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Jay S retired researcher, amateur philosopher Author has 9.6K answers and 42.8M answer views
Henry Kissinger was a 20-year old immigrant from Germany attending college in New York when he was drafted into the US Army in 1943. Aptitude testing in basic training revealed to the Army that they had a genius on their hands and he was sent to the Army Specialized Training Program. Essentially these soldiers were sent back to college to receive specialized training to take advantage of their high IQ. It offered training in such fields as engineering, foreign languages, military intelligence, and medicine.

There was controversy, though. Later in the war offended mothers were upset that their sons were being sent off to fight and die while others were sent to college. That and the manpower shortages in 1944–45 resulted in many of them being released for other duty. The same thing happened with Air Corps flight cadets. in 1945 there were far more pilots than were needed so the cadets still in training were sent off as infantry replacement privates instead of pilot officers.

So the Army sent Henry Kissinger into the ASTP to study engineering. But in 1945 he was shipped out as an infantry replacement to Germany. He served in the 84th Infantry Division as a military intelligence interpreter and later a CiC Special agent. He was a sergeant in charge of a team assigned to tracking down Gestapo officers and saboteurs for which he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Post-war, he became the summa cum laude graduate of Harvard, where he also earned his MA and PhD. He joined the faculty immediately thereafter.

Kissinger is a highly intelligent individual.
Answer requested by Evan J