..with transcript also see NSSM 200
National Security Study Memorandum 200 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200
Henry Kissinger is dead at the age of 100. The former U.S. statesman served as national security adviser and secretary of state at the height of the Cold War and wielded influence over U.S. foreign policy for decades afterward. His actions led to massacres, coups and and even genocide, leaving a bloody legacy in Latin America, Southeast Asia and beyond. Once out of office, Kissinger continued until his death to advise U.S. presidents and other top officials who celebrate him as a visionary diplomat. Yale historian Greg Grandin says those glowing obituaries only reveal "the moral bankruptcy of the political establishment" that ignores how Kissinger's actions may have led to the deaths of at least 3 million people across the globe. Grandin is author of "Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman."
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this is democracy Now democracynow.org
The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman
with nuring SCH Henry Kissinger has died
at the age of 100 to many in the
Washington establishment Kissinger will
likely be remembered as one of the most
influential diplomats in US history but
around the world including in Chile East
timour Bangladesh and Cambodia Henry
Kissinger is remembered as a war
criminal who whose actions led to
massacres CPS and even genocide
Kissinger who was born in Germany served
as US Secretary of State under Richard
Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1973 to
1977 he also served as National Security
adviser from 1969 to
1975 he's the only Us official to ever
simultaneously hold both posts he won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 with his
North Vietnam counterpart Lee doto
during his time in office Henry
Kissinger oversaw a massive expansion of
the war in Vietnam and the secret
bombings of Laos and Cambodia where as
many as
150,000 civilians were killed in the US
strikes as Kissinger told the military
quote anything that flies or anything
that moves in South Asia Kissinger
backed the Pakistani military genocidal
war against East Pakistan which is now
Bangladesh in Latin America Declassified
documents show how Kissinger secretly
intervened across the continent from
Bolivia to Uruguay Chile and Argentina
in Chile Kissinger urged President Nixon
to take a quote harder line against
Chile's democratically elected president
Salvador aende on September 11th 1973
aende was overthrown by the us back
General austo Pino Kissinger once said
quote I don't see why we need to stand
by and watch a country go communist due
to the irresponsibility of its own
people in 1975 Henry Kissinger and
President Gerald Ford met with the
Indonesian dictator General suaro to
give him the go-ahead to invade East
teamour which Indonesia did on December
7th
1975 the Indonesian military killed a
third of the Tim population one of the
worst genocides of the late 20th century
Kissinger also Drew up plans to attack
Cuba in the mid 70s after Fidel Castro
sent Cuban troops to Angola to fight
forces linked to apartate South Africa
at home Kissinger urged President Nixon
to go after Pentagon Papers
whistleblower Dan ellsburg who Kissinger
called the most dangerous man in America
the historian Greg Randon once estimated
Kissinger's actions may have led to the
deaths of three maybe four million
people while human rights activists have
long cold for Kissinger to be tried for
war crimes he remained a celebrated
figure in Washington and Beyond serving
as an advisor to both Republican and
Democratic administrations we turn now
to Greg grandon he's the p are
prize-winning author and professor of
history at Yale University his books
include Kissinger Shadow the Long Reach
of America's most controversial
Statesman his new pece for the nation is
a people's obituary of Henry Kissinger
he also wrote the introduction to the
new book just out Only the Good Die
Young the verdict on Henry Kissinger
Greg welcome back to democracy now so
give us this people's history
of Henry Kissinger as we see in the
mainstream media he's hailed as the man
who opened communication with China uh
led to a dayon with Russia what is your
version of
events well I think you you summed up
very well the the version of events the
the the number of of war crimes that he
was involved in from you know cassin's
life is is fascinating because it spans
a very consequential bridge in the
United United States history from the
collapse of the post-war consensus you
know that happens with Vietnam and
Kissinger is instrumental in kind of
recobing recreating a National Security
State that can deal with descent that
can deal with polarization that actually
thrived on polarization and secrecy and
learning to manipulate the public in
order to advance a very aggressive
foreign policy I mean we can go into the
details but I do want to say that his
death has been as instructive as his
life I mean if you look at the if you
look at the obituaries and and and notes
of
condolences uh they they just they just
re I mean there they just reveal a I
think a a moral bankruptcy of the of of
the political establishment in certainly
in the transatlantic world in the larger
NATO sphere just an un willingness or in
capacity to to to comprehend the the the
crisis that we're in and and and
kissing's role in that crisis they're
celebratory they're a name they vacuous
um they're really quite remarkable and
and if you think just think back over
the last year the celebrations the
feding of his H 100th anniversary 100
you know birthday is living 200 years I
think it's a it's a cultural ER of of
just how much how how
bankrupt the political classes in this
country is so his death is almost as
instructive as his
life well we had you on uh Greg when uh
he turned 100 when Kissinger turned 100
in that interview you said uh that the
best way to think about Kissinger isn't
necessarily as a war criminal could you
explain why yeah because that is the way
I Christopher Hitchin popularized
thinking about him as a war criminal and
that as a way of elevating ker in some
ways as as as somehow an extraordinary
evil and it's a fine line because he did
play an outsized role in a staggering
number of of of of of of atrocities and
and bringing and dealing misery and
death across the globe to millions of
people but but there's a lot of war
criminals I mean you know this country
has stopped with war criminals there's
no of war criminals and and and and
thinking about him as a war criminal
kind of dumps US down it it doesn't
allow us to think with Kissinger use
Kissinger's life to think with to think
about how the United States for example
kiss just started off as as a
Rockefeller Republican you know a
liberal Republican uh an advisor to
Nelson rockefella who thought Nixon was
far out of of the mainstream and a
dangerous sociopath think as he put it
and yet when Nixon won and he actually
helped him win by by strling a peace
deal with with with with with um with
North Vietnam uh he made his speech with
Nixon and he and and then he went on you
know into into public office and he
thought Reagan was too extreme and and
yet he made his peace with the Reagan
then he thought the neocons were too
extreme and he made his peace with the
Neo God then he even made his spee with
Donald Trump he called Donald he he
celebrated Donald Trump almost as a kind
of embodiment of his his theory of of of
of a great Statesman and being able to
to craft reality as they as they want to
through their will so you see kissing as
the country mes right you see Kissinger
moving with it so just that trajectory
is is is very useful to think with also
if you also think about his secret
bombing of Cambodia yeah and then Trace
out that bombing it's like a a bright
light you know a trace of red running
from Cambodia to to the current endless
war on terror what was considered
illegal I mean kiss jomb Cambodia in
secret because it was illegal the bomb
another country that you weren't at war
with in the 1960s and 1970s his his his
um old colleagues at Harvard who were
all cold Warriors none of them peace
liberals March down to to to Washington
they didn't even know about the bombing
they went to protest the invasion of
Cambodia and and now uh you know it is
just considered a a fact of
international law that the United States
has the right to bomb countries that
thir third third part of countries that
we're not at war with that gives Safe
Haven to terrorists it's just considered
it's just considered common place so you
could see this Evolution and drift
towards endless war through kissing J
life you could also kissing is also
kissing's life is also useful to think
about how you know the as a public
official first SEC National Security
advisor and then Secretary of State to
Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford Kissinger
um
created much of the chaos that would
later um necessitate and require a
transition to what we call neol Robinson
but then out of office at the head as
the head of Kissinger Associates
Kissinger helped brok that transition to
neoliberalism the privatization of much
of the world of Latin America of Eastern
Europe of Russia so you see that you
know you know that transition from from
you know a public public uh polit
politician or public policy maker and
then going on to to uh to making Untold
wealth a as as a private citizen in in
in this transition so you you you know
there's there's many ways in which K is
like kind of maps the trajectory of of
of the United States you know they
celebrated him at the New York Public
Library as if he was the American
Century incet and and in many ways he
was you know he he really he really his
career really does back nicely onto onto
the the the the the trajectory of the
United States and the and and the
evolution of the National Security State
and its foreign policy and you know and
the broken world that we're all trying
to live in as as your last two STS GRE
show I want to go to Henry Kissinger in
his own words he's speaking in
2016 when he defended the secret bombing
of
Cambodia
Nixon ordered an attack on the bace
areas within 5 miles of the Vietnamese
border that were essentially
unpopulated so when the phrase carpet
pomping is
used uh it
is I think in in the size of the attacks
probably much less than what the Obama
Administration has done in similar base
areas in Pakistan
uh which I think is
Justified and therefore I believe that
what was done in
codia was testified so that was Henry
Kissinger in 2016 he was um speaking at
the LBJ Library the late celebrity chef
Anthony Bourdain once said once you've
been to Cambodia you'll never stop
wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death
with your bare hands you'll never never
again be able to open a newspaper and
read about that treacherous
prevaricating murderous scumbag sitting
down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose
or attending some black tie affair for a
new glossy magazine without choking
witness what Henry did in Cambodia the
fruits of his genius for statesmanship
and you'll never understand why he's not
sitting in the dock at the ha next to
mosovich
um if you can just respond uh to that
and well that quote contains more moral
and intellectual intell Acuity and
intelligence than the
entire uh political establishment both
liberal both Democrat and
Republican it's a it's a morally correct
it's intellectually correct and you know
it's it's it's it's it's more accurate
than than than most diplomatic
historians who trade on on making
Kissinger more ethic morally complicated
than he was in terms of kissing's quote
himself about Cambodia there he's there
he's playing a little bit of a game he's
lying I me he CET bomb P Cambodia he the
United States massively bombed Cambodia
and brought the power within the
Camaro's the most extreme um click PA
led by po pot you know when you
massively bomb a country and you destroy
whole opposition you tend to bring to
power the the extremists that's exactly
why K is responsible to a large degree
for the for the genocide that happened
later on under PPT the bombing brought
the power popt within the Camaro which
previously was a larger broader coition
but K isn't wrong when he links it to
Obama's bombing of Pakistan that was the
point I was trying to make earlier you
know kissing just had to do it illegally
back uh covertly back then because it
was illegal it was it was against
international law it would bomb third
countries you know in order to advance
your War AIMS in another country but now
it's accepted as common place and it is
true he's not wrong when he cites
Obama's drone program and what Obama uh
and and and you know you know the the
continuation of the logic of war on
terror that started on George W bush
he's not wrong about that and that's and
that's the line that that's one of the
lines that you can trace from from
Vietnam and Cambodia and South Asia to
today's uh catastrophy that we're living
Greg Brandon we want to thank you so
much for being with us Pulitzer
prizewinning author and professor of
history at Yale University he's author
of Kissinger Shadow the Long Reach of
America's most controversial Statesman
will link to your article on the nation
of people's obituary of Henry Kissinger
happy belated birthday to Dina gzar I'm
Amy Goodman with Nik democracy Now is
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