Henry Kissinger, Former US Secretary of State, has died at the age of 100.

Washington: Henry Kissinger, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and diplomatic powerhouse whose service under two presidents left an indelible mark on US foreign policy, died on Wednesday (Nov 29). News of his death was confirmed by a statement from his consulting firm.

Kissinger, who served as secretary of state and national security adviser under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, remained a prominent voice on foreign policy issues long after leaving government in 1977.

Kissinger had been active past his centenary, attending meetings in the White House, publishing a book on leadership styles, and testifying before a Senate committee about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. In July 2023 he made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Who was Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943, served in the Army in Europe in World War II, and went to Harvard University on scholarship, earning a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954. He was on Harvard’s faculty for the next 17 years.

Kissinger served as a consultant to government agencies, including in 1967 when he acted as an intermediary for the State Department in Vietnam.

Kissinger declared in 1972 that “peace is at hand” in Vietnam but the Paris Peace Accords reached in January 1973 were little more than a prelude to the final Communist takeover of the South two years later.

Meanwhile, Kissinger married Nancy Maginnes on March 30, 1974, in Arlington, Virginia. The two met when she was a student at Harvard.