Henry Kissinger's mixed legacy in Washington reflected in Biden's brief response to his death

Joe Biden with Henry Kissinger in 2009. Although Kissinger nurtured close ties with Democrats in the US foreign policy establishment, many on the left still see him as a villain who sacrificed human rights and democratic principles at the altar of naked US geopolitical interests. Photograph: Kai Moerk/AFP via Getty Images From Beijing, the praise was unstinting. Henry Kissinger was an "old friend" of China, said President Xi Jinping. In Russia, Vladimir Putin spoke of the "wise and far-sighted statesman". Israel's President Isaac Herzog hailed Kissinger for having "laid the cornerstone of the peace agreement" with Egypt "and so many…