Henry Kissinger finally put on trial for war crimes
— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) November 30, 2023
Best I can tell, Kissinger’s youthful experience fleeing the Nazis taught him one thing, the credo by which he would live the next 90 years: The strong take what they can, and the weak bear what they must. Young Kissinger chose to support whatever he perceived as the latest version of the ‘strong’ side, and there’s always an International Relations market for a sufficiently glib version of that.
Erik Loomis, at Lawyers Guns & Money, has the best summary of Kissinger’s criminal career that I’ve seen so far — “Kissinger is Dead, Finally Something Good Has Happened in 2023”:
One of the most vile individuals to ever befoul the United States, Henry Kissinger is dead. A man responsible for the deaths of millions of people around the world and yet the most respected man within the American foreign policy community for decades, Kissinger’s sheer existence exposed the moral vacuity of Cold War foreign policy and the empty platitudes and chummy gladhandling of the Beltway elite class that deserves our utter contempt.
Born in 1923 in Bavaria to a Jewish family, Heinz Kissinger and his family fled the Nazis to the United States in 1938. Kissinger went to high school in Washington Heights in Manhattan. He entered City College to become an accountant. If only that had been his fate. Imagine how many people around the world would still be alive if Kissinger had been a bookkeeper somewhere. Sigh.
But he was drafted into the U.S. Army in World War II. He became a U.S. citizen while stationed in South Carolina in 1943. He was a smart guy—and Henry would never let you forget that—and did well on standardized testing. So the Army sent him to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania to study engineering. Once again, here was another career path for the man. Sometimes we romanticize the roads not taken. But sometimes, we realize that any other road literally could not be worse than one the path taken. That’s certainly true in this case…
It’s a long list of atrocities — one I suspect Loomis has been waiting (im)patiently to put to good use.
"KISSINGER’S ASCENT OCCURRED THROUGH AN OBSCENITY THAT TIME CANNOT DIMINISH" goes incredibly hard for a subtitle in an obituary. https://t.co/yHs3TCwddq
— X-Wings & History (@XWnHIST) November 30, 2023
Henry Kissinger finally kicked his bucket of blood, and the world awoke on Thursday a little bit less poisoned than it was the day before. https://t.co/bH2I3O5ihd
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) November 30, 2023
Helpful hint from the invaluable Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:
… If there is one place to look for a proper obituary for this cocktail party barbarian, it is the invaluable National Security Archive. Its indefatigable staff has been prying loose documentary evidence of Kissinger’s crimes of commission and omission for decades now.
This historical record also documents the darker side of Kissinger’s controversial tenure in power: his role in the overthrow of democracy and the rise of dictatorship in Chile; disdain for human rights and support for dirty, and even genocidal, wars abroad; secret bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia; and involvement in the Nixon administration’s criminal abuses, among them the secret wiretaps of his own top aides.
“Henry Kissinger’s insistence on recording practically every word he said, either to the presidents he served (without their knowledge that they were being taped) or the diplomats he cajoled, remains the gift that keeps on giving to diplomatic historians,” remarked Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. “Kissinger’s aides later commented that he needed to keep track of which lie he told to whom. Kissinger tried to keep those documents under his own control, his deed of gift to the Library of Congress would have kept them closed five years from now, but the Archive brought legal action and forced the opening of the secret documents that show a decidedly mixed picture of Kissinger’s legacy, and enormous catastrophic costs to the peoples of Southeast Asia and Latin America.”
Poor Henry. Despite his best efforts, this remained a democratic republic in which the people have a right to know the savagery their tax dollars are supporting, and the crimes being done in their name…
if a factual recounting of the shit you did in your lifetime is an affront to your memory, guess who’s problem THAT is
— Albert Burneko (@AlbertBurneko) December 1, 2018
Kissinger has finally gone to whatever reward this universe reserves for such creatures. And tonight, again, and not for the last time, I deeply regret my cowardice on that evening. Tony was never more right. https://t.co/q9BQ8iL8Lc
— David Simon (@AoDespair) November 30, 2023
People like to spin Kissinger as good for the Jews. Here's what he had to say about the plight of 2 million Soviet Jews when he was in power. pic.twitter.com/lQIDPpvCOd
— Alex גדעון בן װעלװל (@JewishWonk) November 30, 2023
That and the guy lived eleven trillion years, spent a good chunk of it running the foreign policy of one superpower then spent the end of it getting paid off by the other superpower so like shit, the man already won, let people blow off steam. https://t.co/qUPrwB3EPP
— Open Source Stupidity (OSSTU) Starfish (@IRHotTakes) November 30, 2023
Anyway, live your life in such a way that the entire internet won't erupt with glee the moment you die.
— Kevin Gannon (@TheTattooedProf) November 30, 2023
Princess
Biden waited a very long time then put out a very very measured statement that expressed sympathy for the family and recognized Kissinger was a smart SOB, and said very little else. Biden is smart.
Brachiator
Kissinger almost outlived my hatred for him.
Almost.
brendancalling
My 19 year old messaged me last night, absolutely ELATED by the news. 19 and dancing on the miserable shit’s body before it was even cold. I’ve never been prouder!
Scout211
If I had an X account, I would hit the “like” button on this and join the other 4k+ likes.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Brachiator: Some hatred survives the hater and the original object of hate.
Darkrose
@brendancalling: I love that Tumblr, a site for The Youths, erupted with crab videos and Supernatural memes when the news broke.
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator:
LOL! Fuck ’em!
I hope he enjoys Starr’s, Rumsfeld’s, Powell’s, and Limbaugh’s company – in Hell.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@mrmoshpotato: I like to imagine Kissinger reborn oppressed under a colonial power.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
As someone who served in the US military 1970-73 who turned 18 2 yrs before joining, with a draft number of 15 in the first drawing and a 1A rating after a “physical” just after turning 18, that was at it’s very best a scam of epic proportions (I have evidence…), I can say that Henry Kissinger, even at his very best, was absolute scum of the earth. What he was at his very worst, which was most of the time, I do not believe there are words for. If it was my choice the words on his stone would be
“Are we absolutely sure he is 100% DEAD?’
I believe that we should engrave the death certificate into the stone as well, just for some insurance, including the signature of the docs that signed it.
mrmoshpotato
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Good thought.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@mrmoshpotato: Alas, poor thing would have no idea what he did to deserve this life
ETA: Thinking to what I saw in his biography in the OP, this could actually result in a future version of the same person. I retract my original statement.
mrmoshpotato
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: He wouldn’t. I would like a reincarnation where he knew EXACTLY what he did to deserve his second life.
Ruckus
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Unable to sleep or close his eyes and have the names of every person who died serving in any way in the US government during his political time on a list that runs verbally in his brain 24 hrs a day, over and over until his brain explodes.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Ruckus: Good thought, but why restrict it to his American victims?
lowtechcyclist
In this world, Kissinger’s remains ought to be publicly tossed into a vat of acid until they dissolve.
In the next, I hope Kissinger gets repeatedly bombed, thrown out of helicopters, etc.
Geminid
The “Populism Updates” lady runs an informative site. She aggegates reports on elections worldwide, and adds her own reporting and analysis. Plus, her photo cracks me up.
zhena gogolia
@Princess: Yeah, it’s slick.
Dorothy A. Winsor
For an easy look at Cheney’s career, I suggest people rewatch the movie “Vice.”
cmorenc
Let me be contrarian and say something in praise of the late Henry Kissinger – he was living proof that the worst American war criminal is still better than the least bad Russian war criminal. C’mon – let’s not be petty by replying “yeah, but not by much” – while holding thumb and index finger millimeters apart for illustration. 😁
cain
“Kissinger the destroyer of worlds, now he’s become death.” May your eternal reward match your deeds asshole.
cain
@Ruckus:
His tombstone should be shaped like a urinal as a public service. Well… maybe a private toilet – everyone of all gender type should have a chance to use the utility of his tombstone.
Geoduck
Loomis said in the LGM comments that he wrote the piece six or so years ago.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
LOL. Sounds like a good plan.
Princess
@zhena gogolia: You can see just how slick it was when you compare it to how effusive Biden was on the death of George Schulz, Reagan’s SOS:
“Few people did as much to shape the trajectory of American diplomacy and American influence in the 20th century as George Shultz. He was a gentleman of honor and ideas, dedicated to public service and respectful debate, even into his 100th year on Earth. That’s why multiple presidents, of both political parties, sought his counsel. I regret that, as president, I will not be able to benefit from his wisdom, as have so many of my predecessors. For a man so inked into the pages of our history, his mind was always keyed toward the future. He focused on the possibilities of what could be, unhindered by the impasses or deadlocks of the past. That was the vision and dedication that helped guide our nation through some of its most dangerous periods and ultimately helped create the opening that led to the end the Cold War. And, while he and I sometimes argued the opposite sides of issues when I was a young senator, I was proud to often find common ground on issues vital to the security and prosperity of the American people. … I also admired Secretary Shultz’s commitment to pressing for the rights and release of Refuseniks, raising them directly with his counterparts in the Soviet Union…”
Etc etc. The reference to the Refuseniks is interesting given that Kissenger himself said that if the Soviet Union gassed all its Jews it might be a humanitarian issue but not an American issue.
Ruckus
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
I like your style…..
Maybe instead of just the name he could have to say the name and age at their death and the reason they died. Joe Smith, 19, Vietnam.
And all of his victims, American, Vietnamese, etc, etc, etc.
gwangung
@brendancalling: I am happy some parents know what they’re doing.
Ruckus
@cain:
Women can pee standing up. I believe it takes a bit of practice, possibly more than it takes some males but yes, it is possible. I’ve seen it done. I’m old, I’ve lived with females……
BellyCat
@brendancalling: You done good.
citizen dave
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Second that! Vice is a GREAT movie. I was late to it, but really enjoyed it, and it’s very informative about that a-hole.
Omnes Omnibus
There was a short time today when Kissinger was no longer in the world and Shane MacGowan still was. The world was better then.
Omnes Omnibus
@Princess: Someone on BlueSky noted that his statement after Jimmy Buffett’s death was 40% longer.
mrmoshpotato
@cain:
Heated outhouse.
NotMax
Giving the man way more blog space than he deserves.
Omnes Omnibus
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
500 receptacles so the line won’t be so long.
Ohio Mom
@Princess: It is also true that Biden is very busy and preoccupied right now. I can imagine him cursing out Kissinger for his bad (for Biden) timing. “With everything else going on I have to stop and write something about Henry!”
But I like to think that even without multiple crises, his statement would be about the same, completely perfunctory.
I didn’t know Kissinger had a family. It’s hard for me to picture him bouncing a little one on his knee. It is just like Biden to let the mourners know he sees them in their grief.
Anyway, good riddance to bad rubbish.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
We aren’t doing it to be nice, he never did.
suzanne
@brendancalling: LMAO. My 19-year-old and I were texting, and he is pissed about something having to do with his dad. And I texted him that Kissinger died, and he texted back, “That actually makes me feel a lot better”. LAWL.
terben
I have often wondered how many votes Hillary Clinton lost because of her close friendship with Kissinger. I know that I went from support to indifference. Even Bernie said he proud to not be Kissinger’s friend.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: Good thinking. We can start a GoFundMe for the construction.
suzanne
@terben: Honestly, in that moment when she called him “my friend Henry Kissinger”, I remembered clearly why I still had some significant problems with her worldview, despite liking her and finding her very competent.
Princess
@suzanne: And they were actually friends, not just DC friends. They holidayed together.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am thinking, now Kissinger is dead, watch, it’s going to come out what a poser this guy really was and he was the kind of fucked up asshole that took credit for other people’s war crimes because it made him “cool” to all the other Washington Chickenhawks.
but, like Franco, Kissinger is still dead.
BellyCat
I could see Hillary being intellectually intrigued by Kissinger’s “Devil’s Advocate” arguments regarding foreign policy positions. Kind of in a “thought puzzle” sort of way
This is where her intellect and her humanity impulses were at odds and she failed to beneficially resolve them.
ETA: Little different than RBG and her ‘friendships’ with ultra conservative USSC members.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The man had to eat.
Chris
Aye.
The thing a lot of people miss about Henry Kissinger is that despite his status as a Cold War era Republican foreign policy icon, he wasn’t really much of a Cold Warrior. Not in the “democracy is good and communism is evil and we must keep opposing them until they’re defeated” sense. What he was was a nineteenth century Concert Of Europe type “realist;” his ideal world was one where the great powers all ruled and divided up the world amongst themselves. “The strong take what they can, the weak bear what they must,” as you say.
This is why he was actually a decent choice to oversee detente with the Soviets and the Chinese. It’s also why he was such a catastrophe for the third world, be it our allies (the Kurds), our enemies (the Bangladeshis), or both (all of Southeast Asia). From his point of view, all third world countries were NPCs. To quote that Loomis piece: “Nothing important can come from the South. The axis of history starts in Moscow, goes to Bonn, crosses over to Washington, and then goes to Tokyo. What happens in the South is of no importance.”
And that’s what we’ve seen again in the last two years, when Kissinger’s dollar store Realism turned him into a repeated advocate for Putin, concern-trolling Washington over and over about how important it was not to “humiliate” Moscow. For people like him, an NPC like Ukraine being allowed to defeat a Great Power like Russia is akin to regicide. It’s just not how it’s supposed to be, damn it.
In conclusion, Kissinger wasn’t so much a Cold War ideologue as an utterly cynical, nihilistic, worshiper of raw power and status for its own sake. He and Nixon were birds of a feather. Probably the purest such people we had in Washington in modern history before, well, Trump.
lowtechcyclist
@Princess:
Good Lord. I remember hearing her say, “Henry Kissinger is a friend of mine” in an interview on Morning Edition back in June 2014, I think it was, and it’s a good thing I was already going into the parking garage at work at the time, or I’d have had to pull over.
I voted for her in 2016, because any Dem would have been better than Trump, but that’s why I’ve always been unable to share in the Hillary fandom that has often been present here.
But good Lord, they vacationed together and stuff? It was bad enough for me that she might’ve appreciated his foreign policy advice enough to call him a friend; he was still a war criminal, after all. But I can’t admire someone who had a genuine friendship with a motherfucking war criminal. That’s just very, very wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: A wannabe Metternich in a world with nukes and machine guns.
phdesmond
Is it too late to curse you, Henry?
Is it time to have the years obscure your crimes?
Time to close that chapter,
let bygones be gone, give it a rest, let it be?
No.
It is not too late, Henry.
And thus begins our curse: …
a friend, poet Chris Brandt of NYC, wrote this scorching denunciation of Henry Kissinger.
BellyCat
@lowtechcyclist: Hate the game but not the players? (Actually, can’t even joke about this. As much as I like Hillary, she at times appears to excuse the players because The Game requires opponents, or something something)
VFX Lurker
The Lawyers, Guns and Money obituary took a shot at Hillary Clinton, but I still read it until the end.
The Rolling Stone obituary took shots at Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, so I ended up skimming it.
UncleEbeneezer
@BellyCat: She didn’t run SecState anything like him. That’s much more important to me than whether or not they were friends.
Chris
@lowtechcyclist:
I always considered RBG’s much-touted friendship with Scalia to be deeply creepy rather than the heartwarming and endearing thing it was portrayed as. I thought Bill Maher’s friendship with Ann Coulter was a decent indicator that the guy was a dick. And, well, the less said about Tip O’Neill and Reagan the better, though that one’s mostly just nauseating for how the media portrayed it as the font of all good things.
None of those guys are/were within galaxies of being as bad as their favorite Republicans, but yeah, that kind of is something I hold against them. A case of poor judgment if nothing else.
ETA: ha! I posted that before I saw your RBG edit.
twbrandt
@UncleEbeneezer: that’s a good point, although the friendship of Hillary and other elites gave him a respectability he didn’t deserve.
Princess
@lowtechcyclist: From a 2016 Mother Jones article: “ The Clintons and the Kissingers regularly spend holidays together at a beachfront villa.”
I could also never understand how she could employ Mark Penn either, but at least he hasn’t killed people…yet.
dexwood
@brendancalling:
Similar experience with my 38 year old son and his text this morning, “Kissenger dragged Shane MacGowan along with him the fucker.”
dexwood
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Definitely an upvote for this.
Ihop
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: oh yes, what we know as kissinger the evil crapbag was only on the lowest of it’s processions through the karmic wheel. The level of discarded because of its uselessness and leaky…
Sorry, can’t be assed to go any farther. what a worthless piece of shit he was.
RaflW
As I said a couple threads earlier, I think the Biden WH statement on Kissinger is very well crafted to be damning of the s.o.b. with praise so faint it fairly vanishes.
Let’s look at “profound strategic focus” as one point. Just because someone is focused doesn’t mean one is astute or effective. It could even just be a polite way of saying obsessed. And nothing in the statement says anything Kissinger did was good. Or moral. Or even helpful.
That Biden points out their many strong disagreements even suggests that Biden thinks that Kissinger was focused, but wrong. Often.
And the “Long after retiring from government, he continued to offer his views…” is hilarious. Joe’s saying the old gas bag could not shut up.
Ruckus
@suzanne:
I’ve worked in professional sports. 20+ yrs part time as an official and 11 yrs full time. Traveled all over this country and made some good friends and met some that would/will never be anything close to friends. But in that line of work, as in politics sometimes you make work friends that you would never make outside of life. They can be good/great work friends but you might only say hello to them if you saw them outside of work. Professional sports you work events and you may deal with people outside of events but it is still the same business. Politics is different than professional sports because the working life is a lot of the time you aren’t sleeping. Especially national politics. Glad handing is somewhat seen/done in Pro Sports but it is extremely common in Pro Politics. You might hate someone but you still have to work with them. You might have to work with or shake hands with a George Santos. You likely wouldn’t like it but you might have to. OK maybe that’s a bit too far but you get the idea. In pro sports I’d occasionally have to talk with someone that smashing their face with a baseball bat would be considered as an alternative. Didn’t mean you could do that or even tell them you might but the thought would be in your head. They were by far the few and far between but they existed. I knew of 2 in that 11 yrs. I can imagine a George Santos might earn the same thoughts.
GregMulka
My eldest spawn said there were two kids in their journalism class who announced to the teacher that Kissinger was dead. A random boy who was fairly tepid and them, who threw their hands in the air and announced it very gleefully.
I am proud.
Chris
@GregMulka:
About ten years ago I was attending college in Miami. Teacher walks in, announces “as you’ve probably heard, Margaret Thatcher is dead…”
To which the Argentine student behind him leaps to his feet and fist-pumps while mouthing “YES!!!”
(I’m actually on old Maggie’s side when it comes to the Falklands, but that was still hilarious and she was still evil, so who cares).
Origuy
I was in downtown Santa Cruz, California last night, certainly a hotbed of liberalism. I want it on the record that as the news of Kissinger’s death spread, there were no riots in the street, no burning of his effigy, no windows broken. I finished my plate of fettucine, took my seat at the Kuumbwa Jazz Club, and watched Irish and American music from the group called Irish Christmas in America.
They are on their annual US Tour until just before Christmas. Recommended.
Another Scott
David Corn of MoJo in 2016:
It sounds like she didn’t so much as vacation with him as share a resort with him and others for a few days. I think Corn was trying to make this vacation stuff a much bigger deal than it really was.
More at the link.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Onan Soumy
All I can say of Kissinger–
All that you’ll hear me tell–
Is, his is the lingering fart you’ll sniff
On the lift that leads to hell.
Princess
@Another Scott: A beachfront villa owned by La Renta is not a resort. It’s a house party, and it was a regular occasion.
VFX Lurker
Agreed.