Henry Kissinger, arguably US’ most powerful diplomat ever, dies at 100

Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 100. Kissinger served under two presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, from 1969 to 1977, and he had a considerable impact on US foreign policy and external affairs.

Henry Kissinger was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, one of the most controversial in the award’s history for which it was dubbed the “war prize”. For the first time in the history of the awards, two Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.

Five things about his life are as follows:

Over the course of eight years, serving at times as both the secretary of state and the national security adviser while concurrently holding both roles at first — Kissinger wielded significant influence in shaping foreign policy.

As a pioneer of “shuttle diplomacy,” he actively pursued peace in the Middle East. He was able to successfully restore diplomatic ties between China and the United States by conducting covert negotiations. Leading the Paris negotiations, Kissinger provided a way for the US to end the Vietnam War with honour.

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At the height of the Watergate scandal, Kissinger’s influence peaked when he took on a role akin to that of quasi-co-president alongside the beleaguered Nixon. Kissinger stated, “No doubt my vanity was piqued but the dominant emotion was a premonition of catastrophe,” in reference to his influence during the Watergate scandal. He claimed to his fellow White House staff members that he was instrumental in stopping Nixon from doing anything that would “blow up the world,” according to the AP.

For many years, Kissinger struggled with the belief that thousands of American lives were lost needlessly during the war in Vietnam when he and Nixon agreed to peace terms in 1972 that had been offered in 1969. In an effort to stop news leaks within Nixon’s White House, he approved telephone wiretaps on reporters as well as his own National Security Council staff, for which he received harsh criticism. He was denounced for the bombing and invasion of Cambodia in April 1970 by a number of college campuses. Some blamed him for playing a part in the capture of Cambodia by rebels from the Khmer Rouge.

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Kissinger established himself as a well-respected elder statesman by giving speeches, advising presidents of both parties, and managing an international consulting firm that took him all over the world. But as the Nixon era’s documents were made public over time, new information emerged that painted him in a negative light. He was forced to respond to criticism that was coming from both domestic and foreign quarters regarding his support of oppressive regimes in Latin America and his policies in Southeast Asia. Before he could visit some countries, he had to consider the risk of being called before judges who wanted to know what he had done.