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Henry Kissinger dead at 100
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gravelly-voiced, enigmatic diplomat was.
An academic who became a celebrity, Kissinger was a Jewish teenager who fled the Nazis, a self-confessed “secret swinger” who dated pin-ups, a Machiavellian adviser to United States presidents who changed the course of history.
The debate about whether the former US diplomat was a brainy adviser or a merciless hawk is not likely to conclude any time soon.
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 US establishment of relations with the isolated country, which has soared to become the world’s second-largest economy and a growing competitor with Washington.
While Kissinger was despised in much of the world, China’s foreign ministry yesterday hailed the late US diplomat as an “old and good friend of the Chinese people.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Kissinger for his contribution to US-Soviet relations and described him as a “wise and visionary statesman.”
Kissinger was a “giant of history,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.
At home, Kissinger 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.
“America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs with the passing of Henry Kissinger,” former president George W Bush, a Republican, said in a statement.
Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiations to end the Vietnam War, even though the conflict did not immediately end and his North Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, declined to accept the prize.
After the Watergate scandal brought down Nixon, Kissinger served under his successor, Gerald Ford. In an unprecedented arrangement reflecting his influence, Kissinger served simultaneously as secretary of state -- the country’s top diplomat -- and national security advisor, the president’s right-hand aide.
REALPOLITIK AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
While Kissinger’s intellectual gifts were begrudgingly acknowledged even by his critics, he remains deeply controversial for his ruthless philosophy of realpolitik -- the cold calculation that nations pursue their own interests through power.
In foreign affairs, Washington had “no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”, Kissinger once wrote.
Declassified documents showed that Kissinger gave his blessing to the undermining of Chile’s elected Marxist president Salvador Allende and the 1973 coup by General Augusto Pinochet.
Kissinger also supported Indonesia, a close anti-communist ally, as it seized East Timor in 1975. More than 100,000 East Timorese died from the start of the invasion -- launched one day after Kissinger and Ford met Indonesian leader Suharto -- until Indonesia ended its occupation in 1999.
Kissinger also turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s mass atrocities as Bangladesh won independence in 1971, believing the US interest was keeping Islamabad as the quiet go-between with China.
Seeking to pull out of Vietnam but with a stronger hand at the negotiating table, Nixon and Kissinger authorised a secret 1969-70 bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia aimed at disrupting rebel movement into South Vietnam.
The bombing did not halt the infiltration but it killed thousands of civilians and helped spawn the genocidal Khmer Rouge.
Kissinger similarly showed little concern over Cyprus when Greece’s military junta deposed the elected leader, Archbishop Makarios, and Turkey in 1974 invaded the island, which remains divided.

Israel, Hamas
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Israeli police said two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during morning rush hour at the entrance to Jerusalem, killing at least three people. Both attackers were “neutralised”, police said.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Israel during his third visit to the Middle East since the war began, said the truce was “producing results”. US officials said Blinken also told the Israelis to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians once the war resumes.
Egypt’s state media body said Egyptian and Qatari mediators were working to negotiate a further extension of the truce for two days.