Henry Kissinger, Influential Diplomat, Dies at 100

Henry Kissinger, one of the most influential and controversial diplomats of the 20th century, died Wednesday at age 100, his firm said.

Kissinger, who served as secretary of state and national security adviser under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, remained a prominent voice on foreign policy issues long after leaving government in 1977.

"I work about 15 hours a day," he told CBS News weeks before he turned 100, saying with confidence that world leaders like China's Xi Jinping or Russia's Vladimir Putin would likely take his calls.

He was known for his practice of "realpolitik" — engaging with the world based on practical objectives rather than moral ideals — and was credited with the secret diplomacy that helped thaw U.S. relations with China. But he was also accused of alleged war crimes for the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, backing Pakistan's genocide in Bangladesh, and green-lighting the Argentine dictatorship's "dirty war" against dissidents.

He was born in Germany on May 27, 1923, as Heinz Alfred Kissinger. Less than three months before Kristallnacht, in 1938, his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany and resettled in New York City, where he became known as Henry.

Kissinger's Journey

After his first year at George Washington High School, he took night classes and worked in a shaving brush factory during the day, according to "Kissinger: A Biography" by Walter Isaacson. After graduating, he enrolled in the City College of New York and planned to become an accountant. But he was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after his 19th birthday.

Kissinger, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943, returned to his motherland as a German interpreter in the U.S. Army. He also arrested Gestapo members and helped liberate prisoners from the Ahlem concentration camp. "I had not realized until I saw the camp, the depths to which human beings could be reduced," he told the BBC in an interview that aired in July 2022.

He was awarded the Bronze Star for his time in the Army's counterintelligence unit developing informants that led to the Gestapo arrests.

In the following years, Kissinger completed his doctorate at Harvard and joined the faculty. In 1957, he was named the associate director of Harvard's Department of Government and Center for International Affairs. He was also a consultant to several government agencies, including the State Department.

Kissinger's Impact on Foreign Policy

In 1968, Kissinger was appointed as Nixon's national security adviser and later became secretary of state during Nixon's second term. He was the first to hold both positions simultaneously, and he continued to serve as secretary of state in the Ford administration after Nixon's resignation.

Kissinger's diplomatic efforts with the Soviet Union and China were pivotal in reshaping the Cold War. He successfully negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the USSR, which eased tensions between the two nuclear superpowers. Additionally, his backchannel talks with China in the early 1970s led to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations and Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972.

Furthermore, Kissinger's "shuttle diplomacy" played a crucial role in containing the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

However, Kissinger's involvement in other conflicts around the world has been met with controversy. He played a significant role in the U.S. carpet-bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians and contributing to the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Despite this, Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his efforts in negotiating an end to the Vietnam War.