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Won’t miss him.
Kissinger is not the reason Bob Dylan wrote the song “Masters of War” but let’s face it he fits the role very well.
I wish Anthony Bourdain was here to see this.
Can someone please explain what he did to be labeled a war criminal?
Genuine question, because I only know this guy as an asshole who suggested Ukraine should give up it’s occupied territories.
He’s got a 6-8 part Behind the Bastard series about him but the article here is a tldr. Basically he is directly responsible for killing about four million people, basically carpet bombed Vietnam and was in Watergate.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-kissinger-94160733/
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-two-kissinger-94268769/
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-six-kissinger-94899290/
Figures. I don’t think that the Ukrainians who were pissed about his suggested “peace deal” knew about this. Either that, or they didn’t mention it. And I remember his article was widely discussed in the Ukrainian media. Maybe if his background was more widely known, his opinion would have been more easily dismissed.
He drove us policy for decades, especially “the ends justify the means” stuff.
As a partial explanation, not an excuse, y’all have to remember this was the Cold War. A lot of this was accepted as a necessary evil to prevent the big EVIL. If you thought you had to choose between civilization ending WWIII, vs interfering in a third world conflict, the evil may not be as clear cut as y’all think. Kissinger drove the bus but we all went along.
Falling for however much of that was propaganda is all on us.
We also mostly fell for it in Iraq. If you take anything from this diplomat’s life work, DONT FALL FOR THE PROPAGANDA. it’s easy to see the evil with hindsight and in a different world, but we all need to develop the skepticism and questioning to see this for it is when it happens again.
I’m proud of my country but that includes seeing where we’ve failed and it’s all of our duty to see when it’s stepping off the ideal path and do our part to get it back on track
He (and Ford) came to Indonesia during Soeharto’s New Order and endorsed invasion of East Timor. That was one day before the invasion happened.
Wow, I’m surprised I’ve never heard this before.
So are we all just going to wait for the ruling class to die off like he did or are we going to stand for justice and do something about the other evil motherfuckers in the elite still living?
What are you talking about, we are going to breed our generation of evil motherfuckers.
Best example of The good die young I have ever seen.
Without a doubt, the best headline about the death of this worm. Congratulations to the editor.
After reading the article, I’m left with the impression that, if he wasn’t jew, he’d be right at home with the german nazi govt. Not necessarily because of racial bias, but because of his anticommunism and also for being able to direct the military against unsuspecting targets for the sole purpose of solidifying power.
I love that they added the part where he said “Any people that’s been persecuted for two thousand years must have done something wrong.”
Right? Victim blaming pro level there.
The title is strong, but article itself is brutal
three and four million people
That would make the list go: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Kissinger. With the difference that the US has been a terrorist state for over a hundred years, while the other names on the list have been individuals while Kissingers was part of a greater evil.
Also Pol Pot of Cambodia.
Which can be blamed on… Kissinger!
Bingo!
You think because the names you listed were leaders of their countries doesn’t make them part of a greater evil? No one person commits atrocities alone; there must be some backing.
One single name doesn’t get to make decisions… There must be a greater body at play. There has to be support of some sort, otherwise the people would have just said no, and killed that person.
That’s true but group think requires a strong leader with a vision and a willingness to direct the group towards his own goals vice the best interests of the people. So I believe there’s an argument to be made for targeting and removing specific people from power to prevent atrocities from happening. Group think is a psychological concept, so here’s some more information about it. There are other factors involved, so removing one person still might not be effective.
Group Think
- Thinking in which maintaining group cohesion and solidarity is more important than considering facts in a realistic manner
Occurs when:
- Group members are highly cohesive
- Group member are isolated from contrary opinions
- Group is lead by a biased leader who make their wishes known
- Stress caused by external factors, especially time constraints
Signs of Group Think
- Overestimating group’s skills & wisdom
- Biased perceptions and evaluations of other groups and people outside of their group
- Strong conformity pressures within the group
- Poor decision making methods
My point wasn’t that single people can’t be bad, or do bad things, but ultimately to perform terrible acts at scale it requires buy-in from other people. Without support, whether it be through fear, coercion, or otherwise, it’s nothing more than intrusive thoughts.
Hitler was a bad dude but it took a concerted effort by who knows how many people in order to make the sick stuff that happened a reality.
All the names he listed were indeed bad dudes, but I feel saying Kissinger stands out because he had the support of the government while the others just killed millions by themselves is not a fair assessment of what transpired.
I agree with the sentiment in context of these “next level” atrocities, for lack of better way to phrase it.
But I disagree with “No one person commits atrocities alone; there must be some backing”. Plenty of atrocities have happened because one person decided to be a dickhead
I actually can’t think of one on a geopolitical scale. There’s always some other people involved.
Oh yeah, geopolitical is probably a better way to phrase it than “next level”.
That I agree with. I just felt like saying “nobody commits atrocities alone” removes some blame from some monsters out there that have done terrible shit.
Oh absolutely. That’s why I made a point to qualify it like that. Atrocities can go from a mass shooting carried out by one person to a genocide carried out by an entire government.
I’d rather not have an internet argument, but I’ll give you a pointer that you can use to google for more information of the issue is of actual interest to you:
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Mao, Stalin and Hitler were tyrants that forced their way to leadership and killed everyone who opposed them. Kissinger was the advisor of a terrorist government that existed long before him and will continue to exist.
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“just said no, and killed that person” is a naive Disney fantasy. In actual reality people that “just say no” get vanished, tortured and killed. And their neighbours suddenly turn reaaally quiet after that. However, there is always a certain joint guitl and complicity, I agree with that. And it weighs especially heavy if “the people” are very free to protest their nation’s terrorism but don’t do so.
There is a big difference between a single dictator being a plague upon the world for the 10-50 years he’s in power, and an nation with constently changing leadership being a permanent plague upon this world for 100+ years.
That’s the reason why Kissinger sticks out of the list: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Kissinger*.
Great analysis thanks
I agree with your overall thesis but your characterizations of the three tyrants are casually backwards.
Mao was a leader of a militant group first. He won political power in that group and that group won a large following of people over several decades. His status as tyrant emerges from that history and cultivated in a desperate militaristic role which is already predisposed to authoritarian rule.
Hitler was similar, his authotarianism, is on display much earlier in the process, and part of his charismatic attraction. It was clear early on that Hitler was going to mow down anyone in his way. Still, he needed to acquire popular and then political power. He leveraged existing sentiment and thuggish groups such as the Freikorp.
Stalin was just a bureaucrat.
Just kidding. I know very little of Stalin’s rise to power except that it was internal to a party that already had seized power.
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The ‘Behind the Bastards’ 6 part series on him was fucking brilliant, well worth a listen. Also, if BtB has to do a 6 part series to cover all the fucked up shit you did…? You’re one of histories greatest monsters…
Robert also did six parts on McMahon which I thought was… weird
Ed McMahon?
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Jim?
Bones?
It’s a shame he never faced justice for his crimes.
As is typical for most USA sponsored terrorists, especially those that call the shots in 'murica
Anthony Bourdain, a well spoken man who reached his boiling point with existence a fair bit to soon, always had a lot to say about Kissinger. An excerpt from a book he wrote “about” culinary tourism from, if anyone wasn’t aware…
I heard Henry Kissinger ran into a tree and all his money fell out of his pockets and the teens called him Sonic the Bitchhog while he tried to get at least one coin so he could go on.
Ding dong the witch is dead!
And not a single tear was shed.
Plenty of tears >!of joy!< were shed
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him dying of old age is a spit on humanity. babies get killed all the time and yet this psychopath lived a luxurious life after being responsible for the death of millions of people.
he may be dead, but even is death is a blight upon humanity, because he is, imho, one of the few people that deserve the death penalty for his crimes.
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The problem is that our society not only failed to punish, but actively rewarded someone who committed atrocities on par with world history’s worst people. The problem is that it still does, which encourages more people like him to do more things like he did.
he was protected by the united states security. a mass murderer responsible for the death of millions of people, had the protection of the security forces of the united states. he was invited to the white house to give advice a lot of times, he was invited to parties all the time.
this is fucking surreal. the guy was responsible for millions of deaths, and there he was getting rich because he gave talks about being a fucking psychopath. and he did this in the most prestigious universities of the world.
if you really think about it, if you really take your time to understand, this whole thing is beyond fucked up. and there is this guy complaining about a title. which takes the situation from fucked up to absolute absurdity. its just absurd. i’m not even mad, i’m baffled.
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hk was a symptom. nothing more than a tumour that broke the skin that is the disease that is the united states current policies. mr troll, the more i think about the more i question why is gwb still free? mr. troll have you shaken hands with hk?
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hyperbole
thats is the true tragedy,mr troll. it isn’t hyperbole. hk is responsible for millions of deaths and lived in luxury until he died of old age. thats like hitler living out his days in some german village after ww2
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It’s Rolling Stone, they mostly do editorials. They’re not the AP lmao.
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Editorials are almost always opinion pieces, peer review isn’t really part of that process. 😅
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Yes, I prefer RS keep their format they got famous for with greats such as Hunter S Thompson and Chuck Palahniuk. They’re not beat reporters, they’re journalists.
See: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/
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He literally invented Gonzo journalism and pioneered the New Journalism movement, while writing for RS no less, what are you talking about.
