5 reasons why Henry Kissinger was so reviled by so many, yet loved by US power-brokers
KENT, CONNECTICUT: Henry Kissinger, one of the most prominent and controversial figures of US foreign policy in the 20th century, has died at the age of 100.
Kissinger, who held positions as national security advisor and secretary of state under Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, died on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, at his home in Connecticut, according to a statement from his consulting firm called Kissinger Associates.
Over the course of his lengthy career, the influential diplomat has advised a dozen presidents, including Joe Biden, and won the Nobel Prize for mediating the conclusion of the Vietnam War.
Kissinger was known for his practice of "realpolitik" — engaging with the world based on practical objectives rather than moral ideals — and was credited for implementing covert diplomacy, which contributed to improving US-China relations.
However, he was still detested by many for his support of a coup against Chile's democratic governmend for bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War, which helped the homicidal Khmer Rouge dictatorship to ascend to power.
Here are five reasons why Henry Kissinger was so reviled by so many, yet loved by US power brokers:
The controversial bombardment of Cambodia
Although Nixon openly supported the idea of "Vietnamization", or the departure of American forces to allow the South Vietnamese to assume command of military operations, he intensified the Vietnam War covertly by bombing Cambodia and neighboring Laos.
Kissinger had a significant role in both carrying out and concealing the bombing attacks on Cambodia from the public and Congress.
A Pentagon report released in 1973 previously revealed that “Henry A Kissinger approved each of the 3,875 Cambodia bombing raids in 1969 and 1970” in addition to approving “the methods for keeping them out of the newspapAfterion of the bombing campaign, known as "Operation Menu", the United States had dropped 110,000 tons of bombs, resulting in the deaths of between 150,000 and 500,000 civilians, according to History News.
The Bloody Coup in Chile
Kissinger’s controversial legacy has been largely eclipsed by questions regarding his support for the bloody coup that overturned a leftist government in Chile.
As per records, in 1970, Nixon and Kissinger conspired to subtly obstruct Salvador Allende's democratic election as president. This involved Kissinger overseeing covert efforts meant to topple Chile's government and incite a military takeover.
Kissinger’s support eventually led to the assassination of Gen Rene Schneider, the commander in chief of Chile’s army, and the rise of Augusto Pinochet, the general who had seized power.
Over the next three decades, General Pinochet killed thousands of Chileans and implemented a dictatorship.
As he came to be accused of human violation, Kissinger was often associated with covert operations that had threatened the democratically elected government of Allende, according to the New York Times.
In both a memoir and testimony before Congress, Kissinger asserted that the US "had nothing to do" with the military takeover that deposed Allende.
But in 2004, declassified phone records revealed that Kissinger boasted that “we helped them” by creating the conditions for the coup.
In 2001, General Schneider’s two sons launched a civil lawsuit in the United States, claiming that Kissinger assisted in planning the clandestine operations in Chile that resulted in their father's demise.
But, a court, without ruling on Kissinger’s culpability, dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the government, not the courts, should make foreign policy decisions.
The invasion of East Timor
Kissinger was accused of using Chile as a little pawn in his broader schemes, but that was hardly the only place. Reports state that he and President Ford gave their approval for Indonesia to invade East Timor in December 1975, which resulted in a disastrous 24-year occupation by a US-backed military.
According to declassified papers made public by the National Security Archive in 2001, Ford and Kissinger knew of the invasion plans months in advance and were aware that the use of American arms in an invasion would violate the nation’s law.
In December 1975, Ford and Kissinger were visiting Beijing when they stopped in Jakarta to meet with Indonesian President Suharto, who headed the nation’s military regime.
Suharto signaled he intended to send troops into East Timor and integrate the territory into Indonesia.
As per a report by Mother Jones, Ford and Kissinger did not object to his plan but pointed out that he should wait until they returned to the United States, where they “would be able to influence the reaction in America.”
Soon, Suharto began the brutal invasion of East Timor, which resulted in the death of more than 200,000 civilians
The mass massacre in Bangladesh
A political party that supported the autonomy of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) won parliamentary elections in 1970. Gen. Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, the military dictator in charge of Pakistan, detained the party's leader and gave the order for his troops to exterminate the Bengalis.
At the moment, Kissinger and Nixon didn't want to obstruct Yahya, a US ally, who was assisting them in forging connections with China.
The top US diplomat in East Pakistan sent in a cable detailing and decrying the atrocities committed by Yahya’s troops and reported they were committing “genocide.”
However, neither Nixon nor Kissinger bothered to denounce Yahya or do anything to put an end to the heinous attack. Their blind eye seemingly approved Pakistan’s genocidal slaughter of 300,000 to 3 million people in Bangladesh.
“At this point, the recklessness of Nixon and Kissinger only got worse,” Dexter Filkins, of The New Yorker, wrote in discussing Professor Bass’s account in The New York Times Book Review in 2013
“They dispatched ships from the Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal, and even encouraged China to move troops to the Indian border, possibly for an attack — a maneuver that could have provoked the Soviet Union,” Filkins said.
“Fortunately, the leaders of the two Communist countries proved more sober than those in the White House. The war ended quickly when India crushed the Pakistani Army and East Pakistan declared independence, becoming the new nation of Bangladesh,” Filkins continued.
The Dirty War
After overthrowing President Isabel Peron in March 1976, a neofascist military junta began what would later be known as “the Dirty War”, torturing, disappearing, and killing political opponents it branded as terrorists.
Once again, Kissinger gave the "green light" to a campaign of terror and death during a private meeting in June 1976 with the junta’s foreign minister Cesar Augusto Guzzetti.
In a 2004 memo that the nonprofit National Security Archive obtained, Guzzetti informed Kissinger that "terrorism is our main problem in Argentina" during that meeting, according to Mother Jones.
To which, Kissinger replied, “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly.”
During the Dirty War, the Junta military claimed the lives of an estimated 30,000 Argentine civilians.