Henry Kissinger
Rick asked me here for my thoughts on Henry Kissinger.
I have read a lot of stuff on the Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon-Ford period, but not all of it is online, nor can I put into a few sentences all the thoughts I had that led me to think of his likely type, but I will give an overview.
My own conclusion is that Kissinger is ENTp.
First, Kissinger started out as an academic, with brilliant grades, and he was always careful to maintain his credibility in that area, publishing books and articles.
He enjoys being a celebrity, being in the spotlight, privileges, dating actressses (when he's not married), etc.
Rick thought he might be ESFp. However, his (very thick) books of memoirs are also very analytical; he does not avoid giving his own opinions and analysis, and that has been the case with his articles generally, so I don't think he's uncomfortable with(I'm not saying that ENFps or ESFps can't be analytical, but he chooses that as being "himself").
I have read memoirs of people who had close dealings with him, and part of his being a diplomat is that he chose to usewhen talking with others, in the sense "I am sorry that history has put your country in that position, I am personally very grieved and I wish it could be otherwise" etc etc.
In the Nixon administration, he would often express dismay at leaks to the press - and then leak to his own preferred journalists, as Nixon's own close assistants discovered.
To me this suggests, and a quote on an Booknotes interview of Walter Isaacson, author of a biograpy of Kissinger, is particularly revealing:
LAMB: How irritated is he about this book?
ISAACSON: Well, he's upset about the portrayal of his personality, the fact that his methods were secretive, that he had a reputation for being duplicitous as a Secretary of State. And these all come from the tales in the book. I think that he's very upset about that.
Also, there is agreement that Nixon was Gamma (I say ENTj; Rick and the Russians say ISFj; but never mind) and I also type Nixon's inner circle as Beta - - Haldeman (ISTj), Ehrlichman (ENFj) and Al Haig (ESTp). That Nixon chose to surround himself with Beta people is interesting; but the point is, Kissinger was never in the inner circle, he was often mocked by the others.
Nixon and Kissinger basically used each other, respecting each other's abilities but not really in a relationship.
From the same interview:
This is also interesting:And you could tell this ambivalence he felt towards Kissinger. I mean, [Nixon] is a man who admires Kissinger's mind enormously but is very wary of Kissinger's personality and very jealous of the acclaim Henry Kissinger got for things that Nixon feels was -- you know, the credit should go to Nixon. And so he would -- all of Nixon's sentences about Kissinger would have spin on them, if you know what I mean. He would say, "Well, I'm not one to say that Henry Kissinger is paranoid, and some people do, of course, say he's paranoid" -- that's Nixon talking -- "but" -- and then he would go on to tell some tale about Kissinger doing something or Kissinger losing his temper. But he was always admiring of Kissinger's mind.
Here he sounds more like ESTp.he was a devious with his peers, obsequious to his superiors, and domineering towards his subordinates. And that's the aspect of Kissinger's personality I found very unattractive.
He was always playing people off against each other, degenerating people, talking about people behind their backs. He wasn't necessarily outright duplicitous, saying one thing to one side and one thing to the other side -- another thing to the other side, but he came close. He would allow one side to believe the doves or the liberals -- that he agreed with them, and then he'd go talk to conservatives and hawks. He'd let them feel that he agreed with that side, so he got a reputation for being duplicitous.
But, you know, you look at what James Schlesinger says about Kissinger in the book. I mean, he says that -- I think one of his quotes was, "Most people when they lie look to shame, but when Henry Kissinger lies, he does it as a matter of his own nature, because it's like an Arabesque to him." Or Helmut Sonnenfeldt, who worked for Kissinger, who said, you know, "Kissinger doesn't lie because it's in his interest. He lies because it's in his nature."I think the above points toward EXTp, but more like ENTp due to his academic inclinations - -ISAACSON: I was very eager to try to explain certain things and, you know, you get into -- and it is like Kissinger. I mean, Kissinger is a man who, when you ask him about things, he's convinced that you're not going to understand them and that he's got to get you to understand what he did in Cambodia, what he did in the Middle East, why he had to cut the State Department out of certain things. And he has sort of that eager quality to make you understand, and I guess like any biographer, you can see some of yourself in the person you're writing about.
Moreover, when seeing him talk, I doubt many would see him asdominant.
Apart from him being the odd man out in the Beta inner circle of the Nixon administration.
Finally, by all accounts, he did develop a close relationship with Gerald Ford. So Ford's type would provide a clue, and I think that ESFj does fit Ford.
My case for Kissinger as ENTp rests for the moment.
, LIE, ENTj logical subtype, 8w9 sx/sp
Originally Posted by implied
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, if we are understanding the context right. 
with that common ISFj typing.
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