Thursday, October 22, 2015

Henry Kissinger - Revered Senior Statesman or War-Criminal?

As is often the case, it's a mixture. But if I had to lean one way or the other, it would clearly be toward the latter. The secret bombing of Cambodia (which was not just a violation of international law - Cambodia being a sovereign nation - but unconstitutional as well), his involvement in the assassination of a constitutional General in Chile, his supporting of dictatorships in Latin America, his "green-lighting" of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor and the Pakistani genocide in Bangladesh, the selling of weapons to the Shah of Iran and the Saudi Royals - these are just some of the "highlights" and, while, yes, I understand that tough decisions sometimes have to be made, this "philosopher of the deed" (term courtesy of Greg Grandin) mentality that Kissinger fostered in which the U.S. always must act, a) hasn't served the country well and b) is polar opposite to what the Founding Fathers envisioned.

2 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

I'd put him in the John Foster Dulles school of using the CIA rather than diplomacy.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I might rank him worse than Dulles but that's just me.