--- title: Men of the Year '72: Nixon & Kissinger | TIME description: In 1972, Henry Kissinger was the national security assistant to President Nixon, and both were named TIME Men of the Year. Kissinger explains why he was unhappy to be chosen canonical: https://time.com/video/EBKwt9Xt/ og:title: Men of the Year '72: Nixon & Kissinger og:description: In 1972, Henry Kissinger was the national security assistant to President Nixon, and both were named TIME Men of the Year. Kissinger explains why he was unhappy to be chosen og:url: https://time.com/video/EBKwt9Xt/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EBKwt9Xt/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Men of the Year '72: Nixon & Kissinger twitter:description: In 1972, Henry Kissinger was the national security assistant to President Nixon, and both were named TIME Men of the Year. Kissinger explains why he was unhappy to be chosen twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EBKwt9Xt/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Men of the Year '72: Nixon & Kissinger > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Men of the Year '72: Nixon & Kissinger [Watch (HLS stream): Men of the Year '72: Nixon & Kissinger](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EBKwt9Xt.m3u8) (4:29)  _Published 2009-08-12. In 1972, Henry Kissinger was the national security assistant to President Nixon, and both were named TIME Men of the Year. Kissinger explains why he was unhappy to be chosen_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:04 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 | Back In TIME](/video/Wig1PDq6/) ### 10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 | Back In TIME [Nixon Talks Panda Sex \(March 13, 1972\)](/video/kVHPJq4E/) ### Nixon Talks Panda Sex (March 13, 1972) [10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011](/video/p9C3LJRc/) ### 10 Questions for Henry Kissinger in 2011 --- ## Transcript >> In 1972, countries around the world were crippled by crisis. The troubles flared in Northern Ireland. >> Military helicopters ferried the guerillas and their hostages to-- >> Terror to center stage of the Munich Olympics. War- weary troops soldiered on in Vietnam. Tensions between the East and West called for death diplomacy. Two men, President Richard Nixon and National Security Affairs Assistant Henry Kissinger, set an ambitious agenda. >> By the end of '72, we thought we had the international situation in a favorable shape for the United States, as it had been for a long time. >> Together, these men forced a U. S. foreign policy that would change the world. And for that reason, they were named TIME Magazine's Men of the Year. >> When you and the President were named Men of the Year, did that change anything and did that-- >> For me, it was a nightmare. That I with the President and just to be given equal treatment with the President of the United States was for me, I was so excited and I bet the editor in chief at the time to not make me command of the-- and I called him several times and frankly he said, " If you call me once more we'll make you the sole man of the year and consecrate privilege ." He's never and preferred not to be named. >> Now, my understanding you said, the President himself was not particularly pleased to be sharing the honor with anyone else. >> I don't know whether he was-- he never said it to me, which was the most dangerous aspect of it. >> So, as you think back to the incredible events of 1972, do you remember that as an era of triumph more or of trial? >> I really was supposed-- we thought it wouldn't be a [ unk ] ended. We had made progress with established address areas and visit to Beijing, visit to Moscow. I'm your chief, I made your foreign policy objective but it was done under very painful circumstances. The country was very divided over the Vietnam war. So then, Watergate blew up and so the hopes of late '72 couldn't be realized. >> As you look back on that year, the sort of rapid development that has come to China and then took off really in the era of Deng Xiaoping, could you have imagined that back in 1972? >> No. Nixon came in February '72. China was still a very underdeveloped country at that time. We had to bring all the technology for the communications of the President. There were no skyscrapers of course, there were no traffic jams because there were no cars. The hotel in which we've stayed in Shanghai was like a Howard Johnson and it went ahead. So, 30 years later they would reflections about when China would catch America or maybe even so pass it. That would have seem fantastic. >> While Dr. Kissinger might not have predicted China's growth, we did ask him if he had any predictions for this year about who TIME should name as its Person of the Year. >> I think there's only one candidate this year and that's Obama. His achievement isn't that he won the election, his achievement is that he got the nomination and that he became not the spokesman of a party but the spokesman of what may to not be a new approach to the domestic politics. This could be the beginning of a creative period, such if we added the end of the second World War. The art of leadership is to operate at the outer limit of what a society can achieve. I'm very hopeful and very positive about the prospect for us. And now I have to leave you. >> Thank you. 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