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In some ways, Kissinger has changed little since President Nixon —ignoring the fact that Kissinger had opposed him in the 1968 election —named him national security adviser in 1969. He still retains his thick German accent, lives alone in a six-room town house in Washington's Rock Creek Park, and spends so little time there that friends say only the library looks used. He has retained his taste for rich foods, his interest in chess and his tendency to neglect his appearance. He still puts in 18-hour days and expects his aides to do the same. One of those aides, in fact, tells of laboring until midnight on a position paper that Kissinger then handed back with a request that it be improved; another midnight, another version, and another rejection. When Kissinger received the third version, he asked: "Is this really the best you can do?" When the aide said it was, Kissinger sighed and said: "Very well, then, I'll read it."
In other ways, though, Kissinger has changed considerably. He has developed a wry sense of Galgenhumor, of which he is the chief victim. After being attacked by another Administration official as an "egotistical maniac," he remarked: "It took me 18 years to achieve total animosity at Harvard. In Washington, I did it in 18 months."
-Along the way, he has acquired a somewhat less than convincing reputation as a swinger. Divorced from his wife in 1964, Kissinger has dated a covey of actresses, including Jill St. John, Liv Ullmann and Mario Thomas as well as TV Producer Margaret Osmer and Rockefeller Aide Nancy Maginnes. He obviously enjoys his reputation as the "playboy of the Western Wing," but he spends almost as much time with his children—Elizabeth, 15, and David, 12 —as he does on the social circuit. He also makes it clear that his work comes before anything. Of the actresses, he once remarked: "I am no fool. I realize the game. I am their celebrity of the hour, the new man in town. I don't kid myself."
It is too early to tell whether or how his new responsibilities will affect his social life. They have not yet dulled his sense of humor. Last week, when reporters asked him whether he preferred to be addressed as Mr. Secretary or Dr. Secretary, he hesitated only a moment before answering. "I don't stand on protocol," he said with a grin. "If you will just call me Excellency, it will be O.K."