The cowboy on the lonely diplomatic trail, the foreign affairs adviser to Hollywood starlets, the dashing bachelor of Foggy Bottom—he is no more. Only recently revealed as the most-admired man in America, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 50, last week abandoned his exaggerated image as a swinger. He got married. Not, as he quipped a couple of months ago, to his most frequent dinner date in that hectic period, Joseph Sisco, his chief adviser on Middle East affairs, but to his longtime close friend, Nancy Maginnes, 39.
It was 4 p.m. on Friday when Francis E. Thomas, juvenile-and domestic-relations judge for Arlington, Va., was asked to be ready to marry an important unnamed Government official the next day. Only an hour before the ceremony was Judge Thomas certain who it would be. While the judge waited, Kissinger played host at a select pre-wedding reception Saturday afternoon at the State Department's Madison Room. The few friends, invited only that morning, included General Brent Skowcroft, a member of the National Security Council, and Columnist Joseph Alsop. Also there were the Secretary's two children, Elizabeth, 15, and David, 12, by his first marriage, his brother Walter, and Nancy's brother David and her mother, Mrs. Albert Bristol Maginnes.
For the informal occasion, Kissinger wore a dark blue suit and bright tie while Nancy was in a gold-flecked beige knit dress and matching coat. Showing no signs of strain after the rigors of his Moscow visit (see THE WORLD), the bridegroom beamed as Skowcroft offered a simple toast with Korbel (California) champagne: "Health and happiness to both of you!" Then, accompanied by their families, the couple drove to Arlington for the four-minute ceremony and were whisked to National Airport, where Nelson Rockefeller's jet was waiting to fly them to Acapulco for a ten-day honeymoon.
Long Legs. Tall, blonde and on the fringes of the Social Register, Nancy, the daughter of a well-to-do White Plains, N.Y., lawyer, completed her education at Harvard. Her teacher: Professor Kissinger, who was also Rockefeller's foreign policy adviser. On his recommendation, Nancy went to work in 1964 as Kissinger's researcher on a Rockefeller task force and, fascinated by foreign affairs, stayed on with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund after Henry was summoned to Washington, and now holds his old job. Her regular reading includes the Times of London and the Economist, and she has been known to take Henry to task about the U.S.'s Viet Nam policy while the bombings were going on.
Some of her co-workers find her aloof—even cool—a very private person. But, says a colleague: "She is not only an intellectual, she's also a very funny, witty girl." A bit bored with her bluestocking image, Nancy recently joked that "I really should have been a showgirl with my long legs." Her height, 5 ft. 10½ in., compared with Henry's 5 ft. 8 in., occasions jokes. Joseph Alsop once toasted her with "She's a great girl, even if she is taller than God."