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

Axar.az reports that from opening the door to communist China to plotting an endgame to the Vietnam War to unapologetically backing dictators who were anti-Soviet, Kissinger wielded influence like few before or after him, serving as both a top diplomat and security advisor to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

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

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