The dark side of Kissinger’s tradecraft left a deep stain on vast quarters of the globe—and on America’s own reputation.
, from Kissinger’s time as national security adviser and secretary of state to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. They clearly display the traits and actions that Hitchens found so odious.Kissinger had his moments of triumph in his years of power, from 1969–76: U.S.–Soviet détente, the opening of China, and his shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East .
Still, the dark side of Kissinger’s tradecraft left a deeper stain on vast quarters of the globe—and on America’s own reputation.Chile is the darkest blotch on Kissinger’s legacy. He was the chief architect of the U.S. policy to destabilize the regime of Chile’s democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende.
This was not a case of Kissinger merely doing Nixon’s dirty work. In fact, Nixon was considering a proposal by a senior State Department official—one of Kissinger’s aides—to reach a modus vivendi with Allende. Kissinger postponed a White House meeting with the aide and convinced Nixon to crush the new government instead.
complained that Kissinger’s permissiveness was “patently a violation of our principles and policy tenets.” Kissinger ignored the warning.He did the same thing three years later, after the Argentine coup, whose military leaders were even more brutal and murderous. In fact, he berated an aide who suggested issuing a démarche to the Buenos Aires government.
moved into the vacuum and murdered at least 2 million more, roughly a quarter of the country’s population.To the extent Kissinger acknowledged these acts , he justified them on the basis of national security interests. Even in his, as a Harvard grad student and professor, he presented himself as a master of “Realpolitik,” which sometimes requires doing unpleasant things with unpleasant people.
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