Henry Kissinger Dead at 100

Daniel Vogl/dpa via AP

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died at age 100 on Wednesday.

Kissinger served as Secretary of State under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and was also national security adviser.

He was long hailed by foreign policy elites and politicians, the latter of whom sometimes welcomed his endorsement. But his role in prosecuting the Vietnam War, which Nixon inherited from the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, earned him infamy. The conflict killed millions, including 58,000 American service members. During the war, Kissinger oversaw the secret carpet-bombing of neighboring Cambodia.

In 1970, Nixon demanded the Air Force to intensify its bombings. Kissinger relayed the order by saying, “A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves.”

The U.S. was also carpet-bombing Laos at the time in an effort to prevent a communist takeover of Southeast Asia.

Kissinger briefly became a campaign issue in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary after Hillary Clinton called him “a friend.”

“Henry Kissinger is not my friend,” Sanders told Clinton at a debate.

According to the Washington Post, Kissinger’s death “was announced in a statement by his consulting firm, which did not give a cause.”

This is a developing story.