Henry Kissinger dies at 100–some thoughts

The big story is Henry Kissinger dies at 100.

Although Kissinger is often accused of war crimes and secret bombings, it was Nixon who signed off on the bombings. Kissinger followed through on the order after putting up, albeit, minimal resistance. Nixon was the commander-in-chief–the highest office in the land–so the buck stopped with him, not Kissinger, so it does not even make sense to blame Kissinger as it implies he somehow superseded the chain of command. Nixon’s justification, in his own words, was to avoid being “the first president of the United States to lose a war”. In fact, Kissinger initially opposed the bombings: “Secretary of State William P. Rogers who feared the bombings would derail the peace talks in Paris, and the National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger who feared that Nixon was acting rashly. None of them raised moral objections to the bombings.[14]”.

Same for keeping the bombings secret. Again, the blame goes to Nixon, who possibly acted illegally: “Nixon decided to keep the bombing a secret from the American people as to admit to bombing an officially neutral nation would damage his credibility and because bombing Cambodia would seem like he was escalating the war.[18] Under the US constitution, the power to declare war rests with Congress, and several constitutional experts testified before Congress in 1973 that by launching a bombing offensive in 1969 without obtaining the approval of Congress or indeed even informing Congress, Nixon had committed an illegal act.”

Regarding the 1973 Chilean coup d’état, Kissinger’s role is greatly exaggerated by the media as being directly culpable for the deaths, when the coup and Pinochet’s rise to power was inevitable anyway. According to a declassified 2000 report at the direction of the National Intelligence Council, “Although CIA did not instigate the coup that ended Allende’s government on 11 September 1973, it was aware of coup-plotting by the military, had ongoing intelligence collection relationships with some plotters, and—because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a coup in 1970—probably appeared to condone it.” … The report stated that the CIA “actively supported the military Junta after the overthrow of Allende but did not assist Pinochet to assume the Presidency.”

With Ford’s defeat in in 1978, Kissinger’s career of public service abruptly ended, and with his reputation checkered at that point following the Nixon scandals and accusations of war crimes, he entered into consultancy soon after, which he continued until his death, having to large extent rehabilitated his public image and embedding himself with the D.C.-elite. Instead of aerial bombing raids and advising foreign leaders, it was jet-setting on private planes to advise CEOs. He was briefly appointed by George W. Bush in November 2002 to chair a commission to investigate the 911 attacks, which he soon ignominiously abdicated after refusing to disclose his client list.

As far as public office goes, he was sorta a failure, at least compared to Hillary, Schumer, and Pelosi, who have been fixtures of politics for decades. His consulting career is far more impressive than his diplomatic prowess, or lack thereof. He set a precedent of turning short stints in office into decades of cash flow, serving as a blueprint for the likes of Robert Reich and Lawrence Summers, who also turned forgettable roles under the shadows of far more power men, into long and lucrative careers as consultants and public intellectuals. Yet he’s blamed for atrocities that far extend his purview of power, which was limited and only lasted for eight or so years–a sliver of time for someone who lived so long. The myth precedes the man, as it’s said.

Nixon had the fortune of dying in 1995, before the revelations came to light in 2000 after Operation Menu was declassified by Bill Clinton, so Kissinger was left to blame as being only one of a handful of surviving members of his era, along with Jimmy Carter who turned 99.

This puts another dent to Jewish/Zionist theories of world power. Jews are powerful, yes, but usually not at the top of the pyramid, at least when it comes to foreign policy. That spot is typically occupied or secured by evangelicals. For example, it was Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Cheney–all gentiles–who were the key architects of the Iraq War, with some Jews like Wolfowitz, playing only a supporting role. Megachurch congregations were among the biggest supporters of the Iraq War–until the very end. A common argument that the Iraq War was somehow initiated at the behest of Israel. Maybe, but the war enriched US defense contractors far more than Israel. Jewish-American support of US foreign policy, overall, is more divided or left-wing compared to white-evangelical support.

Overall, Kissinger was pretty much a glorified patsy or yes-man who with the help of the media crafted a sort of mythos of being this larger than life power broker, when at best he only played an assisting role that was parlayed into a much longer consultancy career.