Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923–November 29, 2023).
New Delhi: Henry Alfred Kissinger, the (in)famous secretary of state of United States president Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War and the Liberation War of Bangladesh has died. He was 100. His geopolitical consultancy firm Kissinger Associates announced his demise in a news release on Wednesday.
Life of Henry Kissinger
Kissinger’s life is celebrated in certain elite circles, especially among the American and western political and business elite leaning upon regimes like Israel and erstwhile fascist regimes during his time in office, like Argentina and Chile. However, Kissinger was a war criminal beyond any doubt, despite being a renowned Harvard scholar and professor before becoming a DC politician.
He aided, armed, and supported General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan’s murderous regime in East Pakistan, which the Bengali Mukti Bahini, with the help of the Indian military, liberated as Bangladesh.
Indian ‘Bitch’ and ‘Bastards’ during Bangladesh Muktijuddho
In July 2005, the US state department (which is equivalent to India’s foreign ministry) declassified taped conversations between Nixon and Kissinger that took place shortly before the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. In the tapes, Nixon and Kissinger were heard talking about the-then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, after they met her. In the conversation, Nixon refers to Gandhi as an “old witch”.
Replying to Nixon, Kissinger calls her a “bitch” and says the Indians are “bastards” anyway.
The declassified tapes, which Indira Gandhi never had the opportunity to hear, brought to light Nixon’s contempt against Indian women. He believed that Indian women were “most sexless” and “pathetic”.
During 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh
Kissinger was a war criminal by the definition of his role in the Vietnam War as well as the Liberation War of Bangladesh. He helped the Pakistanis under Yahya Khan to carry out the genocide of 3,000,000 Bengalis, and the rape of countless Bengali women. It is widely acknowledged that Kissinger was directly responsible for the Bengali genocide for he armed the Pakistani military and gave the nod to Yahya Khan to carry out the mass killings and other atrocities in Bangladesh.
And at the same time, he authorized every bomb dropped during the American carpet bombing on Laos and Cambodia. It is estimated that over 4,000,000 innocent people died in American bombing campaigns in those Southeast Asian nations.
[Editor’s note: For a comprehensive account of the war criminal Henry Kissinger, please read this Rolling Stone article by Spencer Ackerman.]
Role in Bhopal gas tragedy
In 1975, Kissinger, as the US secretary of state, helped Union Carbide set up its chemical plant in Bhopal. After the plant’s 1984 gas-leak disaster, Kissinger Associates represented Union Carbide in courts and managed to broker a paltry out-of-court settlement for the victims of the deadly leak, which caused thousands of immediate deaths and exposed another half a million people to gas contamination in air, water, and soil.
Prominent role
Henry Kissinger, who was born to German Jews, had no respect for human rights – as his actions in decision-making positions in the US government show. His parents escaped to the US, fleeing Nazi persecution. Immigration laws were lax and rarely enforced in the US, in 1938. In the US, he studied under William Yandell Elliott at Harvard University and excelled academically. He earned his MA and PhD at Harvard in 1951 and 1954, respectively.
He played a prominent role in the US foreign policy between 1969 and 1977 and initiated the policy of restrained hostilities with the erstwhile Soviet Union.
However, he will be remembered for his efforts in thawing US ties with Chairman Mao Zedong of the communist People’s Republic of China, where he engaged in what is now known as “Ping-Pong Diplomacy”.
He also carried on a similar diplomacy in the Middle East to end the Israel-Arab Yom Kippur War, in 1973.
