Henry Kissinger dies at 100: Former US Secretary of State dies at home in Connecticut
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100, it was announced on Wednesday evening.
Kissinger, who was a foreign policy giant during the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died at his home in Connecticut, his consultancy said.
In a statement, Kissinger Associates said: “Henry Kissinger, a respected American scientist and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut.”
Despite being over a hundred years old, he still attended meetings at the White House, published a book on leadership styles, and testified before a Senate committee on the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.
In July 2023, he made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100, it was announced on Wednesday evening
Vice presidential candidate Gerald R. Ford, right, listens as President Richard Nixon speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Saturday, October 13, 1973. Kissinger is pictured at left
Kissinger, who was a foreign policy colossus during the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died at his home in Connecticut, his consultancy said.
In the 1970s, he was involved in many of the decade’s seminal global events while serving as Secretary of State under Republican President Richard Nixon.
The German-born Jewish refugee’s efforts led to China’s diplomatic opening, groundbreaking arms control talks between the US and the Soviet Union, expanded ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam.
Kissinger’s reign as the chief architect of American foreign policy waned with Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
Yet he remained a diplomatic force under President Gerald Ford and continued to express outspoken opinions for the rest of his life.
While many praised Kissinger for his genius and wide experience, others labeled him a war criminal for his support of anti-communist dictatorships, especially in Latin America.
In his final years, his travels were limited by attempts by other countries to arrest him or interrogate him about past US foreign policy.
Divorced from his first wife, Ann Fleischer, in 1964, he married Nancy Maginnes, an aide to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, in 1974.
He had two children by his first wife.
The German-born Jewish refugee’s efforts led to China’s diplomatic opening, groundbreaking arms control talks between the US and the Soviet Union, expanded ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks at a meeting following the assassinations in Beirut of Ambassador Francis E. Meloy, Jr. and economic advisor Robert O. Waring, at the White House in Washington DC, USA, June 17, 1976
President Donald Trump meets with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office of the White House on May 10, 2017
President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger discuss train ride for a summit with Soviet leaders in Vladivostok, Russia, November 23, 1974
Henry Kissinger waves during the 20th anniversary celebration of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies (HNC) at Nanjing University on June 23, 2007
The 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, which went to Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam, was one of the most controversial awards in the prize’s history.
They were selected for their work on the Paris peace talks, which would have arranged the withdrawal of American troops, a ceasefire and the preservation of the South Vietnamese government.
Two members of the Nobel Committee resigned over the choice and Tho refused the prize because their work had not yet brought peace.
Born Heinz Alfred Kissinger in May 1923, he moved to the United States with his family in 1938 before the Nazi campaign to exterminate Europe’s Jews.
Kissinger anglicized his name to Henry and became a naturalized American citizen in 1943, served in the army in Europe in World War II and attended Harvard University on a scholarship – where he earned a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954.
For the next 17 years he served on the faculty at Harvard.
Kissinger last worked in a presidential administration in 1977, but he maintained a relationship with George W. Bush. The then-president chose Kissinger to head a commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks, but he resigned because he would not reveal the names of his consulting firm’s clients.