A spy, a playboy, the holder of a doctorate, a diplomat, one of the most prominent political figures of the 20th century, and the man who defined American foreign policy during the Cold War. On May 27, 2023, Heinz (or Henry) Alfred Kissinger, a former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, turns 100 years old. Possibly the best-known US diplomat of his lifetime, he is the man to whom America owes its policy of ‘detente,’ the rebuilding of ties with China, the concept of nuclear deterrence, and the end of the Vietnam War.
RT takes a look at how a Jewish boy from Germany won over American presidents and set US policy for the coming decades, and why critics describe him as an unprincipled follower of Niccolo Machiavelli.