Henry Kissinger, Who Helped Forge U.S. Foreign Policy During Vietnam and Cold Wars, Dies at 100

Former presidential adviser Henry Kissinger has died, according to a statement posted on his website, bringing to a close one of the most polarizing and influential diplomatic lives in U.S. history.

He died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut, said a statement by his consulting firm. He was 100 years old.

The German-born academic was the only American official ever to concurrently serve as secretary of state and White House national security adviser, giving him immense power during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford presidencies. That helped him end the U.S. war in Vietnam and to shape American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Kissinger’s diplomatic coups made him a hero to war-weary Americans fearing nuclear armageddon. But he drew the ire of both the American left, which held him responsible for brutalities committed abroad, and the right, which regarded him with suspicion for advocating detente with Communist regimes. 

Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, along with the Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho, for pursuing secret diplomatic talks that forged the Paris Peace Accords, ending the U.S. military campaign in Southeast Asia.