Program Directory

Turn­ing 100, the acco­lades for Hen­ry Kissinger are pour­ing in. He is a leg­end. Over decades, he has assid­u­ous­ly cul­ti­vat­ed and con­struct­ed the image of the saga­cious elder states­man. Cor­po­rate jour­nal­ists hang on his every word. Politi­cians seek his advice. But what is his record to deserve such respect and rev­er­ence? He is one of the most noto­ri­ous char­ac­ters of this or any oth­er peri­od in his­to­ry. Just ask the Kurds, the East Tim­o­rese, the Bangladeshis, the Lao­tians, and the Chileans what they think of the Nobel Peace Prize lau­re­ate. But since they are ​“unpeo­ple,” their opin­ions don’t count. When he was Nixon’s nation­al secu­ri­ty advi­sor, Kissinger dis­played his kow­tow­ing to pow­er when he kept silent as his boss made anti-Semit­ic remarks. When Nixon demand­ed that Cam­bo­dia be bombed, he con­veyed the order like a good errand boy. It was Kissinger who once boast­ed, ​“The ille­gal we do imme­di­ate­ly, the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al takes a lit­tle longer.”