Henry Kissinger, the late secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, whose decisions were linked to millions of deaths around the world, died of congenital heart failure, according to recently obtained police reports. Rolling rock.
Kissinger died at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut on November 29. The news was confirmed on statement from his consulting firmKissinger Associates, but the statement did not include his cause of death.
According to Greg Grandin, the Yale University historian and author of the 2015 biography Kissinger's Shadow Kissinger's foreign policy decisions under Nixon and Ford led to the premature deaths of an estimated three to four million people worldwide, in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Chile, and Argentina .
As noted in Rolling rockKissinger's obituary was celebrated by America's ruling class, as well as media pundits and conservatives. Kissinger remained particularly active in the months before his death, attending centennial birthday celebrations organized by various elite institutions. The New York Public Library and Economic Club of New York they both threw him a birthday party in 2023 and he was the man of honor Main speaker in the annual Alfred E. Smith Dinner.
The police report from the day of Kissinger's death reveals that he died in the presence of an internal medicine physician, Alphonse Altorelli. It states that Kissinger breathed his last at 6:18 p.m. and was pronounced dead by Altorelli 22 minutes later at 6:40 p.m. Altorelli declined to comment.
Ernest Chiodo, a physician, lawyer and toxicologist not associated with Kissinger or his death, said Rolling rock that those 22 minutes were probably spent performing tests to confirm his death.
“You do some basic tests, rub somebody's chest, see if there's any pain response, look at their pupils, see if there's any pupillary response,” Chiodo said. “It makes sense that it should take 20 minutes.”
Resuscitation procedures such as CPR were unlikely to have been performed if Kissinger's family had waited for him to die, Chiodo said. The police report notes that the Connecticut district attorney chose not to open an investigation, “based on the fact that he was in the presence of a doctor and because of his age.”
Kissinger had long-standing difficulties with his heart health. He had one triple heart bypass surgery in 1982, aged 58. He also had one aortic valve replacement at the age of 91.
Chiodo noted that congenital heart failure is a long-term process with a range of possible symptoms. “Your heart isn't pumping as well as it normally should,” he said. “You have a number of different abnormalities, the lungs fill with fluid, your legs swell, your liver swells, you have liver abnormalities.”
Police reports also note that state police completed security checks at Kissinger's home, where he lived with his wife Nancy, in the two days after his death. The home was also watched by a “private security” officer on December 1.
“No problem with the press,” the Dec. 1 police report added.
It is not clear how long Kissinger experienced the acute symptoms of congenital heart failure or whether he contemplated unfathomable death in the wake of his decisions. But he was able to live to the extraordinary age of 100 — far longer than most, if not all, of the victims of his policies.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-cause-of-death-congenital-heart-failure-1234946127/
