Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravely voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100.
With his gruff yet commanding presence and behind-the-scenes manipulation of power, Kissinger exerted uncommon influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, earning both vilification and the Nobel Peace Prize. Decades later, his name still provoked impassioned debate over foreign policy landmarks long past.
Kissinger’s power grew during the turmoil of Watergate, when the politically attuned diplomat assumed a role akin to co-president to the weakened Nixon.
“No doubt my vanity was piqued,” Kissinger later wrote of his expanding influence. “But the dominant emotion was a premonition of catastrophe.”
A Jew who fled Nazi Germany with his family in his teens, Kissinger in his later years cultivated the reputation of respected statesman, giving speeches, offering advice to Republicans and Democrats alike and managing a global consulting business. He turned up in President Donald Trump’s White House on multiple occasions. But Nixon-era documents and tapes, as they trickled out over the years, brought revelations — many in Kissinger’s own words — that sometimes cast him in a harsh light.
Never without his detractors, Kissinger after he left government was dogged by critics who argued that he should be called to account for his policies on Southeast Asia and support of repressive regimes in Latin America.
For eight restless years — first as national security adviser, later as secretary of state, and for a time in the middle holding both titles — Kissinger ranged across the breadth of major foreign policy issues. He conducted the first “shuttle diplomacy” in the quest for Middle East peace. He used secret channels to pursue ties between the United States and China, ending decades of isolation and mutual hostility.
He initiated the Paris negotiations that ultimately provided a face-saving means — a “decent interval,” he called it — to get the United States out of a costly war in Vietnam. Two years later, Saigon fell to the communists.
And he pursued a policy of detente with the Soviet Union that led to arms control agreements and raised the possibility that the tensions of the Cold War and its nuclear threat did not have to last forever.
At age 99, he was still out on tour for his book on leadership. Asked in July 2022 interview with ABC whether he wished he could take back any of his decisions, Kissinger demurred, saying: “I’ve been thinking about these problems all my life. It’s my hobby as well as my occupation. And so the recommendations I made were the best of which I was then capable.”
Even then, he had mixed thoughts on Nixon’s record, saying “his foreign policy has held up and he was quite effective in domestic policy” while allowing that the disgraced president had “permitted himself to be involved in a number of steps that were inappropriate for a president.”
As Kissinger turned 100 in May 2023, his son David wrote in The Washington Post that his father’s centenary “might have an air of inevitability for anyone familiar with his force of character and love of historical symbolism. Not only has he outlived most of his peers, eminent detractors and students, but he has also remained indefatigably active throughout his 90s.”
Asked during a CBS interview in the leadup to his 100th birthday about those who view his conduct of foreign policy over the years as a kind of “criminality,” Kissinger was nothing but dismissive.
“That’s a reflection of their ignorance,” Kissinger said. “It wasn’t conceived that way. It wasn’t conducted that way.”
Kissinger was a practitioner of realpolitik — using diplomacy to achieve practical objectives rather than advance lofty ideals. Supporters said his pragmatic bent served US interests; critics saw a Machiavellian approach that ran counter to democratic ideals.
He was castigated for authorizing telephone wiretaps of reporters and his own National Security Council staff to plug news leaks in Nixon’s White House. He was denounced on college campuses for the bombing and allied invasion of Cambodia in April 1970, intended to destroy North Vietnamese supply lines to communist forces in South Vietnam.
That “incursion,” as Nixon and Kissinger called it, was blamed by some for contributing to Cambodia’s fall into the hands of Khmer Rouge insurgents who later slaughtered some 2 million Cambodians.
Kissinger, for his part, made it his mission to debunk what he referred to in 2007 as a “prevalent myth” — that he and Nixon had settled in 1972 for peace terms that had been available in 1969 and thus had needlessly prolonged the Vietnam War at the cost of tens of thousands of American lives.
He insisted that the only way to speed up the withdrawal would have been to agree to Hanoi’s demands that the US overthrow the South Vietnamese government and replace it with communist-dominated leadership.
Pudgy and messy, Kissinger incongruously acquired a reputation as a ladies’ man in the staid Nixon administration. Kissinger, who had divorced his first wife in 1964, called women “a diversion, a hobby.” Jill St. John was a frequent companion. But it turned out his real love interest was Nancy Maginnes, a researcher for Nelson Rockefeller whom he married in 1974.
In a 1972 poll of Playboy Club Bunnies, the man dubbed “Super-K” by Newsweek finished first as “the man I would most like to go out on a date with.”
Kissinger’s explanation: “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
Yet Kissinger was reviled by many Americans for his conduct of wartime diplomacy. He was still a lightning rod decades later: In 2015, an appearance by the 91-year-old Kissinger before the Senate Armed Services Committee was disrupted by protesters demanding his arrest for war crimes and calling out his actions in Southeast Asia, Chile and beyond.
Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born in the Bavarian city of Fuerth on May 27, 1923, the son of a schoolteacher. His family left Nazi Germany in 1938 and settled in Manhattan, where Heinz changed his name to Henry.
Kissinger had two children, Elizabeth and David, from his first marriage.
Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, dies at 100
https://arab.news/mp6k2
Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, dies at 100
India’s Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan stabbed at Mumbai home — media
- Khan has received six stabbing injuries, with one located close to his spine
- Hospital says the extent of the damage will become clear after the surgery
NEW DELHI: India’s Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, 54, is being treated for six stabbing injuries following a scuffle early on Thursday with an intruder at his home in the financial capital of Mumbai, media said.
Khan lives in an apartment in the city’s western suburb of Bandra, home to many in the film industry, along with his wife Kareena Kapoor, who is also an actor, and their two children, Jeh and Taimur.
He was taken to a nearby hospital at around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday with six injuries, two deeper than the others, the Hindustan Times newspaper said, citing Niraj Uttamani, the hospital’s chief operating officer.
“One of the injuries is closer to his spine ... We will be able to tell the extent of the damage only after surgery,” it quoted the official as saying.
Police said the assailant fled after the incident and an investigation had been launched, with teams searching for him, media said.
The son of cricketer and former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, Khan is among the country’s most bankable stars, having featured in more than 70 films and television series, in some also as producer.
US imposes fresh round of sanctions against Russia ahead of Trump return to White House
- Sanctions target Russia’s military industrial base and evasion schemes
- Congressional approval required to lift some sanctions on critical Russian entities
- China-based entities, Kyrgyzstan financial institution among targets
WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed hundreds of sanctions targeting Russia, seeking to increase pressure on Moscow in the Biden administration’s final days and protect some sanctions previously imposed.
The US State and Treasury departments imposed sanctions on over 250 targets, including some based in China, taking aim at Russia’s evasion of US sanctions and its military industrial base.
As part of the action, the Treasury imposed new curbs on almost 100 entities that were already under sanctions, potentially complicating any future efforts to remove the measures.
Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Treasury in a statement said Washington was imposing fresh sanctions on almost 100 critical Russian entities — including Russian banks and companies operating in Russia’s energy sector — that were previously sanctioned by the United States. It said the move increases secondary sanctions risk for them.
The new sanctions are issued under an executive order that a senior Treasury official said requires Congress to be notified before any of the actions can be reversed.
Jeremy Paner, a partner at the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, said the actions are “Trump-proofed,” preventing reversal of the additional sanctions without congressional approval.
“You can’t just with the stroke of a pen remove what’s being done,” he said.
Edward Fishman, a former US official who is now a research scholar at Columbia University, called it a “very significant action.”
“It protects these sanctions against sort of any frivolous decision to lift them,” he said. “It gives the new Trump administration more leverage with Russia.”
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was unclear how Donald Trump, who succeeds President Joe Biden on Monday, will approach the issue of sanctions on Russia. Trump has been friendly toward Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past and said on Monday that he would aim to meet quickly with him to discuss Ukraine.
When asked about his strategy to end the war, Trump told Newsmax: “Well, there’s only one strategy and it’s up to Putin and I can’t imagine he’s too thrilled about the way it’s gone because it hasn’t gone exactly well for him either.”
Sanctions evasion scheme
Washington also took action against a sanctions evasion scheme established between actors in Russia and China, targeting regional clearing platforms in the two countries that it said have been working to allow cross-border payments for sensitive goods. The Treasury said several Russian banks under US sanctions were participants.
“China firmly opposes any illegal unilateral sanctions and ‘long-arm jurisdiction’,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a statement.
“The normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Russia should not be interfered with or disrupted, and should not be used as a tool to smear and contain China.”
Also hit with sanctions on Wednesday was Keremet Bank, a Kyrgyzstan-based financial institution the Treasury accused of coordinating with Russian officials and a bank identified by the United States as circumventing sanctions.
Keremet Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US State Department also imposed sanctions on Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
The plant, located in Ukraine’s south east, was captured by Russia shortly after it launched the invasion in 2022. It is shut down but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.
The sanctions will not affect its operations, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing the plant’s spokeswoman.
The Biden administration has imposed rafts of punitive measures targeting Russia over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed or wounded thousands and reduced cities to rubble. Washington has repeatedly sought to counter the evasion of its measures.
Less than a week ago, the administration imposed its broadest package of sanctions so far targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenues in an effort to give Kyiv and Trump’s incoming team leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.
Speaker Johnson removes chair of powerful House Intelligence Committee
WASHINGTON: House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday removed the GOP chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee, who was a vocal supporter of assistance for Ukraine and held other views that put him at odds with President-elect Donald Trump.
Johnson told reporters late Wednesday that Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, would no longer lead the committee, which oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies and holds tremendous influence over law enforcement and foreign policy. During Trump’s first term, the committee became a hotbed of partisanship as its powers were used to assist the then-president. Johnson last year also gave two Trump allies highly-sought spots on the panel.
Johnson said he made the decision to remove Turner because the “intelligence community and everything related to (the committee) needs a fresh start.”
The Republican speaker, who has aligned himself closely with Trump, said he would soon announce the new chair for the committee.
Johnson went on to praise Turner and say he would play an important role in working with NATO. But Turner’s stances on foreign policy had run afoul of the incoming president, who will take the White House next week with a vision of reshaping the federal government’s intelligence and law enforcement capabilities. Trump has picked fierce loyalists to lead agencies with vast power for surveillance.
In a statement, Turner said: “Under my leadership, we restored the integrity of the Committee and returned its mission to its core focus of national security. The threat from our adversaries is real and requires serious deliberations.”
Turner last year also pushed back on Trump’s false claims that Haitian migrants in his Ohio district were eating pets.
Punchbowl News first reported that Turner had been removed as the chair.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jim Himes, in a statement called Turner “a serious, security focused lawmaker dedicated at his core to the national security of the United States and to the thoughtful oversight of the Intelligence Community.”
Himes added, “The removal of Chairman Turner makes our nation less secure and is a terrible portent for what’s to come.”
___
Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed.
Biden warns US ‘soul’ at stake with Trump on brink of power
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the “soul of America” is still at stake, as he prepared to deliver his farewell address to the nation before the return to power of Donald Trump.
The 82-year-old Democrat will make a primetime speech from the Oval Office of the White House in which he is expected to tout the legacy of his single four-year term.
In a letter previewing his remarks — due to be made at 8:00 p.m. US Eastern time (0100 GMT Thursday) — Biden took an implicit swipe at Republican Trump.
“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case,” Biden said in the letter.
“History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands,” he said. “We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are.”
Biden said the United States was stronger than four years ago, when it “stood in a winter of peril” after Trump’s chaotic first term, the Covid pandemic and what he called “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Biden was sworn in just days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn his election loss.
He did not mention Trump by name — but his words clearly echoed previous speeches in which he said he decided to run in the 2020 election because America’s “soul” was at risk from Trump and his supporters, and that Trump was a threat to democracy.
The US president said he had asked the White House to also release a long list of what he termed his administration’s achievements, covering issues ranging from the economy to health care and climate change.
He said the United States had the “strongest economy in the world” and was bringing down inflation — even if public anger over the cost of living was a major factor in the Democrats’ election loss.
“I have given my heart and my soul to our nation,” said Biden, adding that it had been the “privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.”
The outgoing president has spent much of his final days in power trying to burnish his legacy.
Those efforts got a boost on Wednesday when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal, for which Biden says he has been pushing for nearly a year and a half.
“I’m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come,” Biden said at the White House.
Trump, whose Middle East adviser was involved in the talks, also claimed credit for the “epic” accord.
Biden’s legacy was, however, damaged by his decision to run for a second term despite his age.
The Democrat was forced to drop out of the race last June after a disastrous debate against Trump, 78, who went on to a commanding victory over Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris.
In a farewell interview in the Washington Post published Wednesday, outgoing First Lady Jill Biden took a dig at the Democratic Party for pressing Biden to drop out.
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” she said.
Emotions ran high at the White House.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — part of a team that brought back regular media briefings after Trump ended them during his first term — fought back tears on her last appearance at the famous podium as she described the “honor of a lifetime.”
Gaza truce bittersweet for Biden as Trump takes credit
- Trump had warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it did not agree to a deal
WASHINGTON: The Gaza ceasefire clinched Wednesday was a bittersweet victory for US President Joe Biden days before he hands over the White House to Donald Trump, who claimed credit — and, most experts say, deserves some.
Biden first proposed the outlines of the deal between Israel and Hamas on May 31 but diplomatic efforts repeatedly came up short, even when Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned in Tel Aviv in August that it may have been the last chance for a deal.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff marched into Netanyahu’s office on Saturday, forcing the Israeli leader to break the sabbath, and pushed to seal the ceasefire.
The timing has echoes of a 1981 deal on US hostages in Iran, freed from 444 days of captivity moments after Republican Ronald Reagan succeeded Democrat Jimmy Carter, although this time the outgoing and incoming administrations worked together.
In scenes unprecedented in recent US history, Witkoff and Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk met jointly with the emir of Qatar — a key intermediary between Israel and Hamas — when sealing the deal.
Trump quickly boasted that the “epic” deal “could only have happened” due to his election as US president in November.
Asked if Trump deserved credit, Biden quipped: “Is that a joke?“
Speaking hours before a previously scheduled farewell address to the nation, the outgoing president said he included the Trump team in negotiations so that the United States was “speaking with one voice.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was not unexpected for all sides to seek credit for positive news.
“What I can say is, the president got it done,” she said, referring to Biden.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Trump team’s presence was about demonstrating “continuity” rather than the Republican exerting new pressure.
Biden faced heated criticism from the left of his Democratic Party during its unsuccessful election year over his staunch support of Israel since Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.
Biden authorized billions of dollars in weapons for Israel’s relentless retaliatory campaign on Gaza, despite criticizing the strategic US ally for the civilian death toll — which authorities in Gaza say is in the tens of thousands.
“The Biden administration was terrified of the political cost of being seen to be pressing Israel in any way,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now.
Trump, while vowing to be even more pro-Israel, was able to make clear to Netanyahu that “I do not want to inherit this,” Whitson said.
“It made me think that all of this would have been possible months ago and we could have saved thousands of Palestinian lives,” she said.
Trump had warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it did not agree to a deal, which includes in its first phase the release of 33 hostages seized on October 7.
David Khalfa, an expert on Israel at the Jean Jaures Foundation in Paris, said that Trump’s unpredictability likely impacted Hamas.
He also pointed to Netanyahu’s political position heading a hard-right but shaky coalition government.
“There is today an ideological alignment between the American populist right and the Israeli prime minister. So he has very weak room to maneuver against a Trump who doesn’t face the pressures of reelection,” said Khalfa.
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said a desire by Israel and others for the right optics as Trump takes over could have played a role in sealing the deal.
But a larger factor than Trump was the changing dynamics in the region — the major blows inflicted both on Hamas and its patron Iran, he said.
Israel has devastated Iranian ally Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran’s own air defenses, with Tehran’s main ally in the Arab world, Syria’s Bashar Assad, ousted last month by rebel forces.
“I don’t think any of the threats and bluster that we saw from Trump were a huge factor on either side. I think it’s mostly a baby that’s fathered by Biden and his team,” Katulis said.
“But I think the sense that there were big question marks on what was coming might have motivated those who were stonewalling,” he said.
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed that the uncertainty following Trump’s victory contributed to the deal.
Israel and Hamas were negotiating “under the terms that each side had become familiar with” and knew there was a high risk “that the parameters were about to change.”
And if the deal falls apart?
“Then it doesn’t matter who implemented it; there will be plenty of blame to go around,” Alterman said.
