by Ben Whedon
American diplomat and statesman Henry Kissinger died Thursday at the age of 100 at his Connecticut home of unspecified causes, the Washington Post reported, citing a statement from his consulting firm.
Kissinger was a veteran of the Nixon and Ford administrations and was a leading figure in shaping both presidents’ foreign policies during the Cold War. He was further the only person ever to simultaneously hold the posts of White House national security advisor and Secretary of State.
Having first arrived in the United States in 1938 after fleeing Nazi Germany, Kissinger’s rise to power was meteoric and his career saw him participate in some of the defining events of the nation’s standoff with the Soviet Union and global communism.
He is widely credited with helping to shape the Nixonian détente policy with the Soviet Union and encouraging the president to pursue closer relations with China. Kissinger further received the Nobel Peace Prize along with Le Duc Tho for the 1973 Paris Agreement that ended American military involvement in the Vietnam War.
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Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.
Photo “Henry Kissinger” by Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy University of Michigan. CC BY-ND 2.0.
