Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday. This was stated by the consulting company Kissinger Associate, in a statement late on Thursday Norwegian time.
Kissinger remained active after he turned 100 in May this year, attending White House meetings and publishing a book on leadership style.
He also recently testified before a Senate committee on North Korea’s nuclear threat.
The then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during the NATO Ministerial Council Conference in Oslo in 1976, surrounded by security guards.
Photo: Oddvar Walle Jensen / NTB
– Has lost a significant voice
– The US has lost one of the country’s most prominent voices with the passing of Henry Kissinger, says former President George W. Bush.
Bush describes Kissinger as one of America’s “most consistent and distinctive voices in foreign policy”.
Kissinger’s path from being a Jewish refugee from Germany to being at the forefront of American foreign policy decisions “is as much about his greatness as it is about America’s greatness,” says Bush.
Former President George W. Bush with Henry Kissinger in New York in 2008.
Photo: Charles Dharapak / AP
China friend
The former foreign minister is known for having played an important role in improving US relations with China in the 1970s. Today, he is referred to as “a legendary diplomat” on Chinese state television.
He has previously been to China over 100 times, and was there last July this year. Then he went on a surprise visit to Beijing, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
China’s ambassador to the United States, Zie Feng, calls Kissinger’s death a great loss for the world, but that he will always live on in the hearts of the Chinese people.
Henry Kissinger and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2015.
Photo: MARK RALSTON / AFP
Born in Germany
At the age of 15, Kissinger fled with his parents and younger brother from the persecution of Jews in Germany, first to London, later to New York.
During the Second World War, he was associated with American intelligence and sent to Germany, where, among other things, he led the hunt for Gestapo officers in Hanover.
After the war, there were studies, which ended with one of the longest doctoral theses in political science ever delivered at Harvard University.
Kissinger created early debate, among other things when in 1957 he advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons to win wars. He also drew criticism by arguing that morality and public opinion are irrelevant in foreign policy, all the while leaders agree among themselves.
When Henry Kissinger visited Oslo at the invitation of the Nobel Institute and the University of Oslo, he was met by protesters
Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB
Praised and criticized
Kissinger was hailed as a real politician by some and called a war criminal by others.
He never hid that he wanted to influence American foreign policy and got involved early on on the Republican side. He made three unsuccessful attempts to become the party’s presidential candidate in the 1960s.
The last attempt Rockefeller lost to Richard Nixon, who won the presidential election in 1968. He brought in Kissinger as his national security adviser and in 1973 appointed him secretary of state.
A protester, dressed as a wounded Vietnam veteran, accompanied Henry Kissinger when he arrived in Oslo on May 20, 1976. Kissinger visited Oslo in connection with the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting
Photo: NTB
When Nixon’s presidency ended in scandal and resignation, his successor Gerald Ford allowed Kissinger to continue as Secretary of State. In the same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with North Vietnam’s negotiator Le Duc Tho.
The award sparked major protests, the Nobel Committee was accused of rewarding war criminals, and the war in Vietnam was far from over.
Le Duc Tho declined the award, and Kissinger did not come to Oslo to collect it either.
Former Prime Minister Odvar Nordli (Ap) had Henry Kissinger at his table during a dinner at Akershus Castle in 1976, the year after the American forces had withdrawn from Vietnam.
Photo: Henrik Laurvik / NTB
2023-11-30 04:52:14
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