Henry Kissinger, the former U.S secretary of state who helped shape the post-World War II world, died Wednesday at the age of 100, his consulting firm said.
“Dr. Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut,” Kissinger Associates announced in a statement late Wednesday.
It said that Kissinger’s family would hold a private funeral, with a memorial service to take place later in New York.
It did not provide a cause of death. Kissinger had remained active even as a centenarian, traveling to China in July to meet President Xi Jinping.
China was one of Kissinger’s most lasting legacies. Hoping to shake up the Cold War fight against the Soviet Union, Kissinger secretly reached out to China, culminating in a historic 1972 visit by president Richard Nixon and later the U.S. establishment of relations with Beijing.
After the Watergate scandal brought down Nixon, Kissinger served under his successor, Gerald Ford. In an unprecedented arrangement, Kissinger served both as secretary of state and national security advisory.
Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiations to end the Vietnam War, even though the conflict continued afterward and his North Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, declined to accept the prize.
While Kissinger’s intellectual gifts were begrudgingly acknowledged even by his critics, he remains controversial for his philosophy of realpolitik—the idea that nations pursue their own interests through power.
