Henry Kissinger was a trusted confidant to President Nixon until the bitter, bizarre end

By NANCY BENAC
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Until the bitter end, Henry Kissinger was one of the trusted few in the tight circle of a distrusting President Richard Nixon. That trust, combined with Kissinger’s intellectual heft and deft manipulation of power, made him a pivotal player in a tense period in history. The giant of U.S. foreign policy died Wednesday at age 100. His power grew during the turmoil of Watergate, when he took on a role akin to co-president. But after Kissinger left government, he was dogged by critics at home and abroad who argued that he should be called to account for his policies on Southeast Asia and support of repressive regimes in Latin America.