According to his consultancy firm, Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state whose unreserved support of unadulterated American power influenced the post-World War II world, passed away on Wednesday. He was one hundred years old.
Kissinger Associates released a statement late on Wednesday stating, “Dr. Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut.”
It stated that after his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany, Kissinger would be raised in New York, and that his family would have a private funeral, followed by a memorial service.
The reason of death was not mentioned in the statement. Even at 100 years old, Kissinger was still active; in July, he went to China to meet with President Xi Jinping.
One of Kissinger’s most enduring contributions was to China. In an attempt to destabilize the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Kissinger surreptitiously reached out to Beijing. This resulted in President Richard Nixon’s historic visit in 1972 and the US’s subsequent establishment of diplomatic ties with the then-isolated nation, which has since grown to become the second-largest economy in the world and a major rival of Washington.
Following Nixon’s downfall due to the Watergate incident, Kissinger worked for Gerald Ford. Kissinger held the dual roles of national security advisor and secretary of state in an unprecedented arrangement.
Even though the Vietnam War did not end right once and Le Duc Tho, Kissinger’s counterpart from North Vietnam, declined to receive the honor, the former president was given the Nobel Peace honor for his efforts to broker an agreement to halt hostilities.
Despite being despised in many parts of the world, Kissinger was respected as an elder statesman, even by the Democratic Party, which was led by the incumbent Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who attended his 100th birthday celebration in New York.
Former President George W. Bush released a statement stating, “With the passing of Henry Kissinger, America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs.”
Even his detractors conceded that Kissinger was a gifted intellectual, but his brutal realpolitik philosophy—the dispassionate assessment that states use power to further their own interests—keeps him in the public eye.
According to declassified papers, Kissinger approved of the 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet as well as the subversion of Salvador Allende, the elected Marxist president of Chile.
Kissinger also backed Indonesia, a key ally against communism, during East Timor’s 1975 occupation. Launched a day after Kissinger and Ford met Indonesian leader Suharto, the invasion claimed the lives of over 100,000 East Timorese until Indonesia ended its occupation in 1999.
In an attempt to withdraw from Vietnam while maintaining a more powerful bargaining position, Nixon and Kissinger approved a covert bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia from 1969 to 1970 with the goal of impeding rebel advances into South Vietnam.
The bombing contributed to the rise of the homicidal Khmer Rouge and did not stop the infiltration, killing thousands of civilians.
In a similar vein, Kissinger appeared unconcerned about Cyprus after Turkey invaded the split island in 1974 and Greece’s military regime removed Archbishop Makarios, the elected leader.
However, Kissinger has never been in grave danger from the law; in 2004, a US judge dismissed a lawsuit pertaining to the murder of Chile’s army chief.
Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Kissinger’s rigorous negotiations between Israel and Arab states came to characterize shuttle diplomacy, earning him praise from all corners of the US political spectrum.
By successfully severing the Arab states from their Soviet backer, he was able to establish US as the region’s main mediator and security guarantee.
Few other secretary of state in history were as recognizable to the public as the immigrant scholar turned ultimate insider, with his bookishly thick glasses and deep monotonous voice that never lost a hint of his original German.
In addition, he was an oddball sex symbol, hanging out with well-known girls. Kissinger once responded to a question concerning his reputation with a typical realpolitik response: “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
According to his consultancy firm, he is survived by his wife Nancy of almost 50 years, two children from a previous marriage, and five grandchildren
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