“I believe he has the possibility of going down in history as a very considerable president,” Mr. Kissinger said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

He said the power vacuum left by America’s withdrawal from the international stage under President Obama gives Mr. Trump the chance to craft a lasting foreign policy that breaks significantly from the status quo.

Mr. Kissinger, who met with Mr. Trump in New York shortly after the election, said the president-elect’s foreign policy will rely more on instinct than theory.

“I think he operates by a kind of instinct that is a different form of analysis as my more academic one,” Mr. Kissinger said. “But he’s raised a number of issues that I think are important, very important, and if they’re addressed properly, could lead to great results.”