Download Dictionary of World Biography

Dictionary of World Biography
close economic ties with the US and the right to rearm. He remained a powerful conservative force in
the Liberal Democratic Party. *Abe Shinzō was his
grandson.
Kissinger, Henry Alfred (1923– ). American
academic and official, born in Fuerth, Germany. He
emigrated to the US in 1938, studied at Harvard and
served in the US Army. He established a reputation as
an expert on international relations and defence. In
1969 he was appointed President *Nixon’s assistant
responsible for national security. US Secretary of
State 1973–77, he negotiated the ceasefire between
the US and North Vietnam in 1973 and was also
instrumental in achieving a ceasefire between Egypt
and Israel. Under the Constitution, he received
Nixon's resignation as President (August 1974),
continuing in office under Gerald *Ford. He was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973 with
*Le Duc Tho from Vietnam (who declined it). He
negotiated a settlement between hostile factions
in Rhodesia which was accepted by the Rhodesian
Government but not by the Patriotic Front guerrilla
movement. In 1977 he returned to academic life as
professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University.
AÂ prolific writer, he published his memoirs in 1979.
Isaacson, W., Kissinger: A Biography. 1992.
Kitaj, R. B. (Ronald Brooks) (1932–2007). American
painter and graphic artist. He was a merchant seaman
and soldier who studied in London and lived in
England, evolving a striking figurative art, working
in parallel to the pop artists of the US. Elected to the
Royal Academy in 1991, he returned to the US in
1997 and committed suicide.
Kitasato Shibasaburo (1852–1931). Japanese
bacteriologist. A pupil of *Koch, he was noted for
his independent discoveries of the bacilli of anthrax
(1889), diphtheria (1890) and bubonic plague
(1894).
Kitchener of Khartoum, 1st Earl, Herbert Horatio
Kitchener (1850–1916). British Field Marshal, born
in County Kerry. While still a cadet at the Royal
Military Academy, he served with the French army in
the Franco-Prussian War. As an engineer officer, with
a knowledge of Arabic and Hebrew, he proved his
ability in Palestine survey work, in Cyprus, and (from
1882) in Egypt. He was deeply involved in the events
leading up to and following the death of *Gordon
and as a result of the skill and thoroughness with
which he performed all the tasks assigned him, he
was made (1890) Sirdar (i.e. Egyptian Commander
in Chief ). He spent the following years in training
men and building up resources to avenge Gordon
and restore British rule. He won the decisive Battle
of Omdurman (1898), was created a baron and made
Governor-General of the Sudan, in which office he
planned the modern city of Khartoum. In the Boer
War he was appointed (1899) Chief of Staff to Lord
466
*Roberts, succeeding him as Commander in Chief
1900–02. Following the Spanish model in Cuba,
he established concentration camps for civilians in
which 20,000 people died, burned farms and applied
collective punishments. However, he brought the
war to an end, received a viscouncy, £50,000 and
became a foundation member of the Order of Merit
(1902). His tenure of the post of Commander in
Chief in India 1902–09 was famous for his quarrel
with the viceroy, Lord *Curzon, concerning spheres
of authority, but it was also notable for many reforms,
e.g. hygiene, sanitation. Kitchener was Commander
in Chief in the Mediterranean 1910–11, then
returned to Egypt as British Consul-General and
Minister Plenipotentiary 1911–14. On the outbreak
of war he became Secretary of State for War 1914–
16. His administration has been criticised as rigid
and over centralised. Nevertheless, his achievement
was prodigious and his judgment sound. (Alone of
the generals he predicted a long war of attrition.) He
dismissed Gallipoli as a tragic irrelevance. As a result
of his immense prestige, 3,000,000 men (‘Kitchener’s
Army’) responded voluntarily to his call to arms,
and some 70 infantry divisions were formed. In
June 1916 Kitchener was drowned off Orkney when
HMS Hampshire, taking him to Russia on an urgent
mission, was sunk by a mine. A national memorial
fund of over £500,000 was raised for higher education
for boys, and a medical school at Khartoum.
Cross-eyed, huge, moustachioed and unmarried,
Kitchener was an enigmatic figure, a master of
colonial warfare but with vivid insights into the
nature of World War I.
Magnus, P., Kitchener. 1958.
Kléber, Jean Baptiste (1753–1800). French marshal,
born in Alsace. Having fought with distinction in the
French Revolutionary campaigns, he went (1798) to
Egypt as a divisional commander under *Napoléon.
He was left in command in 1799 when Napoléon
returned to Paris. On the refusal by the higher British
authorities to ratify an agreement with the local
commander, Sidney Smith, for the evacuation of his
troops, he reopened hostilities, defeated the Turks at
Heliopolis but was assassinated by a fanatic in Cairo
shortly afterwards.
Klee, Paul (1879–1940). German-Swiss painter,
born in Berne. Undecided at first whether to pursue
art or music, he eventually went to Munich to study
and joined the Blaue Reiter group (*Kandinsky). His
eyes were opened to the use of colour during a visit
to Tunis (1914), and henceforth his colour harmonies
and contrasts were as much a feature of his work as
his brilliant draughtsmanship. In 1920 he joined the
Bauhaus in Weimar, but soon after *Hitler came to
power he was dismissed (1933) from an appointment
at the Düsseldorf Academy, on the grounds that his art
was decadent, and settled in Switzerland. As Klee has
been one of the most important influences on modern