Henry Kissinger died at the age of 101.
Photo: REUTERS
American diplomat Henry Kissinger died at the age of 101. He lived an eventful life, becoming a Nobel laureate and one of the most authoritative political consultants of the last century. He was a participant and witness in several wars, including the Cold War, a peacekeeper and instigator of many other conflicts. It was Kissinger who was directly involved in the global events of the 1970s, including: the Vietnam War, recognition of the People’s Republic of China, arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union, the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, etc.
What Henry Kissinger is known for: biography from soldier to secretary of state
Kissinger was not a native of the United States: he was born in Bavaria, Germany, from where his Orthodox Jewish parents fled Nazism to the United States. The name on his birth certificate is Heinz Alfred Kissinger.
He first visited his homeland during World War II, as part of the US 84th Infantry Division, where he served as a translator.
He is credited with romances with actresses Shirley MacLaine, Marlo Thomas and Liv Ullman. It is important to note that all of these stories date from the period of Kissinger’s life when he was a bachelor. What’s more, those who knew him closely say that the playboy image was an invention of the media.
Henry Kissinger in 1975
Photo: REUTERS
However, according to the results of a survey conducted in 1972 by the erotic magazine Playboy, Kissinger became the most desirable man with whom readers would like to go on a date.
Kissinger was married twice. His second wife, philanthropist Nancy Maginess, whom he had known for several years before walking down the aisle, called speculation that she and Kissinger would marry a year before their wedding “scandalous.”
He entered the White House as a member of President Richard Nixon’s administration and did not lose his position as national security adviser after Nixon was replaced by Gerald Ford.
Kissinger with US President Nixon in the Moscow Kremlin, 1972
Photo: REUTERS
Former Secret Service agent Dennis McCarthy, who was guarding the diplomat, said in his memoirs that in 1977 the Kissingers ended up in Acapulco, Mexico. The couple decided to swim in the ocean, but there were signs on the beach warning of the danger: there were many sharks. Kissinger did not contradict his wife, who wanted to swim at all costs, and ordered the guards to go into the water and… protect Nancy’s sharks.
Nobel Peace Prize
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Kissinger in 1973 was marked by scandal. He was nominated for the award along with Vietnamese Le Duc Tho. The nomination was awarded to them for organizing negotiations that were supposed to ensure the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam and the end of the Vietnam War. Although he declined the prize because the war was in full swing, two members of the Nobel committee resigned.
Kissinger in his White House office, 1970.
Photo: REUTERS
In 1973, Kissinger traveled to the USSR, where he met with then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The negotiations took place in Zavidovo, a hunting area 150 kilometers from Moscow. Kissinger received the appropriate equipment: special pants, jacket and boots. One day, the Secretary General invited the guest to go hunting. They shot the wild boars from the tower, and after the hunt they feasted in the tower: Brezhnev’s translator Viktor Sukhodrev took out bread, sausages, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes and a bottle of vodka from his bag. The Secretary General looked at Kissinger and said, “Well, Henry, shall we begin? Take a knife and cut the sausage.” The guest obeyed Brezhnev’s order and drank vodka with him on equal terms. Later, describing this episode in his memoirs, Kissinger insisted that he drank beer with Brezhnev, trusting that the American readers would misinterpret the mention of vodka.
1973, USSR. General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and translator Viktor Mikhailovich Sukhodrev (from right to left) after hunting wild boars at the Zavidovo hunting estate. Photo: Vladimir Musaelyan/TASS
According to tradition, after the resignation of the next Secretary of State, his portrait should appear in the gallery of the State Department. This was ordered even after Kissinger left. Boston artist Gardner Cox had previously depicted prominent statesmen. He was paid $12,000, but the portrait was not a success: State Department employees criticized him for the fact that “Kissinger turned out to be a dwarf” on the canvas, and one of the newspapers even published the following words: “this portrait deserves a place only in the gallery of notorious scoundrels.” Cox refused to redo the work and returned the money, leaving only $700 as compensation for the painting. Kissinger did not complain about Cox, but after he had to sit down again for an official portrait by another artist, J. Anthony Wills, he said that this time he saw on the canvas his “excellent portrait with the swollen head.”
Meeting of US Secretary of State Kissinger with Mao Zedong, 1975
Photo: REUTERS
After leaving the White House, Kissinger opened a consulting company. But in 2001, President George W. Bush named him chairman of the special commission investigating the 9/11 attacks. According to the law, to avoid a conflict of interest, Kissinger had to send a list of all of his company’s clients to the appropriate authorities. But he refused and resigned. Kissinger’s consultations were apparently a success, including and among the Arab sheikhs.
In 2017, Henry Kissinger came to Moscow to participate in the Primakov Readings. At the same time he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kissinger, with his accent and big glasses, is still believed to have been the prototype for the main character in Stanley Kubrick’s film “Doctor Strangelove.” Kubrick himself always insisted that this was not the case and said that he had never met Kissinger before making the film. In fact, in 1964, Kissinger was a little-known professor at Harvard.
Kissinger’s centennial was celebrated statewide on June 6, 2023, in the hall of the New York Public Library. Official Washington was represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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