Political wonder, football fan, war criminal?: Seven photos show why Kissinger’s death affects the world

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A statesman must have two qualities, Henry Kissinger (†100) said a few years ago in his eulogy for a friend: vision and courage. Kissinger, the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Richard Nixon (1913–1994) and Gerald Ford (1913–2006) in the 1970s, had both.

The diplomat of the century, who once migrated to America from Bavaria as a Jewish refugee boy and died on Wednesday at the age of 100, made a decisive contribution to the tension between the Soviet and American superpowers during the Cold War. But he also set the US on a speedy course of reconciliation with China.

Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for the armistice treaty with North Vietnam. A controversial award. To some critics of his Vietnam policy, the former Harvard professor remained a “war criminal.” A look back in 7 scenes.

1. Allow me: Heinz Alfred Kissinger (*1923)

Henry Kissinger was born in 1923 as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in the Bavarian city of Fürth and attended the Israeli high school there with his brother. In 1938, his family fled the Nazis and took the ship “Île-de-France” to New York. In 1945, Henry, who had since become a naturalized citizen, returned to Germany – as a fighting soldier on the American side. On April 10, he was one of the soldiers who liberated the Hannover-Ahlem subcamp. What stayed with him from his Bavarian youth: the German accent, which he audibly retained until the end.

2. The first naturalized Minister of Foreign Affairs

Kissinger was considered one of the leading political thinkers of the 20th century. The Harvard professor advised leading politicians in America early on and was eventually appointed Secretary of State by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1973. Kissinger is the first and only naturalized American to serve as the country’s top diplomat. He remained in office under Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford.

3. Shake hands, disarm!

As Secretary of State and later as an advisor, Kissinger consistently advocated dialogue with the Soviet Union. He met Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) several times. For Kissinger, stability between the two superpowers was the central element of world politics that had to be protected despite all setbacks. This is one reason why he campaigned for a quick resolution of the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in 1973. Kissinger feared that the war could quickly develop into a proxy conflict between America and the USSR – which he equated with the collapse of the world order. His overtures were fruitful: under his auspices, America and the Soviet Union signed several disarmament treaties.

4. Putin’s sad telegram

Kissinger also relied on a détente policy toward Vladimir Putin (71). The two met regularly, sometimes at Putin’s dacha, but “always only for business purposes,” as Kissinger emphasized in one of his last interviews with “Zeit.” Putin had apparently also tried to involve Kissinger as a mediator in the war in Ukraine, but the late top diplomat did not do so on the advice of the US government. Nevertheless, Putin remained friends with him. He sent Kissinger’s wife a letter of condolence on Thursday. The world has lost “a wise and far-sighted statesman,” the Russian ruler wrote.

5. War crimes in Cambodia?

Anyone who reaches the top of world politics automatically attracts a lot of anger and hatred. This happened to Kissinger too. His critics accuse him of being responsible for the bombings of Cambodian civilians between 1969 and 1973. The secret bombing campaign that took place in the shadow of the Vietnam War contributed to the country’s civil war and the rise of the Khmer Rouge terror regime (1975 to 1979). Kissinger was also criticized for his involvement in the US-backed overthrow of the socialist government of Salvador Allende (1908–1973) in Chile.

6. Honorary member of the Bavarian club of the 2nd division

Kissinger remained loyal to his hometown of Fürth until the end. In the summer he personally took part in a celebration in his honor in his native Bavaria. And: Henry Kissinger, the former Foreign Minister, remained an honorary member of the SpVgg Greuther Fürth football club (2nd Bundesliga) until the end.

7. Nancy towered over the one who towered over almost everything

Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the communist leader of China, once literally froze when he saw Kissinger’s wife Nancy. The now 89-year-old New Yorker once studied with Kissinger at Harvard and was married to him for 49 years. Nancy was almost a head taller than her towering husband.

Source: Blick