The Complicated Legacy of Henry Kissinger

Voices across the spectrum are reflecting on the complicated legacy of Henry Kissinger, who died Wednesday at the age of 100.

“Charm, Brilliance, and Ruthlessness”: In The Daily Beast (Left bias), a reporter wrote about his personal experience with Kissinger, a man able to “disembowel anyone who dared heap legitimate reproach on the many callous foreign policy schemes he triggered.” Despite being “one of the funniest and most engaging individuals” the reporter ever met, Kissinger’s greatest failure was his “pitiless refusal to weigh the human consequences of using military force and underwriting dictatorial regimes to prop up American interests abroad.” The reporter concludes, “Kissinger was the professor with whom you disagreed on every moral ground imaginable, and then did whatever it took to become one of his students.”

“Master of Grand Strategy”: The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board (Lean Right bias) said Kissinger leaves a legacy of “accomplishment and strategic insight about global politics that few have matched.” Determining Kissinger was “often unfairly” criticized by voices across the spectrum for his actions and policy decisions during the Cold War, the board determines a key lesson taught by Kissinger was that “a great leader is someone who takes a nation where it needs to go even when its people don’t realize they need to get there.” Describing his journey in life, from fleeing the Nazis at the age of 15 to crafting American foreign policy, the board concludes, “America was lucky to have him, as he was to have America.”