Former diplomat and presidential adviser Henry Kissinger celebrates his 100th birthday today, May 27, surpassing many of his political contemporaries who led the United States through one of the most tumultuous periods in its modern history, including Richard Nixon’s presidency and the Vietnam War. .

Born in Germany on May 27, 1923, Henry Kissinger is still best known for his key role in U.S. foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s, including his recent efforts to get the U.S. out of Vietnam, but not before he became inextricably linked. with many of the conflict’s most controversial actions.

His son’s message

David Kissinger, writing in The Washington Post on Thursday, said his father’s centenary “may smack of inevitability for anyone who knows his strength of character and love of historical symbolism. Not only did he outlive most of his peers, eminent critics and students, but he remained relentlessly active throughout the 90s.”

Henry Kissinger will mark this week with visits to New York, London and his hometown of Fürth in Germany, wrote David Kissinger.

His successes, his problems, his inexhaustible energy

In recent years, Kissinger has not ceased to dominate among those who moved the strings of Washington as a respected political figure. He has advised Republican and Democratic presidents, including Donald Trump, and maintains an international consulting business that allows him to deliver speeches with the German accent he has retained since fleeing the Nazi regime as a teenager with his family.

In his eight years as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, Kissinger became involved in major foreign policy developments, including the first example of “shuttle diplomacy” seeking peace in the Middle East, secret talks with China to thaw relations between emerging superpowers, and initiating peace talks in Paris aimed at ending the conflict in Vietnam and the US military presence in the region.

Kissinger, along with Nixon, also came under fire from US allies when communist North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon in 1975 and the remaining US personnel fled Ho Chi Minh City.

The so-called “wizard of international relations” was further criticized for being seen as masterminding the expansion of the conflict into Laos and Cambodia, which allowed the rise of the Khmer Rouge genocide regime, which killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians.

At the same time, Henry Kissinger was recognized as a key driver of the Depression, a diplomatic effort between the US and the Soviet Union that began in 1967 and continued until 1979 to ease Cold War tensions through trade and arms talks. Arms limitation treaties.

He remained one of Nixon’s most trusted advisers in his administration from 1969 to 1974, as his power grew in the wake of the Watergate affair that toppled the 37th US president.

On October 6, 1973, Israeli officials contacted Kissinger to inform him that they were defending themselves against an invasion. Egyptian troops attacked the Sinai, and the Syrian army invaded northern Israel. Kissinger’s so-called “air diplomacy” was very effective and served some important American purposes: it broke the vicious circle of invasions, broke the embargo on Arab oil-producing states, and laid the foundation for the historic Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which both parties signed under the auspices of then President Carter.

Historic Diplomat

These successes made Kissinger a diplomat of historic significance. The scope of these diplomatic initiatives and their success are unprecedented in American history. The current political climate, however, is not conducive to the emergence of leaders of the caliber of Kissinger. His book on leadership emphasizes the value of consensus on important issues. Kissinger said that leaders are created by carefully studying history.

Gerald Ford, who took over as vice president in the Oval Office after his predecessor retired, awarded Kissinger the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, stating that Kissinger “handled America’s great power in the service of the world wisely and compassionately.”

Others accused him of being more interested in power than harmony during his time in Washington, in using a realpolitik strategy that favored American interests by supporting or strengthening hardline regimes in Pakistan, Chile and the US, Indonesia.

Source: Associated Press.