Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who played a major role in U.S. foreign relations during the Cold War, died on Wednesday.
A statement from his consulting firm says that Kissinger died in his home in Connecticut.
Kissinger served as a national security advisor under former President Richard Nixon and later served as the U.S. secretary of state under Nixon and former President Gerald Ford.
While in these roles, Kissinger helped contribute to the U.S. opening to China, arms control deals with the Soviet Union, and ending the Vietnam War.
Kissinger played a pivotal role in negotiating the Paris Peace Accords, which he called “peace with honor,” as The New York Times reported.
This role resulted in Kissinger winning the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize alongside North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, who declined to accept the award.
However, the choice to give Kissinger the award was widely scrutinized due to his approval of a campaign that allowed bombs to be dropped on Cambodia, which was a neutral country in the conflict, according to the BBC.
This campaign was kept secret from both Congress and the public, with a Pentagon report stating that Kissinger had approved each of the 3,875 Cambodian bombing raids in 1969 and 1970 and sanctioned the methods for keeping them out of the newspapers.
More than 50,000 civilians died due to the campaign, and two members of the Nobel committee chose to resign after Kissinger received the award.
Just two years after the Paris Peace Accords were agreed upon, North Vietnamese troops overran Saigon and forced surrender by South Vietnam in April 1975, per The New York Times.
While on a book tour in July 2022, Kissinger was asked by ABC during an interview whether he regrets any of his decisions while in a position of power.
“I’ve been thinking about these problems all my life. It’s my hobby as well as my occupation. And so the recommendations I made were the best of which I was then capable,” he responded, per ABC News.
After the news of Kissinger’s death, many world leaders have expressed their respect and condolences.
While meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Kissinger “laid the cornerstone of the peace agreement, which [was] later signed with Egypt, and so many other processes around the world I admire,” as reported by the Associated Press.
Similarly, China’s President Xi Jinping voiced his respect for Kissinger in a message sent to President Joe Biden, saying, “Dr. Kissinger will always be remembered and missed by the Chinese people.”
“China is ready to work with the United States to carry on the cause of friendship between the Chinese and American people, to promote the healthy and stable development of China-United States relations for the benefit of the two peoples, and to make due contributions to world peace and development,” said Xi in the message, according to the Daily Mail.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, posted on social media that “Kissinger’s strategy and excellence in diplomacy has shaped global politics throughout the 20th century. His influence and legacy will continue to reverberate well into the 21st century.”