Trump's election helping his Criminal Cases

At the age of 100, Henry Kissinger, one of the nation's most significant foreign policy intellectuals for over 50 years, passed away.

As per a statement released by his consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, Inc., he passed away on Wednesday at his Connecticut residence. It was not stated what caused the death.

As Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford's national security advisor and secretary of state, Henry Kissinger was instrumental in creating the framework that allowed for more controlled ties with the Soviet Union, China, and the major Arab countries. Simultaneously, he was closely linked to some of the most divisive U.S. foreign policy decisions in the last few decades, having supported heavy bombing assaults in Southeast Asia and repeatedly chosen to ignore them to human rights abuses by governments perceived to be supportive of U.S. interests. 

Even though Kissinger never again worked directly for an American president after Ford stepped down, his contributions were significant. His influence on U.S. superpower relations endures today, and to the end of his life, he was a highly sought-after commentator on world affairs.

Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, described Kissinger as the preeminent scholar-practitioner of the post-World War II age. There were many outstanding historians and other outstanding secretary of state, but none who successfully merged the two fields as well as Kissinger did.

After fleeing Nazi Germany as a teenager, Kissinger never lost his strong German accent, and his tough baritone voice and remarks on foreign policy issues catapulted him into international prominence.

Recalling his walks down Manhattan's streets with him, I could see that he would draw crowds akin to that of a movie star or rock star, said David Rothkopf, a former managing director at Kissinger's consulting company. Regardless of their opinions on Henry, everyone wanted to see and spend time with him.

Kissinger, an international celebrity and former ambassador, was praised everywhere, even in Germany, where he and his family had left in 1938.

Hitler had been in power for five years at that point, and the Kissingers had been persecuted by the Nazis just like any other Jewish family. When Kissinger was a child in Germany, he used to cross the street anytime he spotted a bunch of boys coming his way, because he knew he was likely to be beaten up. 

Before being recruited into the U.S. Army, the young Kissinger attended night classes and worked at a factory in America.

Pvt. Kissinger was one of the American soldiers who, after being sent to Germany, freed starving Jewish detainees from an Ahlem detention camp. Sixty years later, at a documentary film screening on Ahlem with a large number of camp survivors in attendance, he ran across several of them again.

In an unusually emotional statement, Kissinger declared, "There's nothing I'm more proud of than having been one of those who had the honor of liberating the Ahlem concentration camp."

Kissinger informed the Ahlem survivors that the people who attended the event meant more to him than anyone else, pointing out how frequently he spoke to different groups.

In that remark, Kissinger rejected the idea that his youth years in Nazi Germany had left him traumatized.

He remarked, "That's nonsense," They weren't killing people just yet. A painful experience was meeting Ahlem. I have never experienced an event as shocking as that one. 

Kissinger became a proponent of peace through strength as a result of his time serving in the American military in Germany.

He attended Harvard after leaving the service. He called his 300-page undergrad thesis "The Meaning of History." He continued as a Harvard teacher, rising to known for his hawkish views. 

Richard Nixon became aware of Kissinger's work and appointed him as his national security adviser. He oversaw one of the riskiest phases in American diplomacy during the ensuing years. Kissinger set up Nixon's landmark visit to China in 1971.

Strategically speaking, Nixon and Kissinger viewed China's opening as a means of taking on China's communist adversary, the Soviet Union. Prior to the trip, no American president had ventured to approach "Red China," as it was then known. Following the visit, no American official ventured to doubt the decision's soundness.

Kissinger believed that if there were significant topics to discuss, it made sense to meet with despicable tyrants. During a 2012 Harvard talk, he discussed his interactions with the infamous but assassinated leader of Communist China, Mao Tse Tung.

Kissinger acknowledged the indescribable pain created by Chairman Mao. It is an unquestionable truth. However, it is also true that he was a highly influential foreign policy strategist.

Kissinger met with Soviet authorities in Moscow at the same time as the opening to China. The threat of a nuclear exchange had hovered over the two nations for more than 40 years. Kissinger's diplomacy helped diffuse the deadly and ongoing tensions between Washington and Moscow and brought in a new era of détente, dialogue, and weapons control agreements. 

The limits of Kissinger's talents were revealed in Vietnam, after all. Nixon dispatched Kissinger to Paris in order to engage in peace talks. Following intermittent discussions with Le Duc Tho, his counterpart from North Vietnam for three and a half years, Kissinger abruptly declared in October 1972 that he would live with regrets.

He stated, "We think that peace is near." We think an accord is getting close.

Although Kissinger and Le Duc Tho's agreement did not put an end to the war, they were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

Kissinger had more influence than any other foreign policy advisor to a U.S. president, both before and after. He conversed with Nixon up to twelve times per day. Kissinger believed Nixon to be an insecure man, and recordings of their phone calls at the White House demonstrate how he catered to Nixon's emotional requirements.

"Mr. President, that was the best speech you've given since you've been in office," Kissinger informed Nixon after the latter's speech on the Vietnam War in April 1971. Kissinger persisted in his argument when Nixon backed down. "It was a powerful speech,," he maintained, "really movingly delivered."

Kissinger was a frequent traveler who discussed war and peace issues with world leaders face-to-face. His frantic efforts to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue gave rise to the phrase "shuttle diplomacy."

Despite his lack of movie star appearance, Kissinger was intelligent and witty, and as a divorced man, he dated beautiful women, which made him vulnerable to Nixon's taunts. 

Henry? "Where have you gone?" In one phone call, Nixon chastised him. Just let me to say that I want you to come back to the White House as soon as you've taken care of the ladies, if you could fit it into your schedule.

Before long, Nixon was consumed by political issues and entangled in the Watergate affair. He effectively delegated foreign policy decision-making to Kissinger.

Rothkopf, a Kissinger staffer and later the author of a book on national security aides, stated, "That worked for Nixon." "Because Nixon preferred to spend less time interacting with people. He had some paranoia. And then Kissinger entered the crisis years, effectively taking on the role of deputy president for foreign policy.

Nixon retained Kissinger as his national security adviser but appointed him as secretary of state in 1973. Kissinger continued to serve as secretary of state but not as national security adviser when Gerald Ford assumed office following Nixon's resignation in 1974.

Kissinger had actually already left his imprint. He was more closely identified with the tough foreign policy stance he promoted than with the presidents he worked for. Indeed, several conservatives within his own Republican Party later attacked him for having pushed for détente with Moscow.

Kissinger's tenet was that the interests of the United States should come before loftier goals, such as advancing democracy and human rights.

Kissinger said to an interviewer in 2007: "We're a country, not a foundation." I used to say this to my colleagues. It is our duty to handle American foreign policy.

Kissinger steadfastly supported bombing operations in Vietnam and Cambodia in order to bolster American bargaining power. Because those countries were partners of the United States, he felt at ease with the United States endorsing the "dirty war" in Argentina and Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. Similarly, the United States may applaud an overthrow of Chile's elected socialist president, Salvador Allende. 

Detractors of Kissinger said that he was guilty of war crimes since he identified with certain policy choices. Allegations were certain to arise at public gatherings, such as his Harvard appearance in 2012.

How can you explain winning the Nobel Peace Prize considering that you and Richard Nixon engineered the Vietnam War's four million Southeast Asian deaths?" 

Do you disagree with these war crimes? said the man. Basically, what is your nighttime self-sleeping routine?

Such inquiries were nothing new to Kissinger, who frequently urged his detractors to look at "the big picture." 

Kissinger told the Harvard questioner, "Just study who did what, not people who live off proving their country is evil and their leaders are criminals." Assume for the moment that the government was composed of sensible individuals. Which decisions were influenced by what? He challenged his critic to read over the meeting minutes related to national security.

"You may not agree with it," he added, "but you won't throw around words like war criminal then."

Despite having firsthand experience with criminal dictators during his time in Nazi Germany, Kissinger continued to interact with other countries who put their opponents to death. It's possible that Kissinger found it simpler to be objective when making difficult policy decisions because of his personal experiences.

His former assistant David Rothkopf believes that much of Kissinger's worldview came from his early life in Germany and his time spent serving in the U.S. Army as a young man.

According to Rothkopf, those are the formative years. In my opinion, one must comprehend Kissinger as a man who survived the Holocaust, returned to fight in this great war, and regarded the United States as the defender against an almost total evil.

Assuming that the United States was on the side of righteousness, Rothkopf speculates that Kissinger might have been more inclined to defend dubious American acts abroad.

According to Rothkopf, that goes a long way toward explaining—if not completely forgiving—some of the events that followed.

According to Haass, who held the position of director of policy planning at the U.S. State Department under the George W. Bush administration, Kissinger's foreign policy stance placed him firmly in the realism tradition. According to Haass, Kissinger stressed the significance of maintaining international order in this way and influencing major nations' foreign policy more than their internal political or economic actions.

Until the end of his life, Kissinger continued to be involved in the world stage, giving speeches, conducting interviews, and publishing books on foreign policy.

It was Donald Trump's "America First" arrogance that first wowed him. In a post-election interview with CBS's Face the Nation, Kissinger hinted that "something remarkable" could come out of a Trump administration.

"I'm not saying it will," stated Kissinger. It's an incredible opportunity, I say.

But nearly four years later, Kissinger expressed concern in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations that U.S. influence on world affairs would decline if the Trump administration persisted in pulling out of international involvement and global alliances.

He predicted that we will eventually become isolated and, in a sense, insignificant during the period of time when history is judged.

That was practically unimaginable for a diplomat who always considered America to be the leading player in the global power struggle.

Elizabeth and David, his two children from his first marriage, and his wife Nancy Maginnes Kissinger are the only survivors of Kissinger.