Henry Kissinger, the powerful but controversial U.S. Secretary of State who died at age 100 on Wednesday, is perhaps most famous for orchestrating America’s rapprochement with Communist China, and most notorious for ordering bombings of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

But the statesman who reigned over U.S. foreign policy for a decade also played a less remarked upon role in shaping American action on the Korean Peninsula — and at one point was only a hair’s breath away from lashing out against North Korea.