China’s President Xi Jinping, right, listens to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who led the China-U.S Track Two Dialogue, during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 2, 2015. Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. He was 100. (Jason Lee/Pool Photo via AP, File)
TOKYO — Polarized reaction poured in Thursday to the death of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who managed to galvanize global attention decades after his official service as one of the most powerful diplomats in American history.
Kissinger, who died Wednesday at 100, was praised as a skilled defender of U.S. interests by world leaders. On social media he was widely called a war criminal who left lasting damage throughout the world.
“America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices” on foreign affairs, said former President George W. Bush, striking a tone that many high-level officials, past and present, tried to convey.
“I have long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family, then fought them in the United States Army,” Bush said in a statement. “When he later became Secretary of State, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did America’s greatness.”
Kissinger served two presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and dominated foreign policy as the United States withdrew from Vietnam and established ties with China.
Kissinger’s death was a leading topic on social media in China, where he is revered for having engineered the opening of relations between the ruling Communist Party and Washington under Nixon.
Many online mourned the passing of “an old friend.” State broadcaster CCTV shared on social media an old segment showing Kissinger’s first secret visit to China in 1971 when he broached the possibility of establishing U.S.-China relations and met with then-Premier Zhou Enlai.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” at Kissinger’s death. “He will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a most valued old friend.”
Another former U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Kissinger left an indelible mark on American and world history.
“I will always be grateful for his gracious advice and help during my own time as Secretary,” Pompeo tweeted on X. “Always supportive and always informed, his wisdom made me better and more prepared after every one of our conversations.”
Criticism of Kissinger, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, was especially strong on social media, where many posted celebratory videos in reaction to his death.
A Rolling Stone magazine headline said, “Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class, finally dies.”
“Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians — and set (a) path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge,” Sophal Ear, a scholar at Arizona State University who studies Cambodia’s political economy, wrote on The Conversation.
“The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch continue to destroy the lives of any man, woman or child who happens across them,” Ear wrote.
Kissinger exerted uncommon influence on global affairs long after he left office. In July, for instance, he met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing while U.S.-Chinese relations were at a low point.
Nixon’s daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said their father and Kissinger enjoyed “a partnership that produced a generation of peace for our nation.”
Kissinger initiated the Paris negotiations that ultimately provided a face-saving means to get the United States out of a costly war in Vietnam.
“Dr. Kissinger played an important role in the historic opening to the People’s Republic of China and in advancing détente with the Soviet Union, bold initiatives which initiated the beginning of the end of the Cold War. His “shuttle diplomacy” to the Middle East helped to advance the relaxation of tensions in that troubled region of the world,” the Nixon daughters said in a statement.