: At Harvard, he studied the 19th-century diplomacy of Metternich and Castlereagh, concluding that international stability depends on a "legitimate" order accepted by major powers, where questions of public opinion and morality are secondary to maintaining the status quo. Henry Kissinger and the American Century
: His wartime service in the U.S. Army and the discovery of concentration camps reinforced his belief that resisting evil requires physical strength rather than just compromise or norms. Henry Kissinger and the American Century
: Born in Weimar Germany, Kissinger’s experience with the rise of Nazism and his status as a Jewish refugee fostered a lifelong skepticism of popular democracy and a fear of "democratic weakness". : At Harvard, he studied the 19th-century diplomacy
Kissinger’s strategic philosophy was deeply influenced by his early life and intellectual formation: : At Harvard