There is an abundance of choice when it comes to contemporary war criminals. Let me see: how about Netanyahu (with his "ironclad" accomplice Biden), Putin and Assad for starters. The ISIS Islamofascists; the rival thugs waging a war for power in Sudan. Hamas must be in there too, because it undoubtedly committed war crimes in its October 2023 attack into Israel. Going back a bit - George Bush and his cohort for their war crimes against Afghanistan and Iraq (which was headed by another war criminal, Saddam Hussein).

Indochina

But, for my money, the indisputable winner is Henry Kissinger, who died in November 2023, aged 100. This is not generational bias ("my Vietnam War criminals are worse than your Gaza War criminals") but based on objective evidence. Right up until the end of his very long life, the American ruling class and its media mouthpieces lauded Kissinger as a master statesman. He was synonymous with realpolitik. But here was a man responsible for the deaths and misery of millions. Along with two Presidents that he served as right hand man, Kissinger was synonymous with the Vietnam War, which lasted for years and had a death toll that leaves that of Gaza in the shade.

The number that Americans fixate on is the 58,000 American dead. They tend to give less attention to the millions killed, civilian and military, across Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Specific American war crimes include the relentless carpet bombing of Vietnamese civilians (dwarfing the Israeli bombing of Gaza); invading Cambodia; and waging a secret war in Laos, which became the most bombed country on Earth. US terrorist weapons included napalm and Agent Orange (which is still causing Vietnamese birth deformities to this day).

Chile, East Timor, Et Al

Kissinger's war crimes were not confined to Indochina. He played a central role in facilitating the brutal military coup that overthrew Chile's elected socialist government in 1973 and ushered in 17 dark years of the murderous Pinochet dictatorship. Under Kissinger, the US greenlit the1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor, where Suharto's military waged genocide for a quarter of a century, killing hundreds of thousands of Timorese. Under Kissinger, the US actively backed dictators and kleptocrats from the Philippines (Marcos) to Indonesia (Suharto) to Zaire - now Congo (Mobutu). Under Kissinger, the US actively supported apartheid South Africa.

He Worshipped Power For Power's Sake

"Viewed from the standpoint of what Robin Cook, a former UK Foreign Secretary, called 'ethical' foreign policy, much of what Kissinger did, encouraged or held indirect responsibility for now appears inexcusable, shocking and reprehensible.... His need for order and fawning respect for power induced him to deal with, even sometimes to coddle and appease, the powerful, however base".

"But for the powerless, he had little time and less mercy. Into this latter category fell the people of Chile, who had the temerity in 1970 to elect a Leftwinger, Salvador Allende, as their President. For Chileans, it was a chance to forge a socialist future. For Kissinger and Nixon, it was further evidence of the spread of communism in America's back yard...."

"Arrogant disregard for democratic choice, national sovereignty and human rights became a callous Kissinger trademark - notwithstanding the fact these were supposedly core American values. Like Pinochet, dictators in Argentina, Brazil and Central America basked in the warmth of Washington's hypocritical approval".

"Nor did Kissinger confine his concept of ruthless realpolitik to the Western hemisphere. When East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, seceded from Pakistan in 1971 amid large-scale violence, Kissinger gave his private backing to Islamabad despite evidence, gathered by his own diplomats, of genocide by Pakistani troops. In Oval Office tape recordings that emerged after the event, Kissinger was heard sneering at those who 'bleed' for 'the dying Bengalis'. He showed similar contempt for East Timorese civilians butchered during Indonesia's US-backed 1975 invasion, again undertaken on the pretext of battling communism...."

"More than once Kissinger tapped phones of staff he suspected of leaking information to the press. Reflecting the culture that led to the Watergate scandal he evidently felt untouchable. When quizzed about such criminal behaviour, he quipped: 'The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer'".

"Kissinger spent his later years - he left the White House after Gerald Ford's 1976 defeat to Jimmy Carter - running an exclusive consultancy, Kissinger Associates, advising Presidents off-the-record, writing books and cultivating the image of respected elder statesman. As the decades passed, people tended to take him at his word, forgetful of his record".

"Did the traumatised 15-year-old German Jew who washed up in New York as a refugee ultimately find the acceptance and security he craved? Perhaps. Will his reputation as a great statesman stand the test of time? Perhaps not. Would Kissinger worry about that? No. In his world, what he loved best was the holding and exercise of power. And for a while, back then, few men were as powerful as he" (Guardian, 2/12/23).

Good Riddance

Rolling Stone (29/11/23) headed its lengthy obituary thus: "Good Riddance. Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved By America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies. The infamy of Nixon's foreign policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers. A deeper shame attaches to the country that celebrates him". I couldn't have put it better or more succinctly.

Watchdog - 166 August 2024