The Trial of Henry Kissinger

The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, Verso, 2001

This isn't so much a look at how a trial at the Hague or elsewhere would actually work, as it is the prosecution's case against Kissinger, former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser to Richard Nixon.

In 1968, then candidate Richard Nixon and his underlings set out to sabotage the Vietnam War peace talks going on in Paris. They established a secret channel to the South Vietnamese and told them that a Republican administration would give them a much better deal. The South Vietnamese walked out of the talks just before the 1968 election, thereby destroying the chances of Hubert Humphrey as the "peace" candidate. The war continued on for another five years, at the cost of over 20,000 American lives, and untold numbers of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian lives. It ended in Paris under the same terms that were on the table five years previously. One of the Republican informants inside the 1968 peace talks was Henry Kissinger.

In September 1970, leftist candidate Salvador Allende won the most votes in the Chilean presidential election. Not receiving an overall majority of the votes, the Parliament would have to officially choose Allende. Richard Nixon personally decided that that could not happen, so a secret plan of bribery and kidnapping was hatched. Any plans for a military coup had to go through General Rene Schneider, Chairman of the General Staff. His inclination was to follow the constitution and let Allende take office. He was kidnapped and killed by a group of officers who were sufficiently right wing to listen to Washington. After almost three years of doing everything possible, both inside and outside Chile, to "make the economy scream," Allende was overthrown in September 1973 in a bloody coup. At the time, Kissinger claimed that US personnel were not involved. The evidence shows otherwise.

Among the other countries chronicled in this book are Cyprus, Bangladesh and East Timor.

The US Congress is reluctant to give permission for the government to be involved in the International Tribunal in the Hague because of concern that US citizens will be brought before it on trumped up charges. The charges explored in this book are not trumped up. This is a short, easy to read and very powerful book that makes a very convincing case that Kissinger should, at minimum, be publicly investigated for war crimes. It is very highly recommended.