At 100, Kissinger basks in US praise with no accountability

Former top diplomat is seen as unindicted war criminal for his role in the Vietnam War, and coups elsewhere

WASHINGTON - Dr Henry Kissinger, whose very name is synonymous with US diplomacy, turns 100 on Saturday, feted by the American elite as others seethe that the ruthless Cold Warrior has never faced accountability.

From opening the door to communist China to plotting an endgame to the Vietnam War and unapologetically backing dictators who were anti-Soviet, he wielded influence like few before or after him, serving as both top diplomat and security adviser to former US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Instantly recognisable for his bookishly thick glasses and a sharp-witted monotone that never lost a touch of his native German, he was first an academic and his intellectual gifts are acknowledged begrudgingly even by some of his harshest critics.

Since leaving office in 1977, his brand of realpolitik - the coldly cynical championing of power and national interests - has largely fallen out of favour as his successors preached moralism, but Dr Kissinger himself has if anything enjoyed greater repute.

Ahead of his centennial, he blew candles on a cake at a celebratory luncheon at the Economic Club of New York, the city where he grew up after his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany.

Showing his worldview has not changed at the century mark, he cautioned for the United States to stay within the bounds of "vital interests".

He told the guests: "We need to be always strong enough to resist any pressures."