George W. Bush leads tributes to Henry Kissinger: Former President mourns ‘one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs’
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President George W. Bush was among the first to pay tribute to Henry Kissinger, describing him as “one of the most trusted and distinguished voices in foreign affairs,” following the death tonight of the former Secretary of State at 100 -year age.
The 43rd president said he had “long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family and then fought against them in the U.S. Army.”
“When he later became secretary of state, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did about the greatness of America,” Bush wrote on the website bushcenter.org.
“He worked in the administrations of two presidents and advised many more. I am grateful for that service and advice, but I am most grateful for his friendship.
‘Laura and I will miss his wisdom, his charm and his humor. And we will always be grateful for the contributions of Henry Kissinger.”
President George W. Bush said he would always be grateful for Henry Kissinger’s friendship
Kissinger visited Bush in Texas in 2000 to help the then-governor in his presidential bid
News organizations were among the first to give their assessment of his decades in power under successive US presidents.
Bloomberg described him as the “child refugee who became the U.S. Secretary of State and who defined U.S. foreign policy in the 1970s with his strategies to end the Vietnam War and contain communist countries.”
CNBC described him as the “towering American diplomat,” and the Washington Examiner called him “one of the most influential statesmen of the 20th century.”
Many initial reactions online were hostile, reflecting his controversial role during the Vietnam War, with Rolling Stone Magazine calling him the “notorious war criminal.”
It quoted Yale University historian Greg Grandin as saying, “The Cubans say there is no evil that lasts a hundred years, and Kissinger is doing everything he can to prove them wrong.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer said his “gruff yet commanding presence and his behind-the-scenes manipulation of power exerted an unusual influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.”
The Chicago Tribune said Kissinger was a “practitioner of realpolitik — using diplomacy to achieve practical goals rather than promote lofty ideals.”
The LA Times described him as a “towering intellectual force in world affairs for more than half a century.”
“Kissinger’s unique style of diplomacy and the force of his personality have made him an international media star,” the report said.
the New York Daily News called him an “indispensable foreign policy adviser to four presidents and a front-row witness to history in Nixon’s crumbling White House.”
Reactions around the world were no less mixed.
The French newspaper Le Monde placed him ‘between cynicism and seduction, between brutality and skill’.
“This architect of American Realpolitik and of the policy of ‘détente’ with the USSR prioritized global stability over democracy and human rights,” the report noted.
China Daily noted that he had visited that country more than 100 times, and China’s Global Times called him “China’s old friend” and added: “The Chinese people will continue to share their historic contributions in promoting ties between China and never forget the US.’
Many on social media pointed out that Kissinger had even outlived some of the journalists who wrote his obituaries, including David E Sanger of the New York Times.