Henry Kissinger, the toweringly influential former secretary of state who earned a reputation as a sagacious diplomat but drew international condemnation and accusations of war crimes for his key role in widening the American presence in Vietnam and the US bombing of Cambodia, died Wednesday. He was 100, NBC news reports.
Kissinger’s consulting firm announced his death, saying he died at his home in Connecticut. No cause was given.
Kissinger, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, reached the pinnacle of the American political establishment and in turn, became an unlikely household name.
He was secretary of state and national security adviser under two Republican presidents, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, and advised powerful leaders in both American political parties for decades.
He came to be seen as one of the leading diplomats and international relations intellectuals of the 20th century, an exponent of “realpolitik” who orchestrated the normalization of relations with China and helped ease tensions between the US and the Soviet Union.
MNA/PR
