Henry Kissinger: The Passing of Doctor Death

[James DiEugenio]

I am kind of surprised that there has been no discussion of this topic, or maybe I missed it.

The reason I bring it up is because the differences between what Nixon and Kissinger did and what Kennedy was doing could hardly have been more dramatic.

Elections have consequences.  Its a cliche but its true I think, Kissinger was a war criminal, enabled by Tricky DIck.

And as I said in Pittsbrugh, Kissinger was a link to the Neocon revolution.

Anyway here is my free substack column on Doctor Death.

https://jamesanthonydieugenio.substack.com/p/henry-kissinger-the-passing-of-doctor

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

I am kind of surprised that there has been no discussion of this topic, or maybe I missed it.

The reason I bring it up is because the differences between what Nixon and Kissinger did and what Kennedy was doing could hardly have been more dramatic.

Elections have consequences.  Its a cliche but its true I think, Kissinger was a war criminal, enabled by Tricky DIck.

And as I said in Pittsbrugh, Kissinger was a link to the Neocon revolution.

Anyway here is my free substack column on Doctor Death.

https://jamesanthonydieugenio.substack.com/p/henry-kissinger-the-passing-of-doctor

Good post. 

Maybe there is little discussion...as there is a uni-party now on trade, foreign affairs, military. 

And, to be fair, I hardly think Putin and Hamas are nice guys. The Nazis and militarized Japan neither. 

I believe JFK was right on Vietnam, and Bush Jr. wrong on Afghanistan and Iraq. 

But Putin has slaughtered more than 100,000 of his own men in Ukraine...for what? Hamas has vowed repeat performances.

There are bad guys in the world. I have run out of answers. 

 

[W. Niederhut]

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

I am kind of surprised that there has been no discussion of this topic, or maybe I missed it.

The reason I bring it up is because the differences between what Nixon and Kissinger did and what Kennedy was doing could hardly have been more dramatic.

Elections have consequences.  Its a cliche but its true I think, Kissinger was a war criminal, enabled by Tricky DIck.

And as I said in Pittsbrugh, Kissinger was a link to the Neocon revolution.

Anyway here is my free substack column on Doctor Death.

https://jamesanthonydieugenio.substack.com/p/henry-kissinger-the-passing-of-doctor

Jim,

I have posted some comments about Kissinger, since his death, on the Water Cooler board.

(The topic didn't seem directly relevant to the JFKA.)

I have long wondered about Kissinger's links to the Neocons and their Project for a New American Century.

Let's recall that George W. Bush originally asked Kissinger to chair the 9/11 Commission's pseudo- "investigation."

And, curiously, Kissinger said in December of 2000-- shortly after the controversial Bush v. Gore ruling-- "I can think of nothing that would improve George W. Bush's low approval rating better than a terrorist attack on the U.S."

How "prophetic" was that?

Dubya's low approval rating soared after 9/11, and he suddenly had carte blanche to launch the multi-trillion dollar, Wolfowitz Doctrine "War on Terror."

Also, both Henry Kissinger and the CEO of Kissinger Associates, L. Paul Bremer, announced to the world on 9/11 (on Sky Television and CNN, respectively) that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were most likely the work of Muslim terrorists-- Osama Bin Laden and "Al Qaeda."

Bin Laden denied any involvement in the 9/11 attacks, to Al Jazeera and a Pakistani journalist, but that story was carefully blacked out of the U.S. media, along with numerous other facts that contradicted the official Bush-Cheney narrative about 9/11..

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by W. Niederhut

[James DiEugenio]

Kissinger was rightfully thrown off the 9/11 Commission with deserved alacrity.

And W showed his true colors by appointing him.

In going through that column I wrote, here was a man who presented himself, and was presented, as a foreign policy impressario.  But what was he right about?

I mean even when he was out of office he had Gorbachev all wrong.  Kennedy was working with Nikita K and Henry tells Reagan not to work with Gorby?

BTW, on the night the last helicopter flew out of Saigon, Kissinger told his old college buddy the truth: we should have never been there.  Kennedy knew that more than a decade earlier.

[Anthony Thorne]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Kissinger was rightfully thrown off the 9/11 Commission with deserved alacrity.

Good article. 

John Lehman worked under Kissinger as a NSC staffer in the early 70's. I suspect Lehman's appointment to the 9/11 Commission helped Kissinger keep an eye on whatever it got up to.

[Michael Kalin]

Good article but there's nothing about the Kurds. An oversight, perhaps?

https://kurdistantribune.com/henry-kissinger-realpolitik-genocide/

[David Andrews]

Are you damn sure he's dead?

[Michael Griffith]

"Doctor Death"??? Oh, boy. More far-left paranoia and moral confusion. 

Compared to Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse Tung, Choi En Lai, Le Duan, Putin, etc., Kissinger was a saint. 

So when the last helicopter left Saigon, Kissinger allegedly told an old college buddy that we never should have been in Vietnam, hey? That's very odd, given what other Kissinger friends and aides said about the feelings he expressed to them about the war, and especially given his passionate defense of our noble war effort in his book Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[James DiEugenio]

Michael:

I could not put every debacle the guy was involved in into a rather brief column.

What I should have mentioned though was that William Bundy wrote the first book length demolition of the Nixon/Kissinger foreign policy, called A Tangled Web.  And yes he did go through the Kurds subject.

Bundy ended his book by quoting Kissinger's eulogy at Nixon's funeral and showing how it was 90 per cent hot air.

Dave:  All i can say about that is I hope so.

To think, how many times Ted Koppel had this guy on Nightline.  And how the media treated him with such kid gloves.

The guy was a dyed in the wool Cold Warrior, and when you read the declassified conversations he had with Nixon--in Jeff Kimball's books--it all comes through.  You cannot get away from the fact that he was the heavyweight champ of genocides: East Pakistan, East TImor and the big one, in Cambodia.  I have always argued that Johnson and Nixon seriously altered the outlines of Kennedy's foreign policy.  And then came the Neocons, and Kennedy's foreign policy was utterly shattered and now is all but forgotten.  In reality, the Neocon philosophy took over both parties.  Henry was a step toward that. 

Edited December 15, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

This is one of my all time favorites lines by any high official. Does democracy really matter?

In 1970,  Kissinger uttered the classic reactionary phrase: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.”(The CIA: A Forgotten History, by William Blum, p. 235) 

Edited December 15, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Michael Griffith]

39 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

You cannot get away from the fact that he was the heavyweight champ of genocides: East Pakistan, East Timor and the big one, in Cambodia.  

That is farcical fiction. The only genocide in Cambodia was carried out by the Communists after they took over the country in April 1975, a takeover that Kissinger had tried mightily to prevent.

This fiction is as baffling as your earlier claim that U.S. bombing left Indochina looking "like the surface of the Moon," when in fact at least 70% of the land in Indochina never had a single American bomb dropped on it.  

And I can't fathom how anyone could seriously believe that Kissinger was the "champ of genocides" in Pakistan and East Timor.

[James DiEugenio]

With the above quote in mind, recall that Allende was not a communist in the way Mao was a communist.  He allowed for free elections, in fact probably to his detriment.

So in other words, we could not allow a socialist president who was freely elected.

But we could allow a fascist leader in South Vietnam, actually two in a row.  And we rigged the vote to get them in and keep them in power.  TIger cages and all.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Micah Mileto]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

 

Human rights are a matter of budget. A poor people's revolution is not likely to have much of a budget for extra human rights.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Micah Mileto

[James DiEugenio]

Remember though what Jeanne Kirkpatrick said about rightwing vs leftwing dictatorships.

Which I think she got from Kissinger. 

The former can evolve into democracies.

Geez, historically speaking, they are usually overthrown as in Italy, Germany and Nicaragua.

Henry Kissinger talking about human rights is a walking oxymoron.

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Micah Mileto]

30 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

 

 

Who is this Kirkpatrick lady? Were you quoting her as a joke to summarize the kind of thing Kissinger would say?

Edited December 16, 2023 by Micah Mileto