There are mixed reactions to the death of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger was already controversial during his lifetime. While he is praised by former companions and many politicians around the world as one of the greatest diplomats of the 20th century and a skillful defender of US interests, critics accuse him of unscrupulousness and an obsession with power.
Former US President George W. Bush paid tribute to Kissinger with the words: “With the death of Henry Kissinger, America has lost one of the most reliable and distinctive voices on foreign policy issues.” Kissinger worked in the administrations of two US presidents and advised many others, Bush wrote – including himself. “I am grateful for this service and advice, but I am most grateful for his friendship.” He had long admired Kissinger, who fled the Nazis as a boy and later fought them in the US Army. “Laura and I will miss his wisdom, his charm and his humor. And we will always be grateful for the contributions of Henry Kissinger.”
On social media, however, the reactions were far less favorable. Some users published videos celebrating Kissinger’s death. The magazine Rolling Stones headlined: “Henry Kissinger, the war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class, has finally died.” The role that Kissinger played in the secret bombing of Cambodia is more than questionable. The allegations about his role in the 1973 military coup in Chile are also serious. Kissinger also repeatedly had to put up with the question of whether he really pushed for an end to the Vietnam War and whether he had not extended it unnecessarily in order to increase Nixon’s election chances.
Long after Kissinger left office, he exerted unusual influence on world politics. He only met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in July – at a time when American-Chinese relations were at a low point. In China, the former US Secretary of State is celebrated for bringing about rapprochement between the US and China under Nixon.
In Beijing, Foreign Office spokesman Wang Wenbin called Kissinger described as a “good old friend of the Chinese people”. He was a pioneer and builder of relations between the USA and China. “He will always remain alive in the hearts of the people of China as a treasured old friend,” China’s ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, wrote on X.
Nixon’s daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said her father and Kissinger “enjoyed a partnership that produced a generation of peace for our nation.” They praised Kissinger’s outstanding role in the US’s “historic opening” to the People’s Republic of China and in easing relations with the Soviet Union – initiatives that marked the end of the Cold War. “His ‘shuttle diplomacy’ to the Middle East helped ease tensions in this troubled region of the world,” the Nixon daughters said in a statement.
Also Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the late former US Secretary of State and native German. He speaks of Kissinger as a “great fighter for freedom and democracy.” In a letter of condolence to Kissinger’s family, he called him “the driving intellectual force of US foreign policy for many decades.” Kissinger had a decisive influence on the United States of America and post-war world politics with clear language and fearless diplomacy. For Steinmeier, as German Federal President, it was a very special honor to call Kissinger a friend. “In June, Henry Kissinger celebrated his 100th birthday in his hometown of Fürth, and it touched me very much to see that this country that had once driven him away had now become a patch of home for him again,” he wrote. Kissinger was born in Fürth in 1923.
In a post on the online platform X emphasized Chancellor Olaf Scholzhow influential Kissinger’s commitment was to the transatlantic friendship between the USA and Germany “Henry Kissinger shaped American foreign policy like few others.” Scholz writes: “The world is losing a special diplomat.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder writes on X that Bavaria is mourning Kissinger. Not all of his positions were uncontroversial. “But he was one of the most important and cleverest foreign policymakers of the last century.” Söder also emphasizes: “He was connected to Bavaria, Franconia, Fürth and his old homeland and Jewish life until the end.”