BY SINTAYEHU TAMIRAT
Former presidential adviser Henry A. Kissinger died Wednesday, a statement posted on his geopolitical consulting firm website, Kissinger Associates Inc.
The event has brought to a close one of the most polarizing and influential diplomatic lives in U.S. history.
Kissinger, who died at his home in Connecticut, was 100 years old.
He was much acknowledged for serving as national security adviser under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1969-75
Once a young German-born Jewish refugee in New York and then a US diplomatic powerhouse of huge prominence was also former presidential adviser.
He was one of the most influential and controversial foreign policy figures in American history. He was synonymous with US foreign policy during the Vietnam war and cold war.
Another notable achievement of the late diplomat is his Nobel Peace Prize win for settling circumstances to ending US military involvement in the Vietnam War.
He then enabled President Richard Nixon open communist China to the United States and the West through secret diplomacy.
Perhaps, it could be for this contribution via secrete diplomacy that Chinese President Xi visited him this year.
Yet additional prime stride in Kissinger’s diplomatic career was revealed as the Watergate scandal dominated headlines from spring 1972 until Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
During this time, Kissinger continued pursuing the administration’s foreign policy objectives, notably in the Middle East.
When the Yom Kippur War; the Arab-Israeli War between Egypt, Israel and Syria in October 1973, and when the subsequent oil embargo imposed on the United States had relocated US attention on the region, Kissinger exerted a series of “shuttle diplomacy”, meeting directly with regional leaders as a peace broker on successive short trips.
Kissinger eventually made settle Egyptian-Israeli disengagement and secured a Syrian-Israeli accord in May.
Kissinger remained an influential political consultant throughout his life, publishing his 19th book in 2022.