TRANSCRIPT
One of the most respected figures in US politics has died.
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State to Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford has passed away at age 100.
His death was announced by his consulting firm, Kissinger Associates.
He was considered one of the most influential figures in US politics in the 1960's and 1970's.
Kissinger was extremely passionate about what he did.
“You want to leave your country better off, than (how) you found it. And there's nothing in private life that you can do that's as interesting and as fulfilling.”
The former U-S diplomat had a major role in many of the global events that shaped the course of the world back in the 1970's.
Among his many achievements were the diplomatic opening of China, the arms control discussions between the US and the Soviet Union and the expansion of ties between Israel and its neighbouring Arab nations.
Mr Kissinger was also awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1973 - along with Vietnamese diplomat Le Duc Tho, who declined it - for their role in ending the war between the two nations.
“Nothing that has happened to me in public life has moved me more than this award.”
Kissinger was well known for his secrecy and for sticking to his own path.
Former US President Gerald Ford said in 2006, shortly before his death, that Henry Kissinger was a man who, in his own mind, never made a mistake.
In 1971 he negotiated with China to open diplomatic relations with the western world without notifying George H. W. Bush, who was then serving as the U-S ambassador to China.
It was a move which he believed to be the correct one.
“Whoever went would be alone in Beijing with no communication. And therefore, if he didn't know (Richard) Nixon's mind, he might do foolish things.”
With his gruff and commanding presence and uncommon manipulation of power, Kissinger was both exalted and vilified for his role in global affairs.
Born on May 27 1923 in Furth, Germany as Heinz Alfred Kissinger, he migrated with his family to the U-S in 1938 before the start of the Nazi campaign for the extermination of European Jews.
During his tenure as a member of the Nixon administration, the then US President received heavy backlash for comments he made against the Jewish community.
Kissinger said the comments were made when the Jewish community showed their opposition to Nixon.
“I only heard anti-Semitic comments when some Jewish group would attack him for something he had done.”
Kissinger's role as Secretary of State came to an abrupt end after then Republican President Gerald Ford lost the election to his Democrat opponent Jimmy Carter in 1977.
But even after that, he remained active in the political scene.
In 2001, George Bush Jnr. chose Kissinger to lead an investigative committee into the September 11 attacks.
“Dr Kissinger and I share the same commitments. This investigation should carefully examine all the evidence.”
But he was forced to step down after Democrats claimed there was a conflict of interest with his New York-based consulting firm.
In 2016, he was recognised by being awarded the US Department of Defence's Public Service award.
In his acceptance speech, Kissinger noted the central role of the US in global events.
"We are involved in religious wars in the Middle East. We have to deal with the rise of countries that see themselves as historically central powers in Asia. We have to deal with Russia, that it's combining the decline of its physical strengths with an attempt to reassert its historic predominance in certain regions. And we are challenged by a technology for which there is no precedent.”
Divorced from his first wife, Ann Fleischer, in 1964, Henry Kissinger was married to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller assistant Nancy Maginnes.
He leaves behind two children from his first marriage.
