The point of this article is not only to bring forth the painful history of genocides helped by the United States, but also to criticize the coverage of Henry Kissinger’s death and to make known his policies that contributed to the death of millions. Despite this, following his death, there were a myriad of celebratory articles that idolized him, and failed to elaborate on the brutality that ensued during his time as U.S. Secretary of State.

Many people are familiar with Henry Kissinger for shaping the Cold War, a term all have heard in history class—the Nobel Peace Prize holder in 1973, and the most admirable American in the 1970s. Articles dedicated to his achievements celebrated him after he passed away this year on November 29. Very few held him accountable for an atrocious legacy.
Failure, and its Brother Called Brutality
He served as the U.S. Secretary of State and national security adviser during Nixon’s administration. As a politician, several controversies surrounding him continuously outrage the public. Although he was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, he was a man whose decisions were responsible for raising the millionth death count in Southeast Asia. Instead of diplomacy, Kissinger advocated for the carpet bombings, which is bombing that destroys the inhabitants of a wide area. His goal was to stop communism from spreading during the Vietnam War. Ordnance, such as land mines and grenades, still litter the land. Currently, U.S. ordnance is the reason for the arising death count. According to USA Today, over 800,000 tons of ordnance remains in Vietnam, causing over 100,000 casualties, and 40,000 deaths.

Freelance journalist Ahmed Twaji’s article Kissinger: A War Criminal With a Nobel Peace Prize reflects these war crimes. A key point he makes is that communism only spread further after the carpet bombings, and this was true in Cambodia. Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge was a force that pushed for radical communism, and the communist Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh from Vietnam helped form the movement. In 1970, Cambodia’s five-year civil war ended, and the Khmer Rouge ruled after successfully attacking the capital, Phnom Penh city. Ahmed Twaji said the Khmer Rouge “went on to commit countless atrocities, including a genocide of between 1.5 and two million people.”

There are several other genocides, and overall atrocities the article claims Kissinger endorsed. Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Bangladesh, Timor, Cyprus, and Chile fell victim to these barbaric authorizations. Kissinger allowed the death of millions in genocide or war as a justification for his bombing campaigns. In Politico’s Magazine, Nicholas Thompson said, “Henry Kissinger was a success—a true, American success—but he can only be called an idealist if he can be called despicable too.”