Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish strategic theorist who was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter in the tumultuous years of the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s, died Friday at a hospital in Virginia. He died Friday at the age of 89. His death, at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, was announced Friday by his daughter, Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of the MSNBC program “Morning Joe.”

Like his predecessor Henry A. Kissinger, Brzezinski was a foreign-born scholar (he in Poland, Kissinger in Germany) with considerable influence in global affairs, both before and long after his official tour of duty in the White House. She called him “the most inspiring, loving and devoted father any girl could ever have.”

Earnest and ambitious, Brzezinski helped Carter bridge wide gaps between the rigid Egyptian and Israeli leaders, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, leading to the Camp David accords in September 1978. Brzezinski served as President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser from 1977 to 1981 after serving as Carter’s principal foreign policy adviser during the 1976 campaign. “I have made it on my own terms.”

The oldest son of Polish diplomat Tadeus Brzezinski, Zbigniew was born on March 28, 1928, and attended Catholic schools during the time his father was posted in France and Germany.
Polish-American diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson (1966–1968) and President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor (1977–1981), dies at the age of 89.