Washington: Henry Kissinger, the American Diplomat who is credited to have shaped the US Foreign Policy, consequently winning Noble Peace Prize and also accused of war crimes, died Wednesday November 29, 2023.
Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut at the age of 100.
Henry Kissinger had served as US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He left office in 1977 but remained a prominent voice on US foreign policy issues for a very long time.
Kissinger was known for his practice of "realpolitik" — engaging with the world based on "practical objectives rather than moral ideals".
He was also credited with the secret diplomacy that helped thaw U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and China.
At the same time, Kissinger was also accused of alleged war crimes for the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, backing Pakistan's genocide in Bangladesh, green-lighting the Argentine dictatorship's "dirty war" against dissidents and supporting the bloody coup that overturned a leftist government in Chile, according to CBS News.
Kissinger was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938. He was one of the Jewish Americans excluded by then US President Nixon from “policy making on Israel”.
In September 1973 however, Nixon fired Rogers as Secretary of State and replaced him with Kissinger who later closely coordinated with with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the Arab-Israel War - Yom Kippur War that began on Oct 6, 1973.
On November 7, 1973, Kissinger met King Faisal in Riyadh and asked him to end the oil embargo. Despite all of Kissinger's efforts to charm him, Faisal refused to lift the oil embargo the United States. King Faisal agreed to lift the oil embargo on March 19, 1974 after Kissinger promised to sell Saudi Arabia weapons that it had previously denied under the grounds that they might be used against Israel.
Kissinger's reign as the prime architect of U.S. foreign policy waned with Nixon's resignation in 1974. Still, he continued to be a diplomatic force under President Gerald Ford and to offer strong opinions throughout the rest of his life, according to Reuters.
Kissinger was in 1973 conferred with the Noble Peace Prize jointly with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho for negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam. The nomination created a huge controversy and two members of the Nobel committee resigned over the selection and questions arose about the U.S. secret bombing of Cambodia.
Le Duc Tho also refused to accept the Peace Prize as the ceasefire was already broken down. In a telegram sent to the Noble Award Committee, Le Duc Tho wrote it was impossible for him to accept the prize. “When the Paris Agreement on Vietnam is respected, the weapons fall silent and peace is restored in South Vietnam, I will consider accepting the prize”, he said.
On hearing that Kissinger had been awarded the Nobel Prize, the comedian Tom Lehrer famously declared that "political satire is obsolete", according to BBC.
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