Kissinger's Lasting Legacy: An Enormous Pile Of More Than Four Million Corpses

"Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, 'The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.'"

From The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-survivors/

Henry Kissinger — history’s bloodiest social climber — turned 100 years old last Saturday.

At the top of the [American social] pyramid, Kissinger enjoys endless banquets and oceans of acclamation. During the Nixon administration, Kissinger was beloved by Hollywood, often literally. He spoke at the 1996 funeral for a less prominent war criminal, Thomas Enders, an event also attended by David Rockefeller (John D.’s grandson, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank), Paul Volcker (chair of the Federal Reserve who said, “The standard of living of the average American has to decline”), Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat (an Argentinian billionaire), and Gustavo Cisneros (a Venezuelan billionaire).

At the height of the Iraq War, Vice President Dick Cheney reported that “I probably talk to Henry Kissinger more than I talk to anybody else. He just comes by.” Hillary Clinton referred to Kissinger as “a friend, and I relied on his counsel when I served as secretary of state.” (Clinton rearranged her schedule giving an award to designer Oscar de la Renta so both she and de la Renta could attended Kissinger’s 90th birthday.) In 2014, he attended a Yankees game with noted humanitarian Samantha Power, who later received an award both named after and presented to her by Kissinger. . . .

Then consider those down at the bottom of the pyramid: the Cambodians, Vietnamese, Laotians, Timorese, Pakistanis, Latin Americans, and many more, whose lives and bodies were torn to shreds by Kissinger. (The “many more” here includes U.S. soldiers, whom Kissinger referred to as “dumb, stupid animals to be used.”) . . .

It is bracing indeed to understand that the people who run this country find this kind of human being charming and delightful. It makes you wonder if there are any killers from history who they would not celebrate, assuming the killers had conducted their slaughter with the aim of keeping America’s elites rich, warm, and safe behind a phalanx of guns.

Nick Turse, a journalist and historian, is the author of Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam, an irrefutable and meticulously documented account of the savage and sickening war crimes committed year after year by U.S. forces against the citizens of Vietnam, a shocking, sickening, extremely disturbing, and important book of American history. Turse’s most recent contribution to The Intercept is: “Blood on his Hands: Survivors of Kissinger’s Secret War in Cambodia Reveal Unreported Mass Killings”.

The U.S. carpet bombing of Cambodia between 1969 and 1973 has been well documented, but its architect, former national security adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger . . . bears responsibility for more violence than has been previously reported. An investigation by The Intercept provides evidence of previously unreported attacks that killed or wounded hundreds of Cambodian civilians during Kissinger’s tenure in the White House. When questioned about his culpability for these deaths, Kissinger responded with sarcasm and refused to provide answers.

An exclusive archive of formerly classified U.S. military documents — assembled from the files of a secret Pentagon task force that investigated war crimes during the 1970s, inspector generals’ inquiries buried amid thousands of pages of unrelated documents, and other materials discovered during hundreds of hours of research at the U.S. National Archives — offers previously unpublished, unreported, and underappreciated evidence of civilian deaths that were kept secret during the war and remain almost entirely unknown to the American people. The documents also provided a rudimentary road map for on-the-ground reporting in Southeast Asia that yielded evidence of scores of additional bombings and ground raids that have never been reported to the outside world.

Survivors from 13 Cambodian villages along the Vietnamese border told The Intercept about attacks that killed hundreds of their relatives and neighbors during Kissinger’s tenure in President Richard Nixon’s White House. The interviews with more than 75 Cambodian witnesses and survivors, published here for the first time, reveal in new detail the long-term trauma borne by survivors of the American war. These attacks were far more intimate and perhaps even more horrific than the violence already attributed to Kissinger’s policies, because the villages were not just bombed, but also strafed by helicopter gunships and burned and looted by U.S. and allied troops.

The incidents detailed in the files and the testimony of survivors include accounts of both deliberate attacks inside Cambodia and accidental or careless strikes by U.S. forces operating on the border with South Vietnam. These latter attacks were infrequently reported through military channels, covered only sparingly by the press at the time, and have mostly been lost to history. Together, they increase an already sizable number of Cambodian deaths for which Kissinger bears responsibility and raise questions among experts about whether long-dormant efforts to hold him accountable for war crimes might be renewed.

The Army files and interviews with Cambodian survivors, American military personnel, Kissinger confidants, and experts demonstrate that impunity extended from the White House to American soldiers in the field. The records show that U.S. troops implicated in killing and maiming civilians received no meaningful punishments.

Together, the interviews and documents demonstrate a consistent disregard for Cambodian lives: failing to detect or protect civilians; to conduct post-strike assessments; to investigate civilian harm allegations; to prevent such damage from recurring; and to punish or otherwise hold U.S. personnel accountable for injuries and deaths. These policies not only obscured the true toll of the conflict in Cambodia but also set the stage for the civilian carnage of the U.S. war on terror from Afghanistan to Iraq, Syria to Somalia, and beyond.

“You can trace a line from the bombing of Cambodia to the present,” said Greg Grandin, author of “Kissinger’s Shadow.” “The covert justifications for illegally bombing Cambodia became the framework for the justifications of drone strikes and forever war. It’s a perfect expression of American militarism’s unbroken circle.”

Kissinger bears significant responsibility for attacks in Cambodia that killed as many as 150,000 civilians, according to Ben Kiernan, former director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University and one of the foremost authorities on the U.S. air campaign in Cambodia. That’s up to six times the number of noncombatants thought to have died in U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen during the first 20 years of the war on terror. Grandin estimated that, overall, Kissinger — who also helped to prolong the Vietnam War and facilitate genocides in Cambodia, East Timor, and Bangladesh; accelerated civil wars in southern Africa; and supported coups and death squads throughout Latin America — has the blood of at least 3 million people on his hands

All the while, as Kissinger dated starlets, won coveted awards, and rubbed shoulders with billionaires at black-tie White House dinners, Hamptons galas, and other invitation-only soirées, survivors of the U.S. war in Cambodia were left to grapple with loss, trauma, and unanswered questions. They did so largely alone and invisible to the wider world, including to Americans whose leaders had upended their lives.

Henry Kissinger dodged questions about the bombing of Cambodia for decades and has spent half his life lying about his role in the killings there. . . .

Also by Nick Turse, The Intercept, May 23, 2023:

Transcripts Of Kissinger’s Calls Reveals His Culpability
They expose Nixon’s policymaking, Kissinger’s key role, and how so many Cambodians came to be killed by U.S. aircraft.

Notorious 1973 Attack Killed Many More Than Previously Known
Long-buried documents indicate that the true number of civilian casualties in the bombing of Neak Luong may have been nearly twice the official tally.

U.S. Blamed The Press For Military Looting In Cambodia
Any theft “was done by civilian reporters in their wandering about the village,” according to a previously unrevealed Army investigation.

Noting that some recent event marks the death of irony has made a strong resurgence in the last seven years and can be properly applied several times a day to various goings-on in the U.S.’s political circus. The statement was (perhaps) first coined by counterculture icon Paul Krassner, who remarked that Henry Kissinger being awarding the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 was “the death of irony”. (Also, there is a quote attributed to Tom Lehrer: “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize.”)

In 2001, Christopher Hitchens wrote “The Case Against Henry Kissinger”, a two-part article for Harper’s (later expanded into a book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger; it was also a documentary), which laid out a case for prosecuting Kissinger “for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture”.

After The Case Against Henry Kissinger was published in early 2001, Kissinger insisted — when negotating his attendance for any interview, meeting, or public appearance — that he not be asked questions about Hitchens’s reporting. If that condition would not be met, Kissinger would not appear.

Henry Kissinger At 100: Still A War Criminal
David Corn, Mother Jones, May 25, 2023

Henry Kissinger is turning 100 this week, and his centennial is prompting assorted hosannas about perhaps the most influential American foreign policymaker of the 20th century. The Economist observed that “his ideas have been circling back into relevancy for the last quarter century.” The Times of London ran an appreciation: “Henry Kissinger at 100: What He Can Tell Us About the World.” Policy shops and think tanks have held conferences to mark this milestone. CBS News aired a mostly fawning interview veteran journalist Ted Koppel conducted with Kissinger that included merely a glancing reference to the ignoble and bloody episodes of his career. Kissinger is indeed a monumental figure who shaped much of the past 50 years. He brokered the US opening to China and pursued detente with the Soviet Union during his stints as President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state. Yet it is an insult to history that he is not equally known and regarded for his many acts of treachery—secret bombings, coup-plotting, supporting military juntas—that resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands. 

Kissinger’s diplomatic conniving led to or enabled slaughters around the globe. As he blows out all those candles, let’s call the roll. . . .

Kissinger is routinely lambasted by his critics as a “war criminal,” though has never been held accountable for his misdeeds. He has made millions as a consultant, author, and commentator in the decades since he left government. . . . Kissinger has expressed few, if any, regrets about the cruel and deadly results of his moves on the global chessboard. . . .

As he enters his second century, there will be no apologies coming from Kissinger. But the rest of us will owe history—and the thousands dead because of his gamesmanship—an apology, if we do not consider the man in full. Whatever his accomplishments, his legacy includes an enormous pile of corpses. This is a birthday that warrants no celebration.

Henry Kissinger, War Criminal—Still At Large At 100
Greg Grandin, The Nation, May 15, 2023

“We were half-convinced that nothing was beyond the capacity of this remarkable man,” ABC News’ Ted Koppel said in a 1974 documentary, describing Kissinger as “the most admired man in America.” He was, Koppel added, “the best thing we’ve got going for us.”

We now know much more about Kissinger’s other crimes, the immense suffering he caused during his years in public office. He green-lighted coups and enabled genocides. He told dictators to get their killing and torturing done quickly, sold out the Kurds, and ran the botched operation to kidnap Chilean Gen. René Schneider (in the hope of derailing President Salvador Allende’s inauguration), which resulted in Schneider’s murder. His post-Vietnam turn to the Middle East left that region in chaos, setting the stage for crises that continue to afflict humanity.

We know little, though, about what came later, during his four decades of work with Kissinger Associates. The firm’s “client list” has been one of the most sought-after documents in Washington since at least 1989, when Senator Jesse Helms unsuccessfully demanded to see it before he would consider confirming Lawrence Eagleburger (a Kissinger protégé and an employee of Kissinger Associates) as deputy secretary of state. Later, Kissinger quit as chair of the 9/11 Commission rather than hand over the list for public review.

Kissinger Associates was an early player in the wave of privatizations that took place after the end of the Cold War—in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Latin America—helping to create a new international oligarchic class. Kissinger had used the contacts he made as a public official to found one of the most lucrative firms in the world. . . . Kissinger was an eager advocate of both Gulf Wars, and he worked closely with President Clinton to push NAFTA through Congress. . . .

In 1975, as secretary of state, Kissinger helped Union Carbide set up its chemical plant in Bhopal—working with the Indian government and securing funds from the United States. After the plant’s 1984 chemical leak disaster, Kissinger Associates represented Union Carbide, brokering a paltry out-of-court settlement for the victims of the leak, which caused nearly 4,000 immediate deaths and exposed another half-million people to toxic gases.

The total of at least four million dead in this post’s title comes from Grandin’s book Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman, and his article for Salon here:

So, to sum up, using the lower estimates above: Kissinger’s policies resulted in at least 4,124,000 civilian deaths, probably many times that number of wounded and refugees – and that doesn’t include Kissinger’s victims in Vietnam — a war that he (and Nixon) helped prolong for five years when they sabotaged 1968 peace talks — Laos, or Argentina, Uruguay, the Middle East and Persian Gulf, at the hands of Kissinger’s partners, such as the Shah and the Saudis.

How ‘The New York Times’ Whitewashed the 1968 ‘October Surprise’—And Why It Still Matters
Greg Grandin, The Nation, November 2, 2016

This week, The New York Times, in an overview of October surprises past, whitewashed the crime that helped put Richard Nixon in the White House. It described that year’s “surprise” as President Lyndon Johnson’s October 31 announcement of a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam, as part of talks that promised to end the war. . . .

Announcement of a deal by Washington, Saigon, and Hanoi might have pushed Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey, who was closing in on Nixon in the polls, over the top. But there would be no deal: The South Vietnamese scuttled the settlement, after hearing from Nixon’s campaign (which was acting on intelligence passed to it from Henry Kissinger) that they could get better terms from a Republican administration . . .

Nixon’s people had acted fast. Using Kissinger’s intelligence and working through Anna Chennault (the Chinese-born widow of World War II Lieut. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, she had become a prominent conservative activist), they urged the South Vietnamese to derail the talks, promising better conditions if Nixon were to be elected. President Johnson was informed of the meddling—through wiretaps and intercepts, he learned that Nixon’s campaign was telling the South Vietnamese that he was going to win and “to hold on a while longer.” If the White House had gone public with the information, the outrage might have swung the election to Humphrey. But Johnson hesitated, fearing that “Nixon’s conniving” was just too explosive. “This is treason,” he said. “It would rock the world.” Johnson stayed silent, Nixon won, and the war went on. . . .

Understanding the true nature of 1968’s October Surprise — that is, the one the Times didn’t feel was fit to mention — is key to understanding much of what came next: Having derailed the best chance to end the war, Nixon and Kissinger had to figure out a way to force Hanoi back to the negotiating table. So they began to bomb Cambodia, hoping it would force North Vietnam’s hand. But the bombing was illegal, so it had to be done in secret. Pressure to keep it secret spread paranoia within the administration about leaks to the press—especially after Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers—leading to a series of covert actions resulting in the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s downfall. . . .

The more the Vietnam War — prolonged by Nixon and Kissinger’s maneuverings — polarized American society, giving rise to a growing grassroots conservative movement that would eventually coalesce behind Ronald Reagan — the more war, or at least the drum beat of war, was needed to leverage that polarization to political advantage.

The list of sensible and logical objections to supporting Hillary Clinton for president back in 2016 was nearly endless. One of the more odious objections was Hillary referring to a war criminal as her mentor and a friend. That fact had nothing to do with her electoral college defeat, however. She was simply the absolute worst possible Democratic candidate, an bizarre choice that might have led an impartial observer to assume the Democrats lost on purpose, that they threw the election to Trump.

As The Guardian reported in early 2016:

Among Kissinger’s numerous offenses: as national security adviser, and later secretary of state to both presidents Nixon and Ford, Kissinger’s foreign policy views often held sway, from his backing of “Operation Menu”, the covert bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia in 1969-70, to the disastrous attack on the Khmer Rouge in 1975 in the wake of the Mayaguez incident. As part of the CIA’s larger plan to destabilize the Allende government in Chile, Hitchens argued that Kissinger was behind the kidnapping of Chilean general René Schneider, who was ultimately killed by his captors. Schneider’s family even sued Kissinger for the murder, but to no avail.

This is the man that Hillary Clinton values for his “belief in the indispensability of continued American leadership in service of a just and liberal order” . . .

It isn’t hard to see why Secretary Clinton valued his input; she is the heir to the sort of realpolitik (“realistic politics”) that made Kissinger famous. Clinton asserts that she’s the only candidate that, once in office, will actually get things done. The problem with this modern sense of realpolitik is that the word has become shorthand for “the ends justify the means”. It’s telling that the term can be applied to a diplomat like Kissinger, as well as to America’s Founding Father, George Washington (whose motto was “Exitus Acta Probat” or “the outcome justifies the deed”), as well as to a brutal dictator like Joseph Stalin.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton reviewed Kissinger’s book World Order for the Washington Post. She wrote (my emphasis):

Kissinger is a friend, and I relied on his counsel when I served as secretary of state. He checked in with me regularly, sharing astute observations about foreign leaders and sending me written reports on his travels. Though we have often seen the world and some of our challenges quite differently, and advocated different responses now and in the past, what comes through clearly in this new book is a conviction that we, and President Obama, share: a belief in the indispensability of continued American leadership in service of a just and liberal order.

Kissinger, Obama, and Clinton — three buddies who share a belief in creating a “just and liberal” world — though they admit that they do see some things differently. But that doesn’t stop them from being pals who will always take the time to share astute observations and have a good laugh together.

In the next year or two, after Henry Kissinger has finally drawn his last breath, the corporate mainstream media — every outlet and network — will portray his career and accomplishments in highly-selective (i.e., deceptive) tones. It will be supremely disgusting, but not as disgusting as the decades of respect and admiration paid to this vile war criminal by craven politicians from both parties.

In the words of Vietnam War whistleblower Fred Branfman, “only a nation in deep spiritual and psychological disarray could honor a man with as much blood on his hands as Henry Kissinger”.