Henry Kissinger dies at age 100
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Henry Kissinger, one of the most influential and polarizing diplomats of the last half-century, has passed away at the age of 100. Kissinger helped shape America’s foreign policy toward China and the Soviet Union and advised several U.S. Presidents.
Kissinger, who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, rose to become one of the most prominent American diplomats of the last 50 years during the presidency of Richard Nixon. He was America’s 56th Secretary of State, and deeply controversial, considered either a diplomatic hero or a warmonger.
He served as both National Security Adviser and Secretary of State during the height of the Cold War. He was instrumental in opening diplomatic relations with China and helped relax tensions with the Soviet Union. Kissinger also won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end the Vietnam War and engaged in what is now known as shuttle diplomacy that ended the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
In a statement, President Joe Biden noted that Kissinger continued to offer his observations and opinions, long after Kissinger was no longer part of the federal government. Biden served on the Senate Foreign Relations committee for decades, saying, “his fierce intellect and profound strategic focus was evident.”
“Kissinger was a genius at playing multilevel chess. He could sustain secret diplomacy with several partners simultaneously,” said Tim Naftali, former director of the Nixon Presidential Library.
But foreign policy critics say he also turned a blind eye to atrocities committed by America’s allies and supported dictators such as the Shah of Iran and Chile’s president, Augusto Pinochet.
“His great moral flaw was that he did not take into consideration the human consequences of the strategic vision that he pushed so determinedly,” said Naftali.
Kissinger stayed on as Secretary of State for President Ford, and in the decades that followed, his government service advised many foreign governments and Fortune 500 CEOs. He also provided informal advice to several U.S. presidents of both political parties.
Upon hearing the news while in Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to the former secretary. “Few people were better students of history. Even fewer people did more to shape history than Henry Kissinger,” said Blinken.
Kissinger is also being remembered by a wide variety of world leaders. Russian President Putin called Kissinger a wise and farsighted statesman and former President George W. Bush in his statement said America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs, with the passing of Henry Kissinger.
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