A practitioner of Realpolitik, the German-born American politician Henry Kissinger played a decisive role in shaping U.S. foreign policy in the 1970s. He did this first as a national security advisor (starting in 1969) and then as the Secretary of State (1973– 77). During this period, he worked closely with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and played a major role in negotiating the Final Act of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Helsinki in 1975. Here, Schmidt (right) welcomes Kissinger to Bonn.