kissinger was Secretary of State from September 1973 to January 1977. He also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from January 1969 to November 1975. Dr. Kissinger is currently chairman of Kissinger Associates Inc., an international consulting firm, and he serves as a counselor, adviser or member of the board of a variety of national and international organizations.

Among the awards that Dr. Kissinger has received are the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty, which was given to 10 foreign-born Americans in 1986.

Dr. Kissinger was born in Fürth, Germany, came to the United States in 1938 and was naturalized as an American citizen in 1943. He served in the Army from 1943 to 1946, graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1950, and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954. From 1954 to 1969, Dr. Kissinger was a member of the faculty of Harvard University, in both the Department of Government and the Center for International Affairs.

The author of many books on various aspects of diplomatic history and U.S. foreign policy, beginning with A World Restored: Castlereagh, Metternich and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822 (1957), Dr. Kissinger's most recent book is Does America Need a Foreign Policy?. He has also written numerous articles on foreign policy, international affairs and diplomatic history. His column is syndicated by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and appears in leading U.S. newspapers and more than 40 foreign countries.