Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State and one of the most controversial Americans of the twentieth century, died in Connecticut at the age of 100. Kissinger Associates, Inc. issued a statement announcing his death. Kissinger’s legacy is intertwined with the death toll of several million Americans during America’s humiliating defeat in the Vietnam War, as well as his ability to establish Washington-Beijing ties in the early 1970s through an astute blend of people-to-people ties and covert interactions of unprecedented magnitude.
During the Cold War, Kissinger used ambition and intelligence to reshape America’s relationship with the Soviet Union
Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut, according to Kissinger Associates. He received the Nobel Peace Prize “for jointly negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam in 1973.” During his final months, Kissinger was active and attended meetings at the White House, where he was admired even in an unofficial capacity. In July 2023, he paid a surprise visit to Beijing to see Chinese President Xi Jinping, a diplomatic opening he helped open nearly five decades ago in one of the twentieth century’s most momentous geopolitical events. From John F. Kennedy to current President Joe Biden, the scholar-turned-diplomat advised a dozen US Presidents. Kissinger, a German-Jewish immigrant in the United States, is revered, loathed, and condemned in various parts of the world.
Kissinger frequently stomped on the ostensibly American values that Washington publicly championed during and after the Cold War in order to achieve American objectives. During the Cold War, Kissinger used ambition and intelligence to reshape America’s relationship with the Soviet Union. His ability to inject the idea that ‘America has no permanent allies or adversaries’ into the geopolitical zeitgeist of the twentieth century continues to define Washington’s contemporary perspective.
He is regarded as an ultra-realist who, for better or worse, altered every diplomatic equation he touched. Between Kennedy and Biden, and from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, Kissinger’s presence in Washington’s corridors of power remained crucial in every war undertaken by the US.