The world bids farewell to one of the most influential figures in twentieth century international politics as Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, has passed away at one hundred years of age.
“Former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100.
The Democrat, who was the last surviving member of 37th President Richard Nixon’s cabinet, died while he was residing at his home in Connecticut.
He is best known for being the only individual to ever be the White House national security advisor and the secretary of state at the same time. In addition to working under Nixon’s administration, he also worked alongside President Gerald Ford as well.
His biggest accomplishments occurred between 1969 and 1977. During that time, Kissinger initiated a policy of détente to engage with the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War and he began a new strategic alliance by negotiating a rapprochement with China.
In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his involvement in helping end the United States’s involvement in the Vietnam War and leading peace talks between Israel and Arab states, which eventually brought the Yom Kippur War to an end.
In 1977, Ford awarded Kissinger with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for having ‘wielded America’s great power with wisdom and compassion in the service of peace’.
He officially left his career in public office in 1977. Kissinger went on to open a geopolitical consulting firm and wrote more than a dozen books”. -Sophia Flores, One America News
The magnitude of Kissinger’s influence on the modern geopolitical landscape cannot be overemphasized.
However, despite his diplomatic achievements, condemnation of Kissinger upon his death has been rather unforgiving, with Rolling Stone Magazine’s obituary headline reading “War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies” and the Huffington Post giving its obituary the headline “Henry Kissinger, America’s Most Notorious War Criminal, Dies at 100”.
Yet, in spite of the centenarian’s harshest critics, Kissinger’s historic contribution in 1969 as the architect of Sino-American rapprochement not only allowed the United States to extricate itself from Vietnam but the opening of People’s Republic of China to the U.S. after decades of isolation fundamentally shifted the balance of power on the world stage and is what has given Beijing the ability to defy the coercive Western foreign policy of today.