Reflections on Henry Kissinger

Tuesday January 19, 2010 6pm Caspary Auditorium Rockefeller University

Henry Kissinger is one of the most well-known and controversial diplomats of the 20^th century. Given his invitation to speak here at Rockefeller it is important to carefully consider his record. Several works discuss the merits and controversies surrounding Dr. Kissinger; his most infamous policy decisions were briefly discussed in The Nation magazine upon his appointment to the 9/11 commission (1):

Vietnam. Kissinger helped to undermine the 1968 Paris peace talks in order to assist Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. Kissinger and Anna Chennault, another Nixon supporter, urged the South Vietnamese government to not agree to a peace treaty while the Democrats were in power in the U.S., suggesting that they would "get a better deal" with Nixon, if he won election. President Thieu of South Vietnam complied.

Once in office, Nixon named Kissinger his national security adviser, and later appointed him secretary of state. As co-architect of Nixon's war in Vietnam, Kissinger oversaw the secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, an illegal operation (listed in the Articles of Impeachment drawn up during Watergate) estimated to have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Kissinger was later awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a peace treaty with North Vietnam whose parameters were very similar to the one he helped scuttle a few years before. Around half of the total American casualties in Vietnam occurred between the sabotaged 1968 effort and the final 1973 treaty.

This incident, while seemingly incredible, is confirmed independently in both the diaries of Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman and in former Sec. of Defense Clark Clifford's memoir "Council to the President."

Chile. In November 1970, Kissinger authored NSC Memorandum 93, making it the goal of the United States to topple the socialist but democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende. Kissinger commented that " The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves ..." (Foreign Affairs, January 1975.)

Following Kissinger's direction, the CIA undertook to destabilize Chile's poor and fragile economy, as well to actively encourage and support military leaders considering a coup, including the alleged assassination of a ranking general loyal to Allende and the constitution (2). On Sept 11, 1973, Gen. Augusto Pinochet led a successful coup, resulting in Allende's death. Pinochet lead the repressive military junta until 1990. In 1998 Pinochet was arrested in England on war crimes charges, but released in 2000 for health reasons. After his return to Chile, he was indicted for several crimes, but died before trial.

East Timor. In 1975, President Gerald Ford and Kissinger, still serving as secretary of state, offered advance approval of Indonesia's brutal invasion of East Timor, which took the lives of tens of thousands of East Timorese. Indonesian troops held East Timor using weapons provided by the American government, even though, according to White House documents, Kissinger understood that the weapons being provided would not be used in accordance with international law (3). Indonesia occupied East Timor until the Clinton administration ended the military aid, originally set up under Ford and Kissinger, in 1999.

For these incidents, especially those involving the Allende coup in Chile, Kissinger has been sought by the justice systems in several countries, including France (4), Spain (5), Chile (6) and Argentina (7) and he has been sued in US courts (3, 8-9).

Sources:

1. Corn, David. Kissinger’s back as a 9/11 Truth-Seeker, The Nation, (2002). http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames/176/kissinger_s_back_as_9_11_truth_seeker

2. National Security Archive. East Timor Revisited. (2001) http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/

3. Schneider v. Kissinger. (2006). http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/2005/0responses/2005-0743.resp.html

4. Trean, Claire. Henry Kissinger rattrapé au Ritz, à Paris, par les fantômes du plan Condor. Le Monde, (2001).

5. BBC. Spanish judge targets Kissinger. (2002). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1937000.stm

6. Harnden, Toby. US angry as Chile asks Kissinger about death. Telegraph, (2001). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1336058/US-angry-as-Chile-asks-Kissinger-about-death.html

7. Human Rights Watch. Argentina. (2001) http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k2/americas1.html

8. The Guardian. Kissinger sued over Chile death (2001). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/12/2

9. Center for Constitutional Rights. Horman v. Kissinger. http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/past-cases/horman-v.-kissinger