Former Secretary of State and veteran politician Henry Kissinger died at the age of one hundred, according to his foundation.

The advisory foundation said in a statement that Kissinger, who was Secretary of State under the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and played a pivotal diplomatic role during the Cold War, "died today (Thursday) at his home in Connecticut."

Henry Alfred Kissinger was born in southern Germany in 1923, where his father was a teacher, his family fled from Nazi Germany and came to the United States in 1923.

The foundation added: "After becoming an American citizen in 1943, he served in the 84th Infantry Division from 1943 to 1946, and received the Bronze Star for his commendable service, and later joined the counterintelligence corps in Germany until 1959."

He later became a politician and diplomat, a geopolitical advisory expert, holding many positions including United States Secretary of State and U.S. National Security Advisor under the governments of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, where he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and U.S. Secretary of State in 1973. Due to his procedures in negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 under controversial circumstances, as two members of the committee resigned in protest. Kissinger later unsuccessfully sought to revoke the award after the ceasefire failed.

Kissinger authored 21 books on national security, and during the Cold War, he played a major role in global diplomacy.

Kissinger also played a prominent role in U.S. foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he was a pioneer in the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, coordinated the opening of relations between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China, and engaged in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East to end the October War, negotiate the Paris Peace Accords, and end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.