The Case Against Henry Kissinger
Part One
The making of a war criminal
by Christopher Hitchens
Harpers magazine, March 2001
THE 1968 ELECTION * INDOCHINA * CHILE
It will become clear, and may as well be stated at the outset,
that this is written by a political opponent of Henry Kissinger.
Nonetheless, I have found myself continually amazed at how much
hostile and discreditable material I have felt compelled to omit.
I am concerned only with those Kissingerian offenses that might
or should form the basis of a legal prosecution: 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.
Thus, I might have mentioned Kissinger's recruitment and betrayal
of the Iraqi Kurds, who were falsely encouraged by him to take
up arms against Saddam Hussein in 1972-75, and who were then abandoned
to extermination on their hillsides when Saddam Hussein made a
diplomatic deal with the Shah of Iran, and who were deliberately
lied to as well as abandoned. The conclusions of the report by
Congressman Otis Pike still make shocking reading and reveal on
Kissinger's part a callous indifference to human life and human
rights. But they fall into the category of depraved realpolitik
and do not seem to have violated any known law.
In the same way, Kissinger's orchestration of political and
military and diplomatic cover for apartheid in South Africa presents
us with a morally repulsive record and includes the appalling
consequences of the destabilization of Angola. Again, though,
one is looking at a sordid period of Cold War and imperial history,
and an exercise of irresponsible power, rather than an episode
of organized crime. Additionally, one must take into account the
institutional nature of this policy, which might in outline have
been followed under any administration, national security adviser,
or secretary of state.
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