FILE - Henry Kissinger, left, President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, and Le Duc Tho, member of Hanoi’s Politburo, are shown outside a suburban house at Gif Sur Yvette in Paris, June 13, 1973, after a negotiation session, as Kissinger announced that they will later initial an agreement intended to tighten enforcement of the Vietnam Peace Agreement. Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. He was 100. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz, File)
AP/WASHINGTON — Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state who oversaw foreign policy as the US withdrew from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China and was known for his thick glasses and gravelly voice, passed away on Wednesday, according to his consulting firm. He was one hundred years old.
Under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Kissinger's tough yet powerful demeanor and cunning use of power behind closed doors allowed him to have a unique impact on world affairs, earning him both criticism and the Nobel Peace Prize. Even after many years, his name continued to spark passionate discussions about historical developments in foreign policy..webp)
FILE - Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, left, gestures to the audience in the East Room of the White House, Sept. 22, 1973, as President Richard Nixon watches, in Washington. Kissinger had just been sworn in as the 56th secretary of state. Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. He was 100. (AP Photo, File)
During the turmoil of Watergate, Kissinger's influence increased as the politically astute diplomat took on a role similar to that of co-president to the weak Nixon.
Regarding his growing power, Kissinger subsequently wrote, "No doubt my vanity was piqued." However, the overriding feeling was a sense of impending disaster.
A Jew who left Nazi Germany with his family when he was a teenager, Kissinger went on to build a solid reputation as a respected statesman in his later years by giving speeches, counseling both Democrats and Republicans, and running a multinational consulting firm. He made several appearances at the White House of President Donald Trump. However, as the tapes and documents from the Nixon administration began to surface over time, they revealed many things that, in Kissinger's own words, painted him in a negative light.
Never without his critics, Kissinger faced relentless criticism following his departure from office from those who felt he ought to answer for his support of oppressive regimes in Latin America and his policies in Southeast Asia.
For eight turbulent years, Kissinger covered a wide range of important foreign policy topics, first as national security adviser, then as secretary of state, and briefly holding both positions in between. In the effort to bring peace to the Middle East, he carried out the first "shuttle diplomacy." He pursued diplomatic relations between the US and China through covert means, bringing an end to decades of mutual animosity and isolation.
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FILE - U.S. President Richard Nixon, right, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger walk together to the White House in Washington, Oct. 31, 1973. Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. He was 100. (AP Photo, File)
He started the negotiations in Paris, which eventually led to a face-saving solution to remove the United States from an expensive war in Vietnam (which he referred to as a "decent interval"). Saigon fell to the communists two years later.
Additionally, he pursued a policy of détente with the Soviet Union that resulted in agreements on arms control and suggested that the Cold War's tensions and its nuclear threat might not last forever.
He was still touring for his leadership book at the age of 99. When asked if he would change any of his choices during an interview with ABC in July 2022, Kissinger retreated, stating, "I've been thinking about these problems all my life." It's my work and my hobby at the same time. Therefore, the suggestions I made were the best I could have at the time.
Even so, he expressed conflicting opinions about Nixon's record, acknowledging that the embattled president had “permitted himself to be involved in a number of steps that were inappropriate for a president” but also stating that “his foreign policy has held up and he was quite effective in domestic policy.”
The centennial of Henry Kissinger "might have an air of inevitability for anyone familiar with his force of character and love of historical symbolism," according to his son David, who wrote about the event in The Washington Post as his father approached 100 years old in May 2023. He has not only outlived the majority of his contemporaries, notable critics, and pupils, but he has also persistently engaged in his work well into his nineties.
In an interview with CBS prior to his 100th birthday, Kissinger was asked about people who thought his handling of foreign policy over the years amounted to "criminality." He was nothing but contemptuous.
Kissinger remarked, "That's a reflection of their ignorance." It wasn't thought of in that manner. That wasn't how it was done.
Even in his final months, Kissinger remained active in world affairs. When he first met Chinese President Xi Jinping in July, the two countries' relations were at an all-time low. And fifty years after Israel repelled a surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. the Middle East in 1973, thanks in part to his shuttle diplomacy, Kissinger issued a warning about the likelihood that the conflict would recur.
As soon as word of Kissinger's passing spread, prominent American officials began to pay their respects. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that Kissinger was "endlessly generous with the wisdom gained over the course of an extraordinary life," while former President George W. Bush said that the United States "lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs."
According to Kissinger's consulting firm, he passed away at his Connecticut home.
Kissinger was a realpolitiker, one who used diplomacy to accomplish pragmatic goals rather than aspirational ones. Proponents claimed that his pragmatic bent benefited US interests, while detractors perceived it as a Machiavellian strategy at odds with democratic principles.
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FILE - U.S. President Richard Nixon, right, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger walk together to the White House in Washington, Oct. 31, 1973. Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. He was 100. (AP Photo, File)
He received criticism for approving the wiretapping of reporters and National Security Council employees over the phone in order to stop news leaks from occurring while Nixon was president. On college campuses, he was criticized for the bombing of Cambodia and the allied invasion that followed in April 1970 with the goal of cutting off North Vietnamese supplies to communist forces in South Vietnam.
Some blamed that "incursion," as Nixon and Kissinger dubbed it, for Cambodia falling into the hands of insurgents known as the Khmer Rouge, who went on to kill about two million people in Cambodia.
For his part, Kissinger set out to dispel what he called a "prevalent myth" in 2007: that he and Nixon had unnecessarily prolonged the Vietnam War at the expense of tens of thousands of American lives by agreeing to peace terms in 1972 that had been available in 1969.
He maintained that giving in to Hanoi's demands that the United States overthrow the South Vietnamese government and install a communist-dominated one would have been the only way to expedite the withdrawal.
Pudgy and disheveled, Kissinger strangely became known as a ladies' man during the dignified Nixon presidency. Kissinger referred to women as “a diversion, a hobby” after divorcing his first wife in 1964. Jill St. John was someone they saw often. However, it turned out that Nancy Maginnes, a researcher for Nelson Rockefeller, was the real love of his life, and the two were married in 1974.
The man Newsweek dubbed "Super-K" came in first place as "the man I would most like to go out on a date with" in a 1972 survey of Playboy Club Bunnies.
Kissinger's justification: "The ultimate aphrodisiac is power."
However, Kissinger's handling of diplomacy during the war was despised by many Americans. Decades later, he remained a lightning rod: in 2015, demonstrators disrupted the 91-year-old Kissinger's appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, demanding his arrest for war crimes and denouncing his actions in Southeast Asia, Chile, and other places.
The son of a schoolteacher, Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923, in the Bavarian city of Fuerth. In 1938, Heinz's family emigrated from Nazi Germany to Manhattan, where he took on the name Henry.
From his first marriage, Kissinger had two children: Elizabeth and David.
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