It stands to reason he must have been doing something right to have stayed so close to the halls of power.
I was a toddler when he was carpet bombing Cambodia, never knew him as anything but “an important person” that was sometimes on the TV. Only learned of his crimes in the past decade.
How did an in-your-face war criminal retain such influence for so long?
He made the ruling class a ton of money. Here’s just a few things he did…
Kissinger sabotaged peace talks in Vietnam: He leaked information to Nixon’s campaign in 1968 to prevent a deal between Johnson and Hanoi, prolonging the war for four more years and killing millions of people.
Kissinger orchestrated the coup in Chile: He supported the overthrow of the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973, and backed the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who tortured and killed thousands of dissidents and implemented neoliberal policies that harmed the majority of Chileans.
Kissinger enabled genocide and repression: He ignored or encouraged the atrocities committed by U.S. allies in Bangladesh, East Timor, Indonesia, Pakistan, and elsewhere, and participated in Operation Condor, a campaign of assassinations of left-wing activists across Latin America.
Kissinger expanded U.S. bombing and intervention: He secretly bombed Cambodia and Laos, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and paving the way for the Khmer Rouge genocide. He also set the precedent for U.S. presidents to bomb countries without congressional or public oversight, as seen in the War on Terror.
Kissinger was celebrated by the U.S. elite: He received praise and awards from presidents, politicians, journalists, and academics, who admired his geopolitical strategy and ignored or justified his crimes. He was also an informal adviser to several administrations, including Bush and Obama
Any source that he advised Obama? I’m curious because it sounds like Obama wasn’t a particular fan of his:
"We dropped more ordnance on Cambodia and Laos than on Europe in World War II, and yet, ultimately, Nixon withdrew, Kissinger went to Paris, and all we left behind was chaos, slaughter and authoritarian governments that finally, over time, have emerged from that hell.”
Mr. Obama noted that while in office he was still trying to help countries “remove bombs that are still blowing off the legs of little kids.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/us/politics/kissinger-biden-trump-nixon-presidents.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/
who admired his geopolitical strategy
That’s very much what I’m asking! I’m well aware of his sins, but was his influence 100% from making the rich richer?
Hilary Clinton praised him as a role model to her and she won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election 🤢
Edit: y’all better not be dumb enough to think this comment is somehow an endorsement of Trump
On one hand, Kissinger was undoubtedly effective at achieving America’s foreign policy goals and was undoubtedly one of the most influential Secretaries of State in US history. Unfortunately on the other hand, his brand of “realpolitik”–working pragmatically towards concrete policy objectives without concern for ethics or ideology–meant doing things that prolonged and worsened wars, knowingly propped up autocrats and dictators, etc.
Objectively speaking, Kissinger was a powerful diplomat who accomplished a lot of what he set out to do. At the same time, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, and a lot of us can only look back and judge him harshly for the long term effects of his decisions. Kissinger is the perfect example of a person who is highly intelligent and objectively effective at what they do, but because he had so little concern for simple human concepts like right and wrong, it’s hard to look back at any of his “achievements” today with anything other than harsh judgement and disdain for the soulless husk of a man.
He made the ruling class richer at the cost of normal people’s lives
It’s simple; he was an awful man working within an awful system. It’s not hard to succeed when you’re perfect for a job.
