German-born, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations, who played critical role in US foreign policy during the Cold War, has died at the age of 100 in Connecticut.

Although he left office in the mid-1970s, he was consulted by generations of leaders for decades.

Henry Kissinger will be remembered for his achievements in advancing the cause of peace. Born in 1923 as Bavarian native, son of a school teacher who first came to the US in 1938 when his family fled the Nazis, became a US citizen in 1943m served three years in the US Army and Counter Intelligent Corps. In 1969 President Richard Nixon appointed him national security adviser and secretary of state between 1969-77, and an instrumental in ending America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, opened up relations with China earning him the nickname ping-pong diplomat, and brought about cessation of hostilities in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Middle East between Egypt and Syria on the one hand and Israel on the other, with an idea of shuttle diplomacy.

Over the years Kissinger also was subject of criticism from those who accused him of putting rivalry with the Soviet Union over human rights and supporting repressive regimes across the world including Augusto Pinochet  in Chile, controversial policies on Cambodia and Argentina. Rolling Stone has published his obituary under the headline Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies”. In 1973, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize alongside North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, who refused to accept.

Kissinger also served on the boards of various companies and penned 21 books. In July his surprise visit to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he was feted despite a chill in relations between China and US prompted the National Security Council spokesman  John Kirby to lament “It’s unfortunate that a private citizen had access to Chinese leaders while the US government did not. He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years Nancy Maginnes Kissinger and two children, Elizabeth and David from a previous marriage and five grand children.