Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger
Birth:	27 May 1923 Furth, Bavaria, Germany (then Weimar Republic)
Death:	29 November 2023 Kent, Connecticut, USA
Age:	100 years, 186 days
Country:	GERUSA
Centenarian

Henry Alfred Kissinger (born as Heinz Alfred Kissinger) (27 May 1923 – 29 November 2023) was a German-born American centenarian, diplomat and politician.

Biography

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on 27 May 1923 in Furth, Bavaria, Germany (then Weimar Republic), in a Jewish family. His parents had the foresight to leave Germany in 1938, just as Hitler’s persecution of the Jews was intensifying. Five years later Kissinger became a naturalized American and at the end of World War II, entered Harvard where he would eventually graduate, win his PhD and become a distinguished professor of government.

During eight years as a national security adviser and secretary of state, Kissinger was involved in major foreign policy events including the first example of “shuttle diplomacy” seeking Middle East peace, secret negotiations with China to defrost relations between the burgeoning superpowers and the instigation of the Paris peace talks seeking an end to the Vietnam conflict and the U.S. military's presence there. Kissinger, along with Nixon, also bore the brunt of criticism from American allies when North Vietnamese communist forces took Saigon in 1975 as the remaining U.S. personnel fled what is now known as Ho Chi Minh City. Kissinger additionally was accused of orchestrating the expansion of the conflict into Laos and Cambodia, enabling the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians.

On 27 May 2023, Henry Kissinger celebrated his 100th birthday and became a centenarian. He was still active, wrote books and commented modern political events. Kissinger died at his home in Kent, Connecticut, USA at the age of 100 years, 186 days.

Gallery

Henry and Walter Kissinger his brother in about 1929

Henry as a young boy in the early 1930s

Henry Kissinger (age 20) in 1944, future U.S. Secretary of State, was assigned to Company G, 335th Infantry Regiment, 84th Division while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana.

Henry Kissinger (Age 21) in March 1945 stands at right with other American soldiers as they befriend a group of German children during World War II.

Portrait of Kissinger (age 27) as a Harvard senior in 1950

Henry being interviewed by Mike Wallace when he was 35 on July 13 1958.

Kissinger (Age 45) sits with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in Washington, D.C., in 1968. After World War II, Kissinger went on to a long and distinguished diplomatic career.

Kissinger (Age 49) and President Richard Nixon discussing the Vietnam situation in Camp David, 1972 (with Alexander Haig)

President Ford, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, and Kissinger (Age 51) speaking informally at the Vladivostok Summit in 1974

Kissinger at age 52 in the West Wing as National Security Adviser in April 1975.

References

• Former US diplomat Henry Kissinger celebrates 100th birthday, still active in global affairs ABC News, 27 May 2023
• Opinion: At 100, Henry Kissinger is still teaching us the value of ‘Weltanschaüng’ CNN, 23 May 2023
• https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/henry-kissinger-world-shaping-diplomat-who-was-revered-and-reviled-dies-at-100/ar-AA1kKV8u?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=46ff7cdc9bb946f9ad4e12ffe98d670c&ei=8