In April 1993, Henry Kissinger visited Ohio State and met with Prof. Peter Hahn and honors students. Prof. Hahn shares memories of the visit along with a photo of the event.

(Photo: 2nd from right is Henry Kissinger, far right is Peter Hahn)

"The Mershon Center had invited Henry Kissinger, Hans Dietrich Genscher (former FM of West Germany) and Oscar Arias (former President of Costa Rica) to campus for a symposium on the future of democracy. A decision was made to have all three of them meet with undergraduate students during the course of the day preceding the evening event. I was asked to mentor a group of 20 undergraduate honors students to meet for an hour with each guest in turn. So, I held a few briefing sessions where I discussed with the students current events and historical topics and advised them on how to pose informed questions to such dignitaries.

The three sessions with the guests were held in an upstairs room at the Kuhns Honors. Arias was first, followed by Genscher. Kissinger left a distinct impression. He was late leaving NYC on his private plane, so we had to delay the start of his session from something like 2pm to 4pm. Then, after another delay, someone at Ohio State decided that we would have to cancel the session altogether so Kissinger could get on with his meetings with President Gee and then Governor Voinovich. The students were quite disappointed, so I lobbied fervently on their behalf for at least 5 minutes to greet Kissinger. Word came down that 5 minutes was approved.

At around 4:30, his limo pulled up out front and he bounded in. He sat beside me and engaged the students thoughtfully and gently, his classroom instincts clearly reemerging. After 5 minutes, Ohio State staff began signaling from the door that it was time to wrap up, but I was powerless to do so: Kissinger insisted on staying for the full hour and answering all the questions the students had prepared."