Kissinger was Secretary of State under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1973 and 1977 and National Security Advisor from 1969–75.
His interest in foreign affairs continued until the end, as recently as July this year he traveled to China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
He was known for, among other things, having been involved in opening up diplomatic relations between the United States and China, the disarmament talks with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and the peace agreement with Vietnam in 1973.
For the latter, as US peace negotiator, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, an award he shared with his North Vietnamese counterpart Le Duc Tho, who refused to accept the award.
Controversial award winner
The New York Times newspaper renamed the award – which was given during ongoing wars – the “Nobel War Prize”.
A few years later, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces, Kissinger offered to return the Peace Prize, but the Nobel Committee did not accept it.
Kissinger was born in Germany on May 27, 1923, and came with his family to the United States in 1938 as Jewish refugees escaping Nazi persecution.
In 1954, he earned a doctorate in political science from Harvard. According to his own statement, as a young man he had never envisioned a career in politics.
– I thought I would become an accountant. I never thought I would be teaching at Harvard. Becoming foreign ministers was not something I dreamed of, he said in an interview with USA Today in 1985.
Admired and criticized
Kissinger was both admired and criticized for his proven strategic ability.
“With the passing of Henry Kissinger, America has lost one of its most trusted and distinctive voices on foreign affairs,” former US President George W Bush said in a statement.
At home, Kissinger became a respected former statesman even among the Democrats, and when he celebrated his 100th birthday earlier this year, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken joined in the festivities.
His actions during his time as minister also led to him being despised in parts of the world.
Involvement in military coups
Previously classified documents showed, for example, how the United States, during Kissinger’s time as secretary of state, played an active role in undermining Chile’s popularly elected Marxist president, Salvador Allende. This meant, among other things, supporting a group of officers who murdered a general who did not want to participate in a coup attempt in 1970 and later also supported Augusto Pinochet’s bloody military coup in 1973.
Kissinger also supported anti-communist Indonesia in its invasion of East Timor in 1975, in which over 100,000 people were killed.
When the United States wanted to withdraw from the Vietnam War, Kissinger and Nixon gave the green light to secret bombings in Laos and Cambodia that would prevent guerrillas from entering what was then South Vietnam. The aim was to strengthen the US’s negotiating position, but the bombings were unsuccessful and thousands of civilians were killed.
Henry Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday, according to a statement from his consulting firm.