Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died Wednesday at the age of 100.
His consulting firm said he died at his home in Connecticut.
A towering figure of diplomacy who will always be remembered for his thick glasses and deep, gravelly voice, Kissinger forged U.S. foreign policy during critical moments in American history ranging from from relations with China to the Vietnam War.
His family fled Nazi Germany as Jewish refugees in the 1930s when he was a teenager. He later became a U.S. citizen while serving in military intelligence in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he attended Harvard and received his Ph.D. in 1954. He remained on the Harvard faculty for 15 years with appointments in the Government Department and the Center for International Affairs.
Kissinger served first as a national security adviser and later as secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, but his influence continued long after he left office. He was a practitioner of realpolitik — using diplomacy to achieve practical objectives rather than advance lofty ideals. Supporters said his pragmatic bent served U.S. interests; critics saw a Machiavellian approach that ran counter to democratic ideals.
He ranged
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