Polarized reaction poured in yesterday to the death of former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, which galvanized global attention decades after his official service as one of the most powerful diplomats in US history.
Kissinger, who died on Wednesday at 100, was praised as a skilled defender of US interests by world leaders. On social media he was widely called a war criminal who left lasting damage throughout the world.
“America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices” on foreign affairs, former US president George W. Bush said, striking a tone that many high-level officials, past and present, tried to convey.
Photo:AFP
“I have long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family, then fought them in the United States Army,” Bush said in a statement. “When he later became Secretary of State, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did America’s greatness.”
Kissinger served two US presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and dominated foreign policy as the US withdrew from Vietnam and established ties with China.
Kissinger’s death was a leading topic on social media in China, where he is revered for having engineered the opening of relations between the Chinese Communist Party and Washington under Nixon.
Many online mourned the passing of “an old friend.” Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) shared on social media an old segment showing Kissinger’s first secret visit to China in 1971, when he broached the possibility of establishing US-China relations and met with then-Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來).
Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng (謝鋒) said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” by Kissinger’s death.
“He will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a most valued old friend,” he said.
Criticism of Kissinger, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, was especially strong on social media, where many posted celebratory videos in reaction to his death.
A Rolling Stone magazine headline said: “Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class, finally dies.”
“Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians — and set (a) path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge,” Sophal Ear, a scholar at Arizona State University who studies Cambodia’s political economy, wrote on The Conversation.
“The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch continue to destroy the lives of any man, woman or child who happens across them,” Sophal Ear wrote.
Kissinger exerted uncommon influence on global affairs long after he left office. In July, he met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing while US-Chinese relations were at a low point.
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