- Kissinger, Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford, died on Wednesday at the age of 100
- The influential and controversial statesman led a remarkable life after fleeing Nazi Germany as a boy
- He won the Nobel Peace Prize and broke barriers with China, but polarized his critics
Advertisement
The remarkable life of Henry Kissinger is in the spotlight after the influential statesman died on Wednesday at the age of 100.
From his childhood in Germany, where his family fled Nazi persecution, to his role as chief architect of American foreign policy in the Nixon and Ford administrations, Kissinger’s life was intersected with some of the crucial global events of the past century.
The diplomatic powerhouse won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his role in ending the Vietnam War – although his nomination was one of the most controversial in the prize’s history, prompting two members of the Nobel Committee to resign .
As a statesman, author, scholar, army veteran and unlikely ladies’ man, Kissinger played many roles during his life.
He remained active on the world stage after the age of 100, attending White House meetings, publishing a book on leadership styles and testifying before a Senate committee on the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.
Henry Kissinger (left) is seen around 1933 at the age of 11 with his brother Walter, then 10, as children in pre-war Germany. His family fled the country in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution of Jewish people
Henry Kissinger is seen in 1962, when he worked as an advisor to President John F Kennedy and associate professor of government at Harvard University
Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s then National Security Advisor, works in his office in the northwest corner of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, in August 1970
President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger stand in front of an Oval Office window in D.C. on February 10, 1971
US Special Envoy Henry Kissinger (R) meets with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, July 1971 in Beijing, during a secret visit to China that paved the way for a thawing of relations
Kissinger is seen third from the right in China in 1972, when Nixon visited Beijing for a groundbreaking summit with Zhou Enlai and Chairman Mao Zedong
Kissinger and his wife Nancy watch a football game in Washington DC on April 4, 1974, a month after their wedding
Kissinger is confronted by the international press during a press conference at Schloss Klessheim in Salzburg, Germany, on June 11, 1974
President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger laugh together after Clinton delivered the closing address at a national policy conference, March 1, 1995, in Washington, D.C.
Kissinger meets with then-Governor of Texas and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, Texas on July 12, 2000
Pope Benedict XVI greets former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during a private meeting at his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, September 28, 2006
Kissinger talks with Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Capitol Hill in January 2007 before Kissinger testified before the committee about Iraq
President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting on the New START Treaty as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger looks on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on November 18, 2010 in Washington, DC
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) is introduced by former US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during a policy speech to Chinese and US CEOs at a dinner reception in Seattle on September 22, 2015
President Donald Trump meets with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office on October 10, 2017