Washington, May 14 (RHC)-- Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has received the Pentagon’s highest honor for private citizens and foreign nationals.

Kissinger, who is 92-years-old, received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award at the Pentagon for “orchestrating countless foreign policy victories” during his tenure as the national security adviser to President Richard Nixon, according to a Defense Department statement.

During the ceremony, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that while Kissinger's “contributions are far from complete, we are now beginning to appreciate what his service has provided our country, how it has changed the way we think about strategy and how he has helped provide greater security for our citizens and people around the world.”

Critics say that Henry Kissinger deserves credit for some of Washington's most criminal atrocities, including the carpet-bombing of Cambodia during the U.S. war of aggression against Vietnam and all of Southeast Asia, supporting Pakistan's genocide in Bangladesh, the 1973 military coup in Chile and other crimes both foreign and domestic.