SINGAPORE — Former United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday (Nov 29) at the age of 100, his geopolitical consulting firm Kissinger Associates said.

The diplomatic powerhouse, whose service under two presidents left an indelible mark on US foreign policy, would be interred at a private family service, to be followed at a later date by a public memorial service in New York City, the firm added.

Here are eight things to know about Kissinger’s life, including his close friendship with Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. 

1. TRANSLATOR IN US ARMY

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born in Furth, Germany, on May 27 in 1923, and moved to the US with his family in 1938 before the Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jews. He became a naturalised American in 1943.

He served in the US Army in World War II, working as a translator in its intelligence operations. He was later awarded a Bronze Star medal for tracking down former Gestapo secret police officers of Nazi Germany. The Bronze Star is a US military award for heroic service.

2. HARVARD FACULTY

Kissinger later went to Harvard University on a scholarship, earning a master's degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954.

He went on to become part of the university's faculty for the next 17 years.

3. SECRETARY OF STATE AND SECURITY ADVISER

Following his outstanding career in Harvard, Kissinger joined US President Richard Nixon's administration as national security adviser in 1969. He stayed in the role after Nixon resigned and was succeeded by Gerald Ford. During this period, Kissinger also served as secretary of state under Nixon and Ford.

Kissinger had a hand in many epoch-changing global events of the 1970s, including the Vietnam War, the diplomatic opening of China, landmark US-Soviet arms control talks and expanded ties between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

He played a key role in organising Nixon’s pathbreaking trip to China in 1972 and advocacy over the past half century of continued engagement and warmer ties between the two countries.

4. NOBEL PRIZE CONTROVERSY

In 1973, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Kissinger and North Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho, one of the most controversial in the award's history.

Both were selected for their work on the Paris Peace Accords, which were to have arranged the withdrawal of US troops, a ceasefire, and preservation of the South Vietnamese government.

The decision for the award shocked many people at the time because Kissinger, then national security adviser and secretary of state under Nixon, played a major role in US military strategy in the final stages of the 1955-1975 Vietnam conflict.

Kissinger and Tho negotiated the January 1973 Paris Peace Accords under which Washington completed a military withdrawal from South Vietnam after having largely ended offensives and avoided combat against the Communist North in the face of worsening troop morale and huge anti-war protests in the US.

However, the ceasefire stipulated by the accords was soon ignored on the ground by both North and South Vietnam, which refused to sign the deal claiming betrayal as Hanoi's forces were not required to withdraw from the South.

The war raged on with the North's forces rapidly advancing in the South, now left to fight without critical US support and weakened by high-level state corruption and disarray.

Two members of the Nobel committee resigned over the choice, with Tho declining the prize on the grounds that their work had not yet brought peace.

5. 'PLAYBOY IMAGE'

During his bachelor days, Kissinger was seen with actresses Candice Bergen, Shirley MacLaine, Jill St John, Marlo Thomas, Liv Ullman and Samantha Eggar, as well as Diane Sawyer, then a White House staff member and later an ABC News anchor.

Those who knew him, however, said that the playboy image was mostly a media creation.

Having divorced from his first wife Ann Fleischer in 1964, he later married Nancy Maginnes, an aide to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, in 1974.

He had two children with his first wife.

6. 'WAR CRIMINAL'

While many hailed Kissinger for his brilliance and broad experience, others branded him a war criminal for his role in, among other events, expanding the Vietnam war to Cambodia and Laos.

Some historians estimated that hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the US aerial bombing campaign.

Kissinger was also reviled for supporting coups in Chile and Argentina, greenlighting Indonesia’s bloody invasion of East Timor in 1975 that led to a 24-year occupation by a US-backed military and turning a blind eye to Pakistan’s mass atrocities during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence.

Rolling Stone magazine's report on Kissinger's death was headlined "Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies".

7. CHINA TIES

For decades, Kissinger remained the US' most important voice on managing China’s rise, and the economic, military and technological challenges that it posed.

He was the only American to deal with every Chinese leader from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, having visited China more than 100 times.

In July, at age 100, he met Mr Xi and other Chinese leaders in Beijing, where he was treated like visiting royalty even as relations with Washington had turned adversarial.

“China and the United States’ relations will forever be linked to the name ‘Kissinger’,” Mr Xi said to Kissinger then in their meeting. “I express my deep respect to you.”

China's state media outlets on Thursday hailed him as “China’s old friend”.

8. CLOSE FRIEND OF LEE KUAN YEW

Kissinger was also a close friend of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, a fact that Kissinger said he considered "one of the great blessings of my life".

They had met in 1967 when Lee was taking a sabbatical at Harvard University.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote on March 24, 2015, a day after his father died: "They kept close ever since, in and out of office."

He also wrote: "When my father was ill recently, Kissinger wanted to visit his old friend one more time, but sadly, my father was not in a condition to receive him. Now he has written this moving eulogy to my father."

The eulogy was one that Kissinger had written in the Washington Post. 

Kissinger also came to Singapore to pay respects to his old friend at the state funeral.

Speaking to reporters then, Kissinger said: “He meant a lot to me. It was not a friendship of doing things for each other, it was of learning from each other, but it was not a friendship in which you ask favours..."

He added: “What I liked most about Lee Kuan Yew was... When my wife and I came (for a visit)... you could see it gave him great joy, he never said it... it was an atmosphere.”

Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Thursday paid tribute to Kissinger in a Facebook post, calling the late diplomat a “remarkable” person for being actively involved in US and global affairs till his last weeks.

Mr Tharman mentioned Kissinger’s role in orchestrating the reopening of relations between the US and China in 1972, after more than two decades of America’s isolation of China’s communist state, as his most important contribution.

“Henry Kissinger also had a strong connection with Singapore. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and he had developed a deep regard for each other, starting from the late '60s,” Mr Tharman said. WITH AGENCIES