Henry Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger (1923–2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist renowned for applying realist theory to United States foreign policy. He served as National Security Advisor from 1969 to 1975 and as Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977, and was the principal architect of the Nixon administration's strategic opening to China. In July 1971, feigning illness as cover, Kissinger flew secretly from Pakistan to Beijing and held two days of talks with Zhou Enlai, laying the groundwork for Nixon's visit — widely regarded as one of the most celebrated acts of secret diplomacy of the twentieth century. Kissinger's advocacy of a realism driven by geopolitical interest rather than ideology, and his triangular diplomacy using China as a counterweight to the Soviet Union, fundamentally shaped the Cold War balance of the 1970s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating the Vietnam ceasefire, though the award proved deeply controversial: his co-recipient Lê Đức Thọ refused the prize, and several committee members resigned in protest. Kissinger died on 29 November 2023 at the age of one hundred.