Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. diplomat who won a Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating America’s exit from the Vietnam War, has died at age 100.
Kissinger, who was also a Holocaust survivor and longtime professor at Harvard University, was viewed as a towering figure in American politics.
As President Richard Nixon’s top foreign policy aide, Kissinger developed a sweeping international strategy that greatly expanded America’s influence in the world.
During a long career, Kissinger also helped to open diplomatic relations with China and bring about an end to the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Kissinger negotiated America’s exit from Vietnam, sharing the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho for a ceasefire agreement that they drafted.
He also crafted the U.S. “détente policy” that thawed relations with the Soviet Union, and he was the lead architect in bridging relations with Communist China.
Kissinger also played a role in building bridges in the Middle East with Israel, Egypt, and Syria in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
More recently, Kissinger sat on numerous corporate boards, including at Theranos, the blood-screening company that collapsed in 2018 due to fraud and whose leader, Elizabeth Holmes, is now in prison.
Kissinger’s family said he died at home in Connecticut. A graduate of Harvard, Kissinger is survived by his wife Nancy and two children from a previous marriage.