Kissinger, singular US diplomat, dies

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Henry Kissinger, the relentlessly ambitious U.S. diplomat whose unapologetic promotion of raw American power helped shape the post-World War II world, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100. Kissinger, arguably the most identifiable secretary of state in modern times, died at his home in Connecticut, announced Kissinger Associates, through which the late diplomat grew wealthy helping businesses for decades after his government career.

It said that Kissinger’s family would hold a private funeral, with a memorial service to take place later in New York, where Kissinger grew up after his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany.

The statement did not provide a cause of death. Kissinger had remained active even at as a centenarian, traveling to China in July to meet President Xi Jinping.

China was one of Kissinger’s most lasting legacies. Hoping to shake up the Cold War fight against the Soviet Union, Kissinger secretly reached out to Beijing, culminating in a historic 1972 visit by president Richard Nixon and later the U.S. establishment of relations with the then-isolated country, which has soared into the world’s second largest economy and growing competitor with Washington.

While Kissinger was despised in much of the world, China’s ambassador to Washington, Xie Feng, called Kissinger a “most valued old friend” and his death a “tremendous loss for both our countries and the world.”

Kissinger at home also enjoyed deference across the political mainstream, with incumbent Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a member of the rival Democratic Party, attending his 100th birthday party in New York.