Henry Kissinger, the German-born American diplomat, academic and presidential adviser who served as secretary of state for two presidents, laid the groundwork for a generation of peace in the Middle East, according to former deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland.
Kissinger died Wednesday at the age of 100 and McFarland joined "FOX & Friends" to discuss the legacy of the man she began working with over 50 years ago.
"He presided over a golden era of American foreign policy," McFarland said on "FOX & Friends."
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"At the time, when he came into office with Richard Nixon, in January of 1969, the United States was just less than a decade past the Cuban Missile Crisis. So, we had a potential Cold War crisis with the Soviet Union looming… what did Kissinger do? He found a way to have détente with the Soviet Union, arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union," she continued. "We’re in the middle of the Vietnam War, he found a way to have peace negotiations ending that Vietnam War."
McFarland said that Kissinger also "managed to break China off from the Soviet Union" to improve relations with the United States. Indeed, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, began a rapprochement with China and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
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"Finally, and probably most famously, the opening of the Middle East peace negotiations. The 1973 war was the first Yom Kippur War, very similar to the war we’re having now, and Kissinger was able to go in and negotiate between Israel and Egypt and Jordan and Syria to have a cease-fire, which laid the ground for Middle East peace for a generation," McFarland said.
A statement released by Kissinger Associates said Kissinger died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut. Kissinger was both revered and controversial, praised by supporters as a brilliant strategist and condemned by critics as a master manipulator.
McFarland said she was hired to work with Kissinger over five decades ago.
"He was my first boss… I just turned 19 years old, I was a nighttime secretary in the White House Situation Room," she said.
"I got to know Kissinger and he would give me words of encouragement… the thing about Kissinger, if he didn’t think you were doing your job, or he didn’t think you were very smart, he wouldn’t have any time for you at all. But if he did think you could do good things, then he kept giving you greater responsibilities."
Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
