NEW YORK - Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will donate his collection of some one million documents and objects covering his life as a diplomat, scholar and consultant to Yale University.

Yale President Richar Levin said the collection will be the foundation of the newly established Johnson Center for the study of American diplomacy.

"I am extremely pleased to be associated with Yale in this important new initiative," Kissinger said, "With its remarkable array of academic programs and library collections in world affairs, as well as its established involvement with practitioners of international security and diplomacy, Yale will make a superb home for my papers."

The Johnson Center will bring prominent statesmen to campus as Kissinger Senior Fellows. The center also will play host to Kissinger Visiting Scholars who are researching and writing about the history of American diplomacy.

Kissinger was national security adviser and secretary of state under President Richard M. Nixon and continued as chief diplomat during the administration of President Gerald R. Ford.

He paid a secret visit to China in 1971 that paved the way for a groundbreaking 1972 summit in Beijing between Nixon (1913-1994) and China's Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976). Kissinger's latest book "On China" is a major analysis of China-US relations.

Kissinger later founded a consulting firm and wrote books and articles on US foreign policy and international affairs.