The Democrat, who was the last surviving member of 37th President Richard Nixon’s cabinet, died while he was residing at his home in Connecticut.
Kissinger fled Nazi Germany in 1938 and arrived to the United States when he was just a teenager. He was a student at Harvard University and eventually became a Harvard faculty member before taking on Washington, D.C.
He is best known for being the only individual to ever be the White House national security advisor and the secretary of state at the same time. In addition to working under Nixon’s administration, he also worked alongside President Gerald Ford as well.
His biggest accomplishments occurred between 1969 and 1977. During that time, Kissinger initiated a policy of détente to engage with the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War and he began a new strategic alliance by negotiating a rapprochement with China.
In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his involvement in helping end the United States’s involvement in the Vietnam War and leading peace talks between Israel and Arab states, which eventually brought the Yom Kippur War to an end.
In 1977, Ford awarded Kissinger with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for having “wielded America’s great power with wisdom and compassion in the service of peace.”
He officially left his career in public office in 1977. Kissinger went on to open a geopolitical consulting firm and wrote more than a dozen books.
Kissinger is survived by Nancy Maginnes, his wife of nearly 50 years. The couple had two children together and five grandchildren altogether.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking the public to donate to the Animal Medical Center in New York or the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs.
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