KISSINGER

Crimes & Misdemeanors

Readings

• Christopher Hitchens’ article in Harpers detailing Kissinger’s actions

• Kissinger’s attack on universal jurisdiction in Foreign Affairs

• Roth’s rebuttal of Kissinger’s attack

Depraved Realpolitik crimes

• Betrayal of Kurds in 1972-75– Encouraged to revolt against Hussein– Abandoned to extermination

• Kissinger’s role in South Africa & Angola

• White-washing of death squads in Central America

• Support for Shah’s Torture & Repression in Iran

Indictable Crimes

• Mass murder in Indochina during war

• Murder in Chile during peace

• Bloodbath in Bangladesh

• Coup, Torture, Murder in Cyprus

• Conquest & Slaughter in East Timor

• Assassination in Washington, D.C.

International Law

• No longer recognizes “sovereign immunity”• International Tribunal at the Hague• Pinochet indictment

– Spanish judge suppoena for Chilean Dictator Pinochet

– British government arrested Pinochet

• Warrant for arrest of Kissinger • Many of his co-conspirators are in jail

Prelude: “October Surprise”

• Fall of 1968 before the presidential elections: Humphrey vs Nixon

• Nixon & Kissinger sabotage the Paris Peace Talks over ending the Vietnam War

• Promise a better deal from Republicans

• South Vietnamese junta withdrew

• Result: Peace Talks Collapsed

1973 Coup in Chile

• Chilean military overthrew democratically elected president Salvador Allende

• Materially and morally backed by Kissinger and Nixon Administration

Consequences

• Humphrey lost, Nixon won

• Seven more years of war (1968-1975)

• 20,000 more American soldiers died

• Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians died.

Evidence I

• Haldeman Diaries: reveal Johnson bugging?

• Stephen Ambrose bio on Nixon, fear of consequences of revelation

• Clark Clifford discovered secret communications between Nixon camp & S.Vietnamese government (violation of Logan Act)

Evidence II

• Richard Holbrooke: Kissinger was spy for Nixon inside negotiations

• Nixon’s Autobiography: John Mitchell was contact for Kissinger

• Anthony Summer’s book: Claire Chennault as second intermediary to S.Vietnamese

• Hitchen’s lists other sources, same story

“War Crimes” in Indochina?• Christmas Bombing of North Vietnam after

1968 Elections

• General Telford Taylor’s book on Nuremberg & Vietnam: US leaders could be tried as well.

• Nuremberg Trials reasoning taken over by United Nations as basis of international law

• US accepted law its prosecutors & judges produced.

Question of Responsibility

• General Taylor analyzes cases of WWII leaders sentenced to death

• Central issue was knowledge and failure to act to stop or prevent further crimes– E.g., General Yamashita - hanged

– E.g., Foreign Minister Hirota & Rape of Nanking – hanged

• Kissinger et. al. knew and in detail yet continued to perpetrate crimes

Kissinger & “Speedy Express”

• 9th Division Slaughter in Kien Hoa province

• Body count = 11,000, weapons = 748

• General Creighton Abrams praised operation widely and frequently

• Impossible to believe Kissinger was unaware

• Yet he took no steps to stop the slaughter

Kissinger & Cambodia/Laos - I

• Post-WWII, US denied allies right to attack other countries– E.g., Egypt in 1956, attacked by France, Britain and

Israel, US forced retreat– E.g., against French attack of Tunesian town during

war to keep Algeria

• All set aside by “hot pursuit”• Secret bombing of Cambodia & Laos, Kissinger

and Nixon lied about what they were doing, denied it.

Kissinger & Camboida/Laos - II

• 350,000 civilians in Laos, 600,000 civilians in Cambodia were killed by bombing

• Use of toxic chemical defoliants caused massive health crisis, esp for mothers, children & aged

• Kissinger brags about his role in orchestrating the bombing & poisoning

• Haldeman reports Kissinger’s pleasure

Kissinger & Cambodia/Laos - III

• Kissinger not only orchestrated but micro-managed operations– He carefully picked bombing targets– Tracked results, read “raw intelligence”

• Several of his own staff resigned, e.g, Anthony Lake

• Kissinger tapped phones of those who revealed what was going on

Kissinger & Operation Phoenix

• Murder of 35,708 Vietnamese civilians by CIA “counter-guerrilla” operatives

• Over first 2 & ½ years of Kissinger-Nixon Administration

• When word of operation leaked, Kissinger was furious and ordered wire-taps to find leaks, taps inside White House, State Department and newsmen

• Prelude to Watergate, Hitchen argues

Kissinger & Chile - I

• Chile: best democracy in Southern Cone• 1/3 conservative vote, 1/3 socialist, 1/3

Christian Democratic centrist• CIA funded “reliable elements” (as in Italy

–which we now know involved fascists)• 1972 socialist Salvador Allende elected

president• Kissinger et al decide to remove

Kissinger & Chile - II

• Two track operation: one thru State Department, one thru CIA

• Objective: destablization, kidnapping & assassination

• First target: Chilean General Rene Schneider, a military leader devoted to democracy

• So, word went out in Santiago of $50k

Kissinger & Chile - III

• Hitchens: “an unelected official in the US is meeting with others, without the knowledge or authorization of Congress, to plan the kidnapping of a consitutionally minded senior official in a democratic country with which the US is not at war and maintains cordial diplomatic relations . . . A “hit”, a piece of state-supported terrorism.”

Kissinger & Chile - IV

• Extensive evidence from de-classified cables between Washington and Chile about provision of money and guns for assassination

• Memo of Conversation, Oct 15, 1970• Two tracks within 2nd track:

– General Roberto Viaux et al

– General Camilo Valenzuela et al

• Schneider was kidnapped and murdered

Kissinger & Chile - V

• Not only was Kissinger & US government involved in Coup against Allende that murdered him

• But also involved in cover-up of subsequent atrocities: torture, murder, etc.

• Evidence: CIA Report to Congress in 2000 admitted role, tried to escape responsibility for results

Kissinger & Cyprus - I

• Greece/Turkey conflict & Cyprus– Military dictatorship in Greece– Militarized government in Turkey– Democratically elected government in Cyprus

(President Makarios)

• Cyprus: 82% Greek, 18% Turkish• Kissinger had advance knowledge of plan

to depose and kill Makarios

Kissinger & Cyprus - II

• Senator J. William Fulbright learned of impending coup and tried to get Kissinger to intervene

• Kissinger refused• Coup took place on July 15, 1974• Murders followed, Kissinger ordered recognition

of new regime – only country to do so.• Turkish invasions, torture, murders followed, and

partition.

Kissinger & Bloodbath in Bangladesh

• 1971 West Pakistan attacked East Pakistan (Bangladesh) slaughtering thousands

• US lack of action protested by US foreign service agents

• Kissinger was using Pakistan for secret negotiations with China

• Result: genocide in Bangladesh & Nixon to China Spring 1971.

US & Indonesia

• Pre-Kissinger US role in Indonesia– CIA organized invasion to overthrow Sukarno– Berkeley & MIT trained new elite– CIA collaborated in military coup that

slaughtered 500,000+– US/UN allowed take over of West Papua

Kissinger & East Timor - I

• Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975 (Pearl Harbor)

• Right after Ford/Kissinger visit to Jakarta

• Ford/Kissinger gave permission and provided support for Indonesian invasion, conquest and colonization of East Timor via slaughter, rape, deliberate starvation – 50-200,000 killed

• Kissinger furious over leaks of his role

Demetracopoulos -I

• Plan to kidnap and murder Greek journalist Elias Demetracopoulos who opposed US-backed military dictatorship in Greece

• (see the movie “Z”)• After fall of dictatorship, he discovered

documents about plans to kill him that included reference to cooperation in Washington

Demetracopoulos -II

• Used Freedom of Information Act to get documents in Washington

• 1963 CIA had tried to keep him out of US• Greek military money for Nixon campaign

– CIA money? “hush money” for Watergate?

• Demetracopoulos revelations led to plans to discredit and then assassinate him

• Prima facie case Kissinger knew

Relevant Laws?

• International Human Rights Laws

• Law of Armed Conflict

• International Criminal Law

• Domestic Law & Law of Civil Remedies

• Genocide Convention

• Covenant on Civil & Political Rights

• Alien Tort Claims Act

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction

• Kissinger: universal jurisdiction is new

• Roth: no, it’s not, US & Israeli courts have done this

• Kissinger: treaties on HR not intended for use of local judges against outsiders

• Roth: Wrong, e.g., Torture Convention mandates such prosecution

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction - II

• Kissinger: International Criminal Court “crimes” are too vague.

• Roth: wrong, definition of war crimes resembles US military definitions

• Kissinger: ICC prosecutor will not be accountable

• Roth: wrong, prosecutor can be removed

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction - III

• Kissinger: attacks ICC jurisdiction over US citizens in absence of US accession to treaty

• Roth: US itself asserts such jurisdiction• Kissinger: ICC defendents won’t have due

process as understood in US• Roth:1) US courts martial same, 2) US

courts regularly approve extradiction to countries lacking jury trials

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction - IV

• Kissinger: ICC would violate US constitution by asserting jurisdiction over US citizens

• Roth: 1) ICC gives up jurisdiction to good faith investigation by home government, 2) US allows foreign prosecution of US military personnel

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction - V

• Kissinger: claims selective prosecution, eg., Pinochet – “fashionably reviled man or the right”

• Roth: 1) Pinochet targeted because of murder of 3,000 and torture of thousands more, 2) all sorts of people have been prosecuted: Bosnian war criminals, Rwandan genocidaires, Argentine torturers

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction - VI

• Kissinger: ICC ignores local justice, eg., amnesty for Pinochet

• Roth: Amnesty for Pinochet was imposed by him

• Kissinger: worries about undemocratic government prosecution

• Roth: Govt’s regularly deny extradiction

Kissinger/Roth on Universal Jurisdiction

• Kissinger: UN Security Council should decide who gets tried

• Roth: option rejected because it would give member states ability to veto prosecution of their own citizens and those of their allies

• Roth: international law means US citizens must be held accountable like everyone else

Kissinger to Bush

• What, if any, are parallels between actions analzyed and condemned by Hitchens and those currently pursued by Bush Administration?

• Who, if anyone, might be prosecuted for the kinds of crimes delineated above?