Henry Kissinger Passed Away

The former US Secretary of State dies at 100.

Former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100, according to The Washington Post. The politician's death was reported by his consulting firm. No cause of death was indicated. Mr Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut on November 29.

Mr Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923, in Germany, in the city of Fürth. He was from a religious Jewish family. In 1938, three years after the country passed laws against Jews, his family left Germany and fled to the United States. There he changed his name from Heinz Alfred Kissinger to Henry Kissinger. In 1940 he entered City College in New York after graduating from a local school.

In 1943, Kissinger received American citizenship. Over the next three years, he served in the US Army: first as a translator, and then transferred to the CIC department in Hesse. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.

In 1947 he entered Harvard University, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science and then received a doctorate. From 1954 to 1969 he was a teacher at this educational institution.

Kissinger's political career began in the late 1960s. Previously, he served as a security expert consultant to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and worked with the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA).

In 1969, Mr Kissinger became US National Security Advisor and held this position until 1975. Since September 1973, he had been simultaneously performing the Secretary of State duties. He left this position in 1977.

Mr Kissinger made many significant deeds during his service:

He developed a plan to establish relations with communist China and in 1972 arranged a visit of President Richard Nixon to the PRC, Kissinger had visited China secretly to make it possible;

He established relations with the USSR, also in 1972, as part of the U.S. delegation led by Nixon, arrived in Moscow to sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) – an agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States;

He participated in the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with shuttle diplomacy - intensive bilateral negotiations between the warring parties;

In 1973, he signed the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. He and the representative of North Vietnam, Le Duc Tho, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for this. The Vietnamese did not accept the award, saying that the war was not over – the fighting continued for another two years.

Five years after leaving the post of Secretary of State, he founded Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm, which specialized in analytics and professional assessments.

From 1984 to 1990, he served on the US President's Intelligence Advisory Board, and in 2002, he chaired the 9/11 Commission for two and a half weeks.

He has published several books, including The Lessons Of Henry Kissinger (2016), which presents his views on the future of Russia, the rise of China and events in the Middle East.

Mr Kissinger's awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom (awarded by the President of the United States for outstanding contributions to public life) and the Ewald von Kleist Award - Munich Security Conference (for outstanding contributions to peace and conflict resolution).