“The Trial Of Henry Kissinger” – Book Review

During my winter vacation, I had a chance to read another work by Christopher Hitchens, “The Trial Of Henry Kissinger”.

One of the things I’ve always admired about Hitchens is that his approach is like that of a pit bull if you have the misfortune of showing up on his radar.  However, as much misfortune as it may be for his target, it inevitably proves to be serendipity for the rest of us.  He is simultaneously entertaining, edifying and horrifying with various and sundry tales of his object of revulsion – in this case, of course, Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon.  Having seen the Trump impeachment and learning of his past misdeeds, reading this seemed truly timely indeed. 

This book was initially published back in the Spring of 2001.  Why did Hitchens choose to write this tome?  Basically, he felt as though the United States was being somewhat hypocritical in that while it condemned world leaders of other countries for having either committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, it really need look no further to find such a villain among its own ranks.  Kissinger, Hitchens believed, should have been brought up against a tribunal at The Hague for actions taken during the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.  If no such trial would be forthcoming, Hitchens reasoned, then he would conduct his own in the form of a book where he would lay out the variegated allegations and accusations.

Chile resistance fighters were supplied with “sterile” arms by the U.S. – this means that the arms had no serial numbers and as a result, could not be traced back to the Nixon Administration.  Kissinger did this because he wanted its leader, Allende, out of office – despite having won a democratically-held election where he won by a slim plurality.  His reasoning for this was that Allende held strongly leftist views which, Kissinger reasoned, would completely destabilize the region and significantly harm relations with the U.S..  

Kissinger, it turns out, was also supporting a Bengali genocide in Bangladesh, which was being conducted by the primarily Muslim Pakistan.  Here, the State Department conducted what was referred to as a “Two-Track Diplomacy”, meaning that Ambassadors and Diplomats would conduct one track while the CIA would pursue a second track, which was counter to the first track; this was often done without knowledge by the Ambassadors.  The CIA’s murderous participation was nothing short of appalling.      

After citing Kissinger’s influence and antics in Indochina, Bangladesh and Chile, Hitchens spends Chapter 7 detailing about how a coup was allowed to happen on the island of Cyprus.  The strategy here was to allow the land to be used as a battlefield by Greece and Turkey to fight for its control.  The island was inhabited by both Greeks and Turks, but the overwhelming majority was Greek.   

Hitchens’ writing, as always, is top notch.  Unsurprisingly, his word choice – including and especially with respect to adjectives – is consistently perfect.  If there is one criticism, it is this:  Hitchens does an impeccable job of research – but it may be too good.  In fact, he’s so thorough that the material is densely packed with so many facts that it’s hard to process all of this information in the first reading.  This, however, is also typical of Hitchens’ writing style, if you are already familiar with his other work.