The divisive politician Henry Kissinger, who shaped US foreign policy for many years, has passed away
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| The divisive politician Henry Kissinger, who shaped US foreign policy for many years, has passed away |
At the age of 100, Henry Kissinger, one of the most significant and divisive diplomats of the 20th century, passed away on Wednesday, according to his company.
Long after leaving the administration in 1977, Kissinger—who held positions as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford—continued to be a well-known figure on foreign policy matters.
A few weeks before turning 100, he told CBS News, "I work about 15 hours a day," adding confidently that international leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin or China's Xi Jinping would probably answer his call.
His "real politics"—interacting with the world for pragmatic purposes as opposed to moral principles—were well-known, and he was recognized for having carried out covert diplomacy that contributed to the improvement of US ties with China. However, he was also charged with war crimes for allegedly bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War, endorsing the genocide in Bangladesh carried out by Pakistan, and sanctioning the "dirty war" waged by the Argentine dictatorship against dissidents.
On May 27, 1923, in Germany, Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born. His Jewish family left Nazi Germany less than three months before Kristallnacht in 1938, and they made their way to New York City, where he went by Henry.
In "Kissinger: A Biography," Walter Isaacson writes that during his first year at George Washington High School, he worked during the day at a shaving brush factory and attended night school. He intended to become an accountant and enrolled at the City College of New York after graduating. However, he was recruited into the US Army not long after becoming 19 years old.
After naturalizing as an American citizen in 1943, Kissinger served as a German translator in the US Army before returning home. Along with helping to free detainees from the Ahlem concentration camp, he also made arrests of Gestapo members.
In a July 2022 interview, he told the BBC, "I was unaware of how deeply humanity could be reduced until I saw the camps."
For his work creating spies in an army counterintelligence unit that resulted in a Gestapo arrest, he was awarded a Bronze Star.
After the war, he returned to America and enrolled at Harvard, where his final thesis on "The Meaning of History" went down in mythology, according to Isaacson's book. With over 400 pages, it was the longest graduate thesis ever and is said to have instituted the "Kissinger Rule," which set a restriction on the length of theses submitted by students in the future.
In the next years, Kissinger joined the faculty at Harvard after completing his degree. He was appointed Associate Director of the Center of International Affairs and the Department of Government at Harvard in 1957. Additionally, he served as an adviser to the State Department and other federal departments.
Nixon hired Kissinger as his National Security Advisor in 1968 and, in his second term, made him Secretary of State. Kissinger was the first to hold both positions concurrently, and he continued to hold both under the Ford administration after Nixon's resignation.
Many people believe that Kissinger's outreach to China and the Soviet Union changed the course of the Cold War. He worked with the USSR to negotiate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which helped to ease tensions between the two nuclear giants. Additionally, in the early 1970s, he started secret talks between the US and China, which eventually resulted in the formalization of diplomatic ties and Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972.
Another outcome of his "shuttle diplomacy" was the 1973 Arab–Israeli War being avoided.
However, their influence on other global wars has generated considerable debate.
During the Vietnam War, Kissinger was a major player in the American carpet bombing of Cambodia, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and helped the genocidal Khmer Rouge dictatorship come to power. However, he was also a co-winner of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the talks that brought an end to the Vietnam War.
Kissinger faced severe criticism for other actions he believed to be in US interests, such as weakening Chile's democratically elected government, which set the stage for a military takeover, and arming Pakistan's tyrant, whose government had Bangladeshi citizens are now being massacred. Kissinger advised right-wing military commanders in Argentina in 1976, "If there are things that have to be done, you must do them quickly." There were widespread abuses of human rights; thousands of individuals were killed, tortured, or "disappeared".
To those who saw Kissinger as a war criminal, he said, "It's a reflection of his ignorance," in an interview with CBS News. "That was not the original idea. That was not how it was run."
For several years after leaving the administration in 1977, Kissinger was a significant figure in the field of international affairs. He kept up his public commentary on world affairs, commercial client consultations, and confidential presidential advice far into his late nineties.
Kissinger said in a 2012 interview with CBS News that "I've been honored to be privileged to do sometimes less, at other times more important things for 10 presidents, starting with Kennedy." "My friendship with Bush 43 was really pleasant. He often asked me to talk to him."
In a 2017 White House meeting, then-President Trump complimented Kissinger's "immense talent" after he had shared foreign policy advice with him.
At the 100th anniversary summit, Kissinger said that he would be "willing to do that" if a president requested him to speak with Putin about the conflict in Ukraine.
Tricia Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Nixon's daughters, released a statement in which they expressed their deepest condolences on behalf of their family, all those who served their father, and Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, who created a generation of peace for our nation.
Former President George W. Bush stated in a statement on Wednesday that "America has lost one of its most trusted as well as distinguished voices on foreign affairs."
"He served in the administrations of two presidents and advised many others," Bush stated in a letter. "Although I appreciate his assistance and counsel, I am most appreciative of his friendship. His charm, humor, and intellect will be missed by Laura and myself. And we will always be appreciative of Henry Kissinger's assistance."
Kissinger is survived by his wife, Nancy, with whom he married in 1974, as well as his two children, Elizabeth and David, from his previous marriage.
