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Henry Kissinger, American diplomat and Nobel winner, dead at 100

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Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks at the International Economic Forum of the Americas/Conference of Montreal in 2008. REUTERS/Shaun Best Acquire Licensing Rights

Henry Kissinger, a diplomatic powerhouse whose roles as a national security adviser and secretary of state under two presidents left an indelible mark on U.S. foreign policy and earned him a controversial Nobel Peace Prize, died on Wednesday at age 100.

Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut, according to a statement from his geopolitical consulting firm, Kissinger Associates Inc. No mention was made of the circumstances.

It said he would be interred at a private family service, to be followed at a later date by a public memorial service in New York City.

Kissinger had been active late in life, attending meetings in the White House, publishing a book on leadership styles, and testifying before a Senate committee about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. In July 2023 he made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping

During the 1970s in the midst of the Cold War, he had a hand in many of the epoch-changing global events of the decade while serving as national security adviser and secretary of state under Republican President Richard Nixon.

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The German-born Jewish refugee’s efforts led to the U.S. diplomatic opening with China, landmark U.S.-Soviet arms control talks, expanded ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam.

Kissinger’s reign as the prime architect of U.S. foreign policy waned with Nixon’s resignation in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal. Still, he continued to be a diplomatic force as secretary of state under Nixon’s successor, President Gerald Ford, and to offer strong opinions throughout the rest of his life.

While many hailed Kissinger for his brilliance and broad experience, others branded him a war criminal for his support for anti-communist dictatorships, especially in Latin America. In his latter years, his travels were circumscribed by efforts by other nations to arrest or question him about past U.S. foreign policy.

His 1973 Peace Prize was awarded for ending American involvement in the Vietnam War but it was one of the most controversial ever. Two members of the Nobel committee resigned over the selection as questions arose about the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia. North Vietnamese diplomat Le Duc Tho was selected to jointly receive the award but declined it.

Ford called Kissinger a “super secretary of state” but also noted his prickliness and self-assurance, which critics were more likely to call paranoia and egotism. Even Ford said, “Henry in his mind never made a mistake.”

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“He had the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew,” Ford said in an interview shortly before his death in 2006.

With his dour expression and gravelly, German-accented voice, Kissinger possessed an image of both a stuffy academic and a ladies’ man, squiring starlets around Washington and New York in his bachelor days. Power, he said, was the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Voluble on policy, Kissinger was reticent on personal matters, although he once told a journalist he saw himself as a cowboy hero, riding off alone.

HARVARD FACULTY

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born in Furth, Germany, on May 27, 1923, and moved to the United States with his family in 1938 before the Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jewry.

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Anglicizing his name to Henry, Kissinger became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943, served in the Army in Europe in World War Two, and attended Harvard University on a scholarship, earning a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954. He was on Harvard’s faculty for the next 17 years.

During much of that time, Kissinger served as a consultant to government agencies, including in 1967 when he acted as an intermediary for the State Department in Vietnam. He used his connections with President Lyndon Johnson’s administration to pass on information about peace negotiations to the Nixon camp.

When Nixon’s pledge to end the Vietnam War helped him win the 1968 presidential election, he brought Kissinger to the White House as national security adviser.

But the process of “Vietnamization” – shifting the burden of the war from the 500,000-troop U.S. forces to the South Vietnamese – was long and bloody, punctuated by massive U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, the mining of the North’s harbors, and the bombing of Cambodia.

Kissinger declared in 1972 that “peace is at hand” in Vietnam but the Paris Peace Accords reached in January 1973 were little more than a prelude to the final Communist takeover of the South two years later.

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In 1973, in addition to his role as national security adviser, Kissinger was named secretary of state – giving him unchallenged authority in foreign affairs.

An intensifying Arab-Israeli conflict launched Kissinger on his first so-called “shuttle” mission, a brand of highly personal, high-pressure diplomacy for which he became famous.

Thirty-two days spent shuttling between Jerusalem and Damascus helped Kissinger forge a long-lasting disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In an effort to diminish Soviet influence, Kissinger reached out to its chief communist rival, China, and made two trips there, including a secret one to meet with Premier Zhou Enlai. The result was Nixon’s historic summit in Beijing with Chairman Mao Zedong and the eventual formalization of relations between the two countries.

Former U.S. ambassador to China Winston Lord, who served as Kissinger’s special assistant, saluted his former boss as a “tireless advocate for peace,” telling Reuters, “America has lost a towering champion for the national interest.”

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STRATEGIC ARMS ACCORD

The Watergate scandal that forced Nixon to resign barely grazed Kissinger, who was not connected to the cover-up and continued as secretary of state when Ford took office in the summer of 1974. But Ford did replace him as national security adviser in an effort to hear more voices on foreign policy.

Later that year Kissinger went with Ford to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, where the president met Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and agreed to a basic framework for a strategic arms pact. The agreement capped Kissinger’s pioneering efforts at detente that led to a relaxing of U.S.-Soviet tensions.

But Kissinger’s diplomatic skills had their limits. In 1975, he was faulted for failing to persuade Israel and Egypt to agree to a second-stage disengagement in the Sinai.

And in the India-Pakistan War of 1971, Nixon and Kissinger were heavily criticized for tilting toward Pakistan. Kissinger was heard calling the Indians “bastards” – a remark he later said he regretted.

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Like Nixon, he feared the spread of left-wing ideas in the Western hemisphere, and his actions in response were to cause deep suspicion of Washington from many Latin Americans for years to come.

In 1970 he plotted with the CIA on how best to destabilize and overthrow the Marxist but democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende, while he said in a memo in the wake of Argentina’s bloody coup in 1976 that the military dictators should be encouraged.

When Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, in 1976, Kissinger’s days in the suites of government power were largely over. The next Republican in the White House, Ronald Reagan, distanced himself from Kissinger, who he viewed as out of step with his conservative constituency.

After leaving government, Kissinger set up a high-priced, high-powered consulting firm in New York, which offered advice to the world’s corporate elite. He served on company boards and various foreign policy and security forums, wrote books, and became a regular media commentator on international affairs.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush picked Kissinger to head an investigative committee. But outcry from Democrats who saw a conflict of interest with many of his consulting firm’s clients forced Kissinger to step down from the post.

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Divorced from his first wife, Ann Fleischer, in 1964, he married Nancy Maginnes, an aide to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, in 1974. He had two children by his first wife.

-Reuters

 

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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OBITUARY

Peter Rufai and I, Ike Shorunmu, pays tribute to late mentor

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Former Nigerian international goalkeeper, Ike Shorunmu, has paid a heartfelt tribute to the late Peter Rufai, describing the legendary shot-stopper as his idol and a major influence on his football career.

In an emotional message following Rufai’s passing on Thursday, July 3, Shorunmu, who also manned the posts for the Super Eagles and Lagos-based Stationery Stores FC, revealed how the late Rufai’s charisma and goalkeeping brilliance inspired his own journey into the sport.

“Dodomayana was just a wonderful personality on and off the field,” Shorunmu stated, using Rufai’s popular nickname. “Because of him, I joined Stationery Stores FC. I admired him a lot when he was playing for Stores.”

Shorunmu, who eventually rose to become Nigeria’s first-choice goalkeeper at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, said meeting Rufai in the national team was a dream come true. He credited the late captain with shaping his goalkeeping skills through valuable mentorship.

“When we now met in the national team, he taught me different things which I will not forget quickly,” he added. “Adieu, my idol Peter Rufai. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace. I will miss you, Dodomayana.”

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Rufai, who died at the age of 61, was Nigeria’s first-choice goalkeeper at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and helped the Super Eagles lift the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations. He also captained the team in several crucial matches and is widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s greatest goalkeepers of all time.

His death has sparked an outpouring of grief and tributes from former teammates, football administrators, and fans both in Nigeria and abroad.

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OBITUARY

Tears and tributes as players honour Jota at Club World Cup

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Orlando, Florida, USA; The Al Hilal FC and Fluminense FC teammates line up during a moment of silence in remembrance of Liverpool F.C. soccer star Diogo Jota and André Silva during a quarterfinal match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at Camping World Stadium. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Al-Hilal’s Ruben Neves and Joao Cancelo broke down in tears during the minute’s silence held for their former Portugal teammate Diogo Jota before their side’s Club World Cup quarter-final against Fluminense on Friday.

Jota, a Liverpool forward, and his younger brother Andre Silva were killed in a car accident in northwestern Spain on Thursday morning when their Lamborghini veered off the road and caught fire.

Tributes have continued to pour in for Jota and Andre with footballing greats including Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard, joining the Prime Ministers of Portugal and Britain in mourning the loss.

Friday’s match between Al-Hilal and Fluminense in Orlando began with players and fans observing a minute’s silence in memory of Jota and Andre.

Neves, one of Jota’s closest friends who played with the 28-year-old during their days at Wolverhampton Wanderers, issued a touching tribute on Instagram about an hour before kick-off.

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“Wherever you are, I know you’re going to read this, we’ve never been one for this sort of thing and maybe now I’ll regret it a little, but you know what you mean to me just as much as I know what I am to you,” Neves said

“More than a friendship, we’re family, and we’re not going to stop being family just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!

“When I go to the national team, you’ll still be by my side at the dinner table, on the bus, on the plane… you’ll always be there with me, as usual. We’ll keep laughing, making plans, sharing our lives with each other.

“I’ll make sure you’re always there and I’ll make sure your family never lacks anything while you’re there, far away but thinking of us, waiting for us …

“As of today, you’ll be on the pitch with me, and we’ll follow our path together, on the stage where we met.”

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Chelsea’s Portuguese forward Pedro Neto also paid a heartfelt tribute to his friends when he walked out on the field with a shirt bearing their names before their quarter-final against Palmeiras in Philadephia.

“We spoke with Pedro yesterday and this morning and this afternoon and it was completely Pedro’s decision to play or not to play,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said after his team’s 2-1 win.

“He did, he made a fantastic effort to play this game, to play with his teammates, and we really appreciate what he has done.

“I just said to the players that this win is especially for him because we know how close he was, and the effort that he has made. So no doubt that we really appreciate what he decided in the end.”

The funerals of the brothers are expected to take place on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) in the Portuguese town of Gondomar.

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-Reuters

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OBITUARY

CAF President Motsepe Mourns Peter Rufai, Hails Late Nigerian Goalkeeper as African Legend

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The President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Dr Patrice Motsepe, has expressed heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Peter Rufai, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), and the entire Nigerian football community following the passing of the former Super Eagles captain.

Rufai, fondly known as “Dodo Mayana,” died on Thursday, July 3, 2025, at the age of 61. Widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s finest goalkeepers, Rufai represented the country at two FIFA World Cups (1994 and 1998) and multiple Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournaments, including captaining the team to its historic 1994 AFCON victory in Tunisia.

In a condolence message issued by CAF, Dr Motsepe praised Rufai as a trailblazer and icon of African football who brought pride to both Nigeria and the continent at large.

“Peter Rufai is part of a special generation of African football players who made the people of Nigeria and the entire African continent very proud,” said Dr Motsepe. “He was an enormously talented footballer and was respected in Africa and globally.”

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Dr Motsepe extended the sympathies of CAF and its 54 Member Associations to Rufai’s family, NFF President Ibrahim Gusau, Rufai’s former teammates, and all Nigerians mourning the loss.

“‘Dodo Mayana’ will forever live in our hearts and minds. May his soul rest in peace,” the CAF President concluded.

Rufai’s death has sparked an outpouring of tributes from across the football world, a testament to the enduring legacy of a player who not only excelled on the pitch but also inspired a generation of African footballers.

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