"[The meeting] did not go well," says Huntington, who did not attend the meeting but has remained in touch with Kissinger. "Henry has never gotten over it."

Schelling says he did not speak with Kissinger again until the Carter Administration.

Harvard students also blasted Kissinger for his role in the Vietnam War. On the eve of Kissinger's 1973 appointment as secretary of state, The Crimson ran an editorial titled "Kissinger: No" which called for the Senate to reject Kissinger, accusing him of warmongering and dishonesty in Southeast Asia.

"The blood of dead and homeless Indochinese is on Kissinger's hands," the editorial stated. "He has no place anywhere in the United States government."

Despite the political clash over Vietnam, the government department retained a high opinion of Kissinger's ability as a scholar and academic.

Kissinger's leave of absence--strictly limited to two years by University policy--expired in 1971, but the government department preserved a chair for him for two additional years in an unorthodox decision.

"This was an unusual action, prompted by the view of his former colleagues that there was not...a scholar in the field of international relations whom the department would prefer to him," said James Q. Wilson, then chair of the government department, in a 1973 statement.

Wilson, currently professor emeritus of political science at the University of California at Los Angeles, says Harvard repeatedly asked Kissinger to return.

"The department would have been pleased to have him back," he says. "He had a reputation as an excellent lecturer and excellent seminar leader."

But Kissinger refused the offers.

"What makes you think I would want to go back?" Kissinger said at the time.

Kissinger's decision forced the University to sever all official ties with him in 1973.

The Cold Shoulder

Almost three decades later, Kissinger has yet to return to Harvard in an official capacity, despite repeated invitations.

"He does not have by and large warm feelings to the University," Huntington says.

Huntington says he thinks the conflict over Vietnam is the principal cause of Kissinger's absence.