Henry Kissinger, the most controversial diplomat since World War II, is dead at age 100!
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end of the Vietnam War, he is seen by many as having been an international outlaw and criminal for his involvement in spreading the Vietnam War into Cambodia; his support and promotion of a right wing government in Chile, destroying that democracy for a generation; and his lack of concern about human rights and loss of freedom in so many places around the world besides Chile, including Argentina.
As National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State to President Richard Nixon, and later to President Gerald Ford, he engaged in many unethical, if not illegal, actions.
A believer in Realpolitik in international relations, he was seen as lacking ethics and morality to the extreme, and was noted for his egotism and lack of concern about his reputation.
He is noted for helping to open up relations with the People’s Republic of China, and his dealings with the Soviet Union, and the Middle East cauldron. He also is criticized for backing Pakistan in the Bangladesh-India War for Independence of what had been East Pakistan, undermining relations with the largest populated nation, India, beyond China, and also encouraging the corrupt Shah of Iran during the energy crisis!
Seen as a brilliant and yet to many an evil man, he clashed with many other diplomatic and political figures, and stood out as diametrically opposite to many, including President Jimmy Carter, who survived him and one hopes will reach age 100 in ten months!