Former U.S. national security adviser Brzezinski dies

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser to U.S. President Carter, has died. He was 89.

His death was announced on social media Friday night by his daughter, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. She called him “the most inspiring, loving and devoted father any girl could ever have.”

"My father passed away peacefully tonight. He was known to his friends as Zbig, to his grandchildren as Chief and to his wife as the enduring love of her life. I just knew his as the most inspiring, loving and devoted father any girl could ever have. I love you Dad #HailToTheChief," his daughter Mika, co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," wrote on Instagram.

Brzezinski helped topple economic barriers between the Soviet Union and the West. And he helped Carter bridge wide gaps between the rigid Egyptian and Israeli leaders, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, leading to the Camp David accords.

But the Carter years were also defined by the Iranian hostage crisis, which came to symbolize the administration’s failures and frustrations.

In recent years, Brzezinski took part in proceedings designed to bring the former Soviet republics into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

(USA TODAY)