Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger, the influential Secretary of State for two Presidents and arguably the most impactful Cabinet member of the 20th century, has died at age 100.

Kissinger helped define American policy in the final third of the last century, playing major roles in "opening" China to the West, solidifying our ties to Israel, and negotiating the end of the American war in Vietnam. 

He was, in my childhood, the unquestioned Dean of foreign policy, whether you looked at him as friend or foe.

Kissinger's polices were anethema to the Left during the Vietnam War, and some of the latest generation - separated by decades from both Kissinger's tenure and the stresses and demands that dominated it - have gone a step further. They are cheering and applauding his death, a display I find both distateful and telling. 

RIP