An MSNBC appearance from 2011. Some viewers were disappointed to learn that the arrest referenced on screen was not in any way related to Kissinger.
Americans are sometimes astonished when foreign leaders who are responsible for horrendous atrocities are treated like statesmen in their own countries, asked polite questions by journalists all too aware of the consequences of speaking truth to power.
So let’s talk about Henry Kissinger.
The former national security adviser seems to be everywhere lately. He made an appearance at an event with other former secretaries of state, leading Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank (9/3/14) to call him “the most celebrated foreign-policy strategist of our time,” and to note that of those gathered, “the wisest, as usual, was Kissinger.”
There he was on the CBS Sunday show Face the Nation (9/7/14), with host Bob Schieffer asking him: “Has the Obama administration talked to you or sought your advice on Russia? Because to my way of thinking, nobody probably knows Putin as well as you do.”
He went on later to take a brave stand in favor of Kissinger:
And I’m going to say it up front, I don’t give advice obviously, I report on what others do. But I would send Henry Kissinger tonight to Moscow to talk to Putin and see what he can find out and decide where we should go from there.
The front page of USA Today (9/8/14) offered Kissinger’s thoughts on how to “dismantle” the Islamic State, wise words from the “nation’s senior foreign policy elder.”
Ted Koppel
The treatments of Kissinger are almost all notably positive. This isn’t anything new for elite media; consider Nightline host Ted Koppel’s praise from 1989, when memories of Kissinger’s record should have been fresh (Media Beat, 1/16/06):
I’m proud to be a friend of Henry Kissinger. He is an extraordinary man. This country has lost a lot by not having him in a position of influence and authority.
Koppel would say a few years later: “If you want a clear foreign-policy vision, someone who will take you beyond the conventional wisdom of the moment, it’s hard to do any better than Henry Kissinger.”
Of course, a clear vision of Kissinger would help too. The record is well-documented, from backing a coup in Chile (“We will not let Chile go down the drain“) to supporting the dirty war in Argentina to Indonesia’s bloody campaign in East Timor.
2.8 million tons of bombs were dropped on Cambodia during the Vietnam War—overwhelmingly on Kissinger’s orders (Walrus, 10/06).
Kissinger is most closely associated with the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Of the latter, he famously delivered this order: ”A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves.” Credible estimates of the number of people killed as a result of this order range as high as 800,000.
But these atrocities are rarely brought up when Kissinger makes the rounds in US media. On a recent NPR Weekend Edition appearance (9/6/14), Scott Simon posed this question near the end of the interview:
Mr. Kissinger, every time we interview you, we hear from people who object, who say they have no interest in your opinion because of your role during the war in Vietnam, especially the bombing of Cambodia and Laos. How do you answer that?
It’s not an especially tough question, but you could sense Kissinger’s frustration. He made a rather astonishing claim—”I bet if one did an honest account, there are fewer civilian casualties in Cambodia than there have been from American drone attacks”—and then assured that the policies that he and others carried out were done “with anguish.”
Simon’s follow-up: “Do you think Hillary Clinton would be a good president?”
Asked about similar issues by USA Today, Kissinger waved them away: “That was 50 years ago. I’m now 91. And from that perspective, what you mentioned is not of any concern to me.”
Henry Kissinger (cc photo: Brandon)
The interview that stands out for being exceptionally tough was on the public radio show The Takeaway (9/9/14), where Todd Zwillich actually confronted Kissinger about his record. On the bombing of Cambodia, Kissinger claimed, “We bombed these areas that were largely uninhabited.” Which led to this:
Zwillich: Excuse me, sir. Uninhabited goes against the facts of history. There were hundreds of thousands of people killed in that campaign.
Kissinger: Wait a minute. Ignorance is no excuse for being insulting. The bombing that people are talking about, that they’re criticizing the White House, was a 10-mile strip in which very few people were killed—if any.
It is difficult to imagine that Kissinger really believes that the US bombing of Cambodia possibly killed no one.
What is clear is that Kissinger has contempt for even being asked about such matters:
I served in a difficult period of various wars in which we did the best we could to bring an end to the wars and begin a structure of peace. And really, for 50 years after, an interview that would spend this much time on this is outrageous.
Of Chile, Kissinger says it is
an issue that your audience cannot possibly know much about. This happened over 40 years ago, it has been exhaustively discussed. It is a reflection of a period in which the divisions in America were so great that opponents seemed to take a perverse pleasure in charging the people with whom they disagreed on other points with sort of criminal activities.
He is correct about one thing: Most Americans are probably unaware of this record. Not because it does not matter, but because the “elder statesman” who oversaw these policies is treated as some sort of oracle by elite media.
A new collection of essays by Noam Chomsky includes one piece where he compares Kissinger’s frank admission about Cambodia—published years later in the New York Times (5/27/04)—to the crimes of official enemies like former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic:
Suppose, however, that someone were to unearth a document in which Milosevic orders the Serbian air force to reduce Bosnia or Kosovo to rubble, with the words “Anything that flies on anything that moves.” The prosecutors would be overjoyed, the trial would end, and Milosevic would be sent off to many successive life sentences for the crime of genocide—a death sentence, if it followed US conventions. One would, in fact, be hard put to find such an explicit order to carry out genocide—as the term is currently employed with regard to crimes of enemies—anywhere in the historical record.
In this case, after casual mention in the world’s leading newspaper, there was no detectable interest, even though the horrendous consequences are well-known.
From butcher to Brahmin, courtesy of the corpress
What do Kissinger and Obama have in common? They both were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Shame on the people who still cares about what Henry Kissinger thinks! He’s no Peace maker.
Despicable man who delights in all of the fawning the modern press does over him. When he has an interview at a gallows I’ll watch.
2.8 million tons of bomb dropped on innocent Cambodian people?. Mr. Kissinger, you did not think that you will be rotted in hell one day while tons of bomb after tons of bomb dropped on innocent Cambodian people? Did you know that these innocent people have nothing to do with you? Buddha said what you have done wrong marked on you, what you have done right marked on you.
Viet Cong sought sanctuary inside Cambodia for reasons during the Vietnam War because they wanted to kill all the Cambodian people so they want to take over Cambodia. Mr. Kissinger and American soldiers did not understand the reasons behind their sanctuaries inside Cambodia so you guy mad like crazy dog to the Cambodian people for allowing these Viet Cong to seek sanctuary in Cambodia and dropped million tons of bomb on innocent Cambodians. Viet Cong are very clever people. A group of Khmer Rouge that supported and trained by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War killed majority of the Lon Nol regime who backed by US, and educated & rich Cambodian people after their victory in April 1975. Majority of the Khmer Rouge leaders like Ta Mok, Chea Sim etc are uneducated people. If you give them power, they will do anything for you and they did during the Khmer Rouge genocide, killed their own parents.
Disgusting promotion on the Colbert show Wednesday.
K, who invaded and subverted countless countries, made the absurd claim that the West respects national sovereignty (speaking of Ukraine). Colbert, to his eternal shame, welcomed the old war criminal enthusiastically, even crowing about K’s Nobel War Prize.
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and others will be protesting at Kissinger’s appearance at the 92nd St Y in New York City, Thursday, October 2, 2014, 7 pm. More info here: http://www.etan.org/news/calendar.htm#Kissinger
God almighty Henry, do the planet a big favor and die already will ya!
It wasn’t secret for nothing! Kissinger bombing across the Cambodian border was War CRIMINAL. NixOn him, too!
Anyone who calls themselves a journalist and continues to fawn over this human being should immediately surrender their credentials. There is a reason the phrase, “Satire died the day Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” still has so much currency.
This contemptible war criminal should be consigned to the dustbin of historical shame. I apologize for my self-righteous tone, but HK should have been brought to trial long ago. Resentment toward impunity tends to linger.
Be well.
“Kissinger is most closely associated with the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Of the latter, he famously delivered this order: “A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves.” Credible estimates of the number of people killed as a result of this order range as high as 800,000.”
Very true, and some may even remember the Khmer Rouge. The carpet bombing of Cambodia, which destroyed entirely the fabric of its society, physically and psychologically, created the Khmer. Little less remembered is that the US, led and advised by the great man Kissinger himself, backed the Khmer Rouge and sustained them in power right up through the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia because., the Khmer were….drum roll please……………….ANTI RUSSIAN !!!
Mr. Kissinger, after a person dies, especially in the last breath, there are two transporters coming to pick up the spirit of the dead person. One comes from the place of hell and the other comes from the place of heaven. When people reborn again, there are places like Africa, Khmer Rouge genocide, and United States of America (heaven).
Kissenger is not out of power. He is a Bilderberg Group and Trilateral Commission Group leader. He should be at the Hague for genocide. He should be in jail for the lies he told the American people. He is an anti democracy Neo Con.
If Obama and Kissinger both received Peace Prizes we know the Nobel Peace Prize is for weapons profits not for real “peace”. It is an Orwellian award where war is peace.
Another murderous devil, no better then Milton Friedman..Cowards who give the order to murder thousands of people in the name of capitalism and somehow think their hands are free of blood.Why do these devils live so long? It is amazing to see how the press treats these evil war whores like they are wonderful human beings, disgusting. I guess if you repeat something enough the ignorant will believe it.
He is worse than Hitler because he had more power.
As LBJ pondered the options available to continue or to end the Viet Nam War, he quite specifically was puzzled about Kissinger’s actions and presence in Southeast Asia, which LBJ had not authorized nor approved. Considered how many years it took before any progress occurred in the Kissinger Peace Plan during the subsequent Nixon administration, LBJ’s concerns and puzzlement about Kissinger are haunting, and since Kissinger’s views today remain unchanged – in contrast to DOD Secretary McNamara’s change of heart over time – we need and deserve thorough analysis of the life of Mr. Kissinger if only to avoid repeating the mistakes of this celebrated person who prefers the shadows, probably for good reason.
What drove me crazy was when Kissinger appeared recently on the Colbert Report and the normally hard-hitting Steven Colbert fawned over “Henry”.
Schieffer, lead CBS news-hack, says with one breath he doesn’t give advice but reports news and with the very next breath does just that. And send Kissinger to Moscow to find out about Putin? That’s a laugher. I’ll tell you what I’d do if I were Putin and the US had the arrogance to send Kissinger to Moscow; and I’d note the fact that no mass murderer is entitled to diplomatic privilege before the visit. I’d jail his ass, and extradict him to Barcelona; where I know he’s been indicted. Paris, if I’m not mistaken might also have indicted him. Boy the hacks in the corporate media learn the stenography function amazingly. And the nature of the lie, specifically the Hitlerian lie: if you’re going to tell a lie, the bigger the more likely to be believe. Schieffer blows this lie right past the viewer or reader so fact, it can’t possibly be a lie, therefore it isn’t. What an imposter. And he makes how much? I daresay his salary is somewhere in the neighborhood of a million plus dollars.
agree
What is it with the US of A? We treat “our own” war criminals as heroic figures. The media have placed Henry the K on some damn pedestal. Hi IS a war criminal, plain and simple.
FYI, I was one of the dumb kids who enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in that imperial war in “sunny Southeast Asia” for the “war games” known better as the Vietnam war. I did my tour with 5th Marine Regiment from 1970-71.
I still say, before any more damn fool war of choice, as ALL US wars since 1945 have been, hold a national vote. ALL, 18 to80, who vote FOR war get a uniform, weapon, and basic training, then, off to the front lines to fight the war they voted for. No exemptions for your job or disability. Those who vote against said war, stay at home and get on with life. Also, NO “victory parades” when those “warriors” return home.
I did not want any parade when I came home, in one piece from that vile Vietnam war. It WAS a criminal enterprise and its ONLY purpose was to increase the obscene profits from those multinational corporations who made all the needed supplies and weapons/weapon systems used in war. ENOUGH!!!!! Enough of these useless, endless, damn fool idiotic wars of choice. So many died, died for corporate profits. Oh, yes, the Wally Street/City of London banksters reaped huge, obscene profits from all those wars and do so from the current and planned next wars of choice. War is the most pornographic things we humans have ever invented. There is NO “glory” in war and trust me, every Marine I served with only served other Marines, NOT the country, we survived because we knew we could trust of fellow Marines. I am certain it was the same for the Army, Navy, and even the Air Force. We fought to keep ourselves and our buddies alive.
Mr. 5 deferments Cheney did not serve in that war, which he DID support, you see, Dick had “other priorities”. Well, my fellow Marines and I had “other priorities” as well. Ours were to come home alive, hopefully with ALL our parts we were born with intact. Too many died or were maimed for noting, except obscene profits for the very rich. Also, just because a war vet has no physical wounds, all have PTSD. You see and even do things in war that no human being should ever have t even think about, let alone actually witness or participate in. Yes, even 40+ years since I did return to the US of A with no bullet wounds nor shrapnel wounds, psychically and emotionally we ALL suffered and will do so the rest of our lives. And yet, here the media go again, ask Henry what “we” must do, how “we” need to be in this latest damn fool war of choice. Why? Because those rich, the top 1%, can never, ever possibly ever obtain “enough”, nope, never ever will they be able to have enough, of anything. On my own small blog, I did a post where I stated that even IF these super rich had complete, total control of the entire planet, even that would not be “enough”. Their greed knows NO bounds/limits. I imagine that total control of the entire universe would not be “enough” for them. One could possibly even be tempted to have a tiny, very, very tiny, bit of compassion for them. Well, I do not forget and as I do not follow, nor believe in any religion, it is not my job to forgive.
Henry the K and ALL other war criminals, from the first term of “saint” Ronnie of Raygun and every administration since deserve to be in prison making little rocks from big rocks, for life.
Sorry for this long rant, but to see this vile creature dragged out as some exalted elder “statesman”, it is just too disgusting for words fit for decent company.
“Wait a minute. Ignorance is no excuse for being insulting.”
So, speaking truth to power is “insulting?” What a gasbag.
“for 50 years after, an interview that would spend this much time on this is outrageous.”
Oh yes. By all means, let’s just sweep our atrocious history under the rug because it happened *so* long ago. Assbag.
“Of Chile, Kissinger says it is ‘an issue that your audience cannot possibly know much about.'”
Of course, the inevitable insults when one wishes to deflect. He’s 91. How is he not dead already?
The Colbert Report had this cretin on the show a few days ago to promote his new book. I LOVE Stephen and the show, but I lost respect for both that night.
@ charly- preach on, brother. So glad you were one of the “lucky” ones to come back from that boondoggle in one piece so you could share your stories with us. Peace.