Henry Kissinger

Between March 1969 and August 1973, the Nixon administration conducted a secret bombing campaign against Cambodia — Operations Menu and Freedom Deal — that dropped more than 540,000 tons of bombs on the country. Congress was not informed. The campaign was concealed through falsified military records. Estimated Cambodian civilian deaths range from 50,000 to 150,000 or more. Kissinger, as National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State, was a principal architect of the campaign. The massive civilian destruction and displacement contributed to the political instability that enabled the Khmer Rouge to seize power in 1975 — which led to the deaths of an estimated 1.5–2 million Cambodians in the subsequent genocide.

• —Operation Menu (March 1969 – May 1970): secret B-52 bombing of Cambodian territory. Military records were falsified to conceal the raids from Congress.
• —A total of 2,756,941 tons of bombs were dropped on Cambodia between 1965 and 1973, according to the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University — more than were dropped in all theaters during World War II.
• —The bombing was justified as targeting North Vietnamese supply routes (the Ho Chi Minh Trail). Military analysis showed the bombing did not significantly degrade the supply routes.
• —Kissinger ordered the wiretapping of his own NSC staff and journalists to identify leaks about the secret bombing — an illegal program documented by the Senate Watergate Committee.
• —The Khmer Rouge used US bombing as a recruitment tool and propaganda centerpiece. Historian Ben Kiernan's scholarship shows the bombing directly swelled Khmer Rouge ranks by radicalizing survivors.
• —Cambodia was a neutral country that had not attacked the United States. Bombing it without congressional authorization violated the Constitution and the international laws of war.
• —Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. North Vietnamese negotiator Lê Đức Thọ refused his share, saying peace had not been established.

Source:Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University; National Security Archive — Cambodia bombing records; Ben Kiernan, "The Pol Pot Regime" (1996)

After Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile in 1970, Kissinger told the 40 Committee (the CIA oversight body): "I don't see why we need to stand by and let a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people." He directed a two-track CIA operation: Track I, political destabilization (funding opposition media, bribing legislators), and Track II, working with Chilean military officers to stage a coup. The coup occurred on September 11, 1973. General Augusto Pinochet seized power. An estimated 3,200 people were killed or disappeared and 38,000 were tortured, as documented by Chile's Rettig Commission (1991) and Valech Commission (2004). Declassified State Department cables show Kissinger was fully briefed on the human rights situation and chose not to act.

• —Kissinger's words to the 40 Committee in June 1970: "I don't see why we need to stand by and let a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people." This quote is from declassified minutes.
• —CIA Track II: Nixon directed the CIA to "make the Chilean economy scream" and to foment a military coup. General René Schneider, head of the Chilean army, refused to participate; CIA-linked conspirators assassinated him.
• —The coup on September 11, 1973: Allende died in the presidential palace. Pinochet's junta arrested, tortured, and killed thousands of political opponents. The national stadium in Santiago was used as a detention and torture facility.
• —The Rettig Commission (1991) documented 2,279 deaths and disappearances; the Valech Commission (2004) documented 28,459 cases of torture and 38,254 cases of political imprisonment.
• —In 2004, the US State Department declassified documents showing Kissinger met Pinochet in Santiago in 1976 and told him: "In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here." This occurred while Chilean secret police (DINA) were assassinating dissidents in European capitals under Operation Condor.
• —Operation Condor was a US-supported coordination network among South American dictatorships to kidnap, torture, and murder political dissidents across borders. Kissinger signed cables approving continuation of US support for the network.

Source:National Security Archive — Chile Declassified Documents; Rettig Commission Report (1991); Valech Commission Report (2004); Peter Kornbluh, "The Pinochet File" (2003)

On December 6, 1975, President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger met with Indonesian President Suharto in Jakarta. The following day, December 7, Indonesian military forces invaded East Timor. A declassified cable records Kissinger's words to Suharto: "We understand your problem and the need to act quickly... we will be able to influence the reaction in America." The subsequent Indonesian occupation of East Timor lasted 24 years. The East Timor Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR, 2005) documented approximately 183,000 deaths from famine, conflict, and disease attributable to the occupation — in a population of approximately 700,000 at the time of the invasion.

• —The December 6, 1975 meeting with Suharto: the cable documenting Kissinger's assurances was declassified and published by the National Security Archive.
• —Kissinger reportedly told his staff on returning to Washington that the Indonesian invasion needed to happen "quickly" before Congress could act, and that the State Department should not make too much of human rights concerns in public.
• —The US supplied Indonesia with weapons and diplomatic cover. When Indonesia ran low on US weapons in early 1976, the Ford administration approved additional arms transfers.
• —The CAVR report (2005) estimated that between 102,800 and 183,000 Timorese died from conflict, famine, and disease attributable to the occupation — representing between 15% and 27% of the entire population.
• —East Timor achieved independence only in 2002, after 24 years of occupation and an international intervention following a 1999 independence referendum in which Indonesian-backed militias massacred civilians.
• —At no point was Kissinger investigated, questioned under oath, or charged in connection with the East Timor invasion.

Source:Chega! — CAVR (East Timor Truth and Reconciliation Commission) Final Report (2005); National Security Archive — "Ford and Kissinger Gave Green Light to Indonesia's Invasion of East Timor"

In 1971, the Pakistani military launched a brutal campaign against the Bengali population of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) following the electoral victory of the Awami League. Estimated deaths range from 300,000 to 3 million. US Consul General Archer Blood sent a classified cable to Washington — the "Blood Telegram" — warning of "selective genocide" and pleading for the US to condemn the atrocities. Nixon and Kissinger ignored it. Kissinger's wiretapping program caught Blood in its net; he was removed from his post. The US continued to supply Pakistan with weapons and political cover, driven by Kissinger's use of Pakistan as a back channel to China.

• —The Blood Telegram (April 6, 1971): signed by Archer Blood and 28 US diplomats, it described "selective genocide" by the Pakistani military and stated: "We are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak [Pakistani] military." It asked Washington to condemn the killings.
• —Kissinger's response was to have Blood removed from his post and transferred to Washington, effectively ending his diplomatic career.
• —Nixon and Kissinger prioritized the Pakistan back-channel to China (which resulted in Nixon's 1972 China trip) over any response to the atrocities.
• —The US supplied Pakistan with weapons during the crisis. The State Department formally protested arms deliveries; the protest was overruled by Kissinger.
• —Indian military intervention in December 1971 ended the Bangladesh war. Nixon ordered a carrier battle group into the Bay of Bengal as a show of force against India — a move Kissinger publicly justified.
• —Declassified transcripts show Kissinger and Nixon were contemptuous of India ("those bastards") and of Bengali suffering. In one transcript, Kissinger said the Indian ambassador "made me feel like a little boy" and proposed measures to punish India for intervening to stop the killing.

Source:Gary Bass, "The Blood Telegram" (2013); National Security Archive — Nixon-Kissinger and the Bangladesh Crisis; Christopher Hitchens, "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" (Verso, 2001)

In March 1976, a military coup overthrew Argentina's elected government. The junta that replaced it proceeded to systematically kidnap, torture, and murder an estimated 9,000–30,000 political opponents — the "desaparecidos" (disappeared). Kissinger met with Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Guzzetti in June 1976, months after the coup began its killing campaign. Declassified State Department cables document Kissinger telling Guzzetti that the US was sympathetic to Argentina's need to restore order, and that — in the words of one cable summary — the junta should "get their act together" before Congress returned from recess and began asking questions. The implication was that the killing should be completed quickly.

• —Declassified State Department cable (TELCON, June 10, 1976): Kissinger's meeting with Guzzetti. Career diplomats at the meeting were alarmed by Kissinger's encouragement and documented their concerns in internal cables.
• —Ambassador Robert Hill sent a cable to Washington after Guzzetti returned from meeting Kissinger, reporting that the Foreign Minister was "euphoric" — he had expected criticism and received support instead.
• —Kissinger told Chilean Foreign Minister Patricio Carvajal at the same Santiago meeting in June 1976 that the US was "with" the junta's efforts to establish order, while US diplomats were documenting mass atrocities.
• —The National Commission on Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP, Argentina, 1984) documented 8,961 confirmed disappearances, with estimates ranging to 30,000 total.
• —Operation Condor: the US coordinated with Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil under Condor to track, rendition, and murder dissidents across borders. Kissinger signed cables endorsing US cooperation with Condor.
• —As Secretary of State, Kissinger withheld a State Department human rights report critical of Argentina's torture program.

Source:National Security Archive — "Kissinger to Argentine Foreign Minister 1976"; CONADEP Final Report "Nunca Más" (1984); Christopher Hitchens, "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" (Verso, 2001)

The Paris Peace Accords signed in January 1973 ended US involvement in Vietnam on terms that were nearly identical to those available at the Paris peace talks in 1968. Investigative reporting and declassified materials indicate that Kissinger — then a foreign policy consultant working for both the Johnson and Nixon campaigns — passed information about Johnson's peace talks to Nixon's campaign through intermediary Anna Chennault, who then persuaded South Vietnam's president to boycott the talks. The talks collapsed. Nixon won. The war continued for four and a half more years. Approximately 22,000 additional US service members and more than one million Vietnamese died during this extension.

• —The "Chennault Affair": in October 1968, Nixon campaign operative Anna Chennault passed messages to South Vietnamese President Thieu urging him to reject LBJ's peace terms and wait for a Nixon presidency.
• —LBJ had direct evidence — from FBI surveillance and NSA intercepts — that the Nixon campaign was interfering with the peace talks. He called it "treason" in private but chose not to go public with the intelligence.
• —Kissinger's role: as a Harvard professor and foreign policy consultant, he had been in contact with both the Johnson team (briefed on the Paris talks) and with Nixon campaign figures. The extent of his specific role in passing information remains a matter of historical dispute, but declassified files show he was in a position to do so and was not neutral.
• —The Paris Accords (1973) terminated US participation on terms that were, in all essential respects, available five years earlier — including the presence of North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam (which Nixon and Kissinger had insisted in 1969-1972 must not be permitted).
• —From 1969 to 1973 (the interval of the continued war): 22,000 additional US service members killed; deaths in Southeast Asia from US operations estimated at over 1 million.
• —Kissinger won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. Satirist Tom Lehrer said the award "made political satire obsolete."

Source:Ken Hughes, "Chasing Shadows" (2014); John A. Farrell, "Richard Nixon: The Life" (2017); LBJ Library — Chennault Affair declassified files