Henry Kissinger's 100th Birthday: Celebrating a Controversial Legacy.

Former US diplomat and presidential advisor Henry Kissinger celebrates his 100th birthday, having outlasted many of his political contemporaries. Kissinger played a key role in American foreign policy during the 1960s and 1970s, including attempts to pull the US out of the Vietnam War. He has continued to hold sway over Washington's power brokers as an elder statesman, providing advice to Republican and Democratic presidents. Kissinger was involved in major foreign policy events, including the first example of “shuttle diplomacy” seeking Middle East peace, secret negotiations with China, and the instigation of the Paris peace talks seeking an end to the Vietnam conflict. However, he has also been accused of enacting realpolitik policies favoring American interests while assisting or emboldening repressive regimes in Pakistan, Chile, and Indonesia.