The Kissinger files

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kissinger File ( The Trial of Henry Kissinger , translated The Trial of Henry Kissinger ) is a non-fiction book by the British-American journalist Christopher Hitchens from 2001.

It deals with war crimes and illegal covert operations , for which the former security advisor to the US President and later US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is said to have been responsible or jointly responsible. Kissinger had served US Presidents Nixon and Ford . Excerpts from the book were reprinted in Harper's Magazine in 2001. The German translation was published in the same year.

content

The author Hitchens takes on the role of a prosecutor in his book and accuses Kissinger in this role of being responsible for crimes in Vietnam , Cambodia , Bangladesh , Chile , Cyprus and East Timor .

The alleged crimes include: war crimes , crimes against humanity , violations of international law , conspiracies for murder, kidnapping, the systematic disappearance of people, especially in South America (see Desaparecidos ) and torture .

Hitchens presents evidence, especially on the basis of US government documents, which are supposed to show legal or, alternatively, political responsibility for a number of crimes. Kissinger is said to have been responsible for the deliberate murder of civilians in Vietnam and Cambodia. Other allegations include responsibility for mass murders and at least one assassination attempt in Bangladesh. Kissinger is said to have instigated the murder of a government official in Chile ( General René Schneider ) and worked on a plan to have the head of state of Cyprus, Makarios , and a journalist living in the USA murdered. Together with President Ford, he is said to have given the Indonesian head of state Haji Mohamed Suharto the green light for his invasion of neighboring East Timor in 1975 , at least approvingly, if not actively encouraging the following massive human rights violations against the local population have.

At the end of the book, Hitchens calls on the American public not to turn a blind eye to Kissinger's responsibility.

Movie

The book was used as a template for the 2002 documentary Accused: Henry Kissinger . Hitchens wrote the script together with director Alex Gibney . Hitchens is interviewed in the film, Kissinger only appears in historical archive recordings of himself.

criticism

  • “The book is important and up to date. Individual chapters read like a crime story. For Germany it shows that the Kissinger picture is about to be revised. And it illuminates the '68 debate in a new light. "
  • “Hitchens relies on files and meeting minutes from the Nixon era, some of which were only released in the United States in the past two years. The comparison between Kissinger's own account of individual conversations in his memoirs and what was actually said confirms the worst fears about the discrepancy between Kissinger's political facade and his factual politics behind the scenes. "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Part 1 and Part 2
  2. ↑ John R. Mac Arthur: RIP Christopher Hitchens - Harper's Magazine. In: harpers.org. March 31, 2012, accessed February 9, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: The Henry Kissinger Files , Deutsche Verlagsanstalt DVA 2001, ISBN 978-3421051776
  4. ↑ - English speaking Amazon
  5. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Verso, 2002, ISBN 978-1-859-84398-7 , p. 89 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Verso, 2002, ISBN 978-1-859-84398-7 , p. 131 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  7. ↑ - International Movie Database
  8. ↑ The Emulator23 (Shelman23@gmail.com): Charged with: Henry Kissinger (2002) - IMDb. In: imdb.com. March 31, 2013, accessed February 9, 2015 .
  9. ^ Stefan Reinecke: "Lettre International": Pinochet, Milosevic and - Kissinger. In: tagesspiegel.de . June 13, 2001, accessed February 9, 2015 .
  10. ^ Stefan Schaaf: 500,000 dead for the election campaign. In: taz.de . June 18, 2001, accessed February 9, 2015 .