The irony of getting a peace prize by means of carpet bombing.
He had the blood of at least 3 million people on his hands, according to his biographer G Grandin. “few people who have had a hand in as much death and destruction, as much human suffering, in so many places around the world as Henry Kissinger,” said war crimes prosecutor R Brody
Richard Nixon: “Pray with me, Henry”
Anthony Bourdain
Now history has come full circle. Around the world, we see a resurgence of autocracy and ethnonationalism, most acutely in Russia’s war against Ukraine. In Gaza the United States has supported an Israeli military operation that has killed civilians at a pace that has once again suggested to much of the world that we are selective in our embrace of international laws and norms. Meanwhile, at home, we see how democracy has become subordinate to the pursuit of power within a chunk of the Republican Party. This is where cynicism can lead. Because when there is no higher aspiration, no story to give meaning to our actions, politics and geopolitics become merely a zero-sum game. In that kind of world, might makes right.
All of this cannot be laid on Henry Kissinger’s shoulders. In many ways, he was as much a creation of the American national security state as its author. But his is also a cautionary tale. As imperfect as we are, the United States needs our story to survive. It’s what holds together a multiracial democracy at home and differentiates us from Russia and China abroad.
That story insists that a child in Laos is equal in dignity and worth to our children and that the people of Chile have the same right of self-determination as we do. For the United States, that must be a part of national security. We forget that at our peril.
"America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs with the passing of Henry Kissinger." Read full statement by President George W. Bush on Secretary Henry Kissinger:https://t.co/mQQXSsxUdypic.twitter.com/TRISUtjGZl
— George W. Bush Presidential Center (@TheBushCenter) November 30, 2023
Even at the end of his life, at 99 years-old, Kissinger was spending his time advocating against immigrants. This is just a month and a half ago, in response to pro-Palestine demonstrations in Europe. He's saying Germany let too many foreigners in. pic.twitter.com/4iEWiVMK3h
Noem: I hope that everyone's reaction to his passing is to go learn a little bit more about him.. Around your dinner table or when you're driving in the car with your kids, tell them a few Kissinger quotes… pic.twitter.com/xi0J3py5Qy
I met Kissinger about 8 years ago. I noticed his security guy was wearing a backpack. “Defibrillator?” I asked. “Yep”, he replied. Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, dies at 100 https://t.co/ndBR0Yav0X
"I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger. And in fact, Kissinger’s actions in Cambodia, when the United States bombed that country, created the one of the worst genocides in the history of the world."— Bernie, 2016.
