[REAL TALK] Henry Kissinger dead at 100 years old.

[Zaroku]

What did you guys think of his influence on American Foreign Policy?

Your opinions on the man?

[Zaroku]

Kissinger was a who fled with his family in 1938. In the United States, he excelled academically and graduated from in 1950, where he studied under . He earned his and at in 1951 and 1954, respectively.

Kissinger played a prominent role in between 1969 and 1977, pioneering the policy of with the , orchestrating an opening of with , engaging in what became known as in the Middle East to end the , and negotiating the , which ended in the . After leaving government, he formed , an international geopolitical . Kissinger wrote over a dozen books on and .

Kissinger's legacy is a polarizing subject in . He has been widely considered by scholars to be an effective Secretary of State and condemned for turning a blind eye to committed by American allies due to his support of a pragmatic approach to politics called . For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in , Kissinger received the 1973 under controversial circumstances.

[Sweet Pea 5O]

I think he lived 100 years too long.

[4truth]

Henry led a very full life.

kissingerconquests_6472.jpg

[Zaroku]

He brought Israel and Egypt to the bargaining table and a deal was struck.

[Zaroku]

• List of his achievements.
  
  ‘All political lives, unless they are cut off in mid****** at a happy juncture, end in failure.” – yet to this famous aphorism, Henry Kissinger, cold war strategist, US secretary of state, counsellor to 12 American presidents and alleged war criminal – who has died aged 100 – is a notable exception.
  
  The man who invented shuttle diplomacy, promoted the concept of hard-eyed realpolitik and pursued fleeting mirages of detente between hostile superpowers paradoxically lived a life of multiple professional failures that ended happily, marked by generally high international regard.
  
  Kissinger was, throughout his long career, a champion for an American global hegemony that is now unravelling. He and his emulators gave to imperialism a new, post-colonial face, pursuing perceived national interest regardless of the costs – which were principally levied on others.
  
  And yet the three pillars of Kissinger’s achievement – the opening to , a less confrontational relationship with the Soviet Union, and the quest for common ground between Israel and the Arabs – were built on weak foundations that subsequently crumbled.
  
  Spiriting , where he met , was seen as a breathtaking feat at the time. The manoeuvre, a not-so-subtle attempt to outflank the Russians, became known as “playing the China card”. In theory anyway, it piled pressure on the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev.
  
  But in the longer term, it was post-revolutionary China, not the US, that benefited immensely from this first, tentative engagement and the subsequent, rapid and unparalleled economic, business and investment boom.
  
  , seizing power in 1978 after Mao’s death two years earlier, took full advantage of normalisation to begin to build the global superpower that today rivals and, some say, existentially threatens Kissinger’s American hegemony.
  
  It would be absurd to blame him for modern China’s transformation into an aggressive, expansionist predator with scant regard for democracy and human rights. On the other hand, President Xi Jinping, , is clearly following the Kissinger model.