Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Passes Away at 100
November 30, 2023
“Henry A. Kissinger, the scholar-turned-diplomat who engineered the United States’ opening to China, negotiated its exit from Vietnam, and used cunning, ambition and intellect to remake American power relationships with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, sometimes trampling on democratic values to do so, died on Wednesday at his home in Kent, Conn. He was 100.” (via The New York Times)
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer their insight and thoughts on Kissinger’s life and legacy. If you would like to speak with an expert,
Gordon Gray is the Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs at the GW Elliott School of International Affairs. Prior to his retirement from the U.S. government after 35 years of public service, Ambassador Gray was the Deputy Commandant at the National War College. He was the U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia from 2009 until 2012, witnessing the start of the Arab Spring and directing the U.S. response in support of Tunisia’s transition. From 2008-2009, he served in Iraq as Senior Advisor to the Ambassador, focusing on governance and infrastructure in the southern provinces.
"Henry Kissinger's legacy is complicated to say the least. The opening to China and his shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East are rightly heralded to this day,” Gray says. “But his diplomacy to end the Vietnam War satisfied neither supporters nor critics of U.S. military involvement, and his disregard for human rights was controversial at the time and remains so
today."
James Hershberg is a Professor of History and International Affairs at the GW Elliott School of International Affairs. He is a co-founder of the GW Cold War Group and previously served as the Director at the Wilson Center’s Cold War International History Project. In addition to that, Hershberg is an expert in International history of the Cold War and Contemporary International Relations. He was awarded the Stuart Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Policy.
-GW
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