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Henry Kissinger’s Documented Legacy [1]

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Date: 2023-05-25

Washington D.C., May 25, 2023 - As Henry Alfred Kissinger (HAK) reaches 100 years of age on May 27, his centennial is generating global coverage of his legacy as a leading statesman, master diplomat, and realpolitik foreign policy strategist. “Nobody alive has more experience of international affairs,” as The Economist recently put it in a predictably laudatory tribute to Kissinger. During his tenure in government as national security advisor and secretary of state (January 1969 to January 1977), Kissinger generated a long paper trail of secret documents recording his policy deliberations, conversations, and directives on many initiatives for which he became famous—détente with the USSR, the opening to China, and Middle East shuttle diplomacy, among them. But the historical record also documents the darker side of Kissinger’s controversial tenure in power: his role in the overthrow of democracy and the rise of dictatorship in Chile; disdain for human rights and support for dirty, and even genocidal, wars abroad; secret bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia; and involvement in the Nixon administration’s criminal abuses, among them the secret wiretaps of his own top aides. To contribute to a balanced and more comprehensive evaluation of Kissinger’s legacy, the National Security Archive has compiled a small, select dossier of declassified records—memos, memcons, and “telcons” that Kissinger wrote, said and/or read—documenting TOP SECRET deliberations, operations and policies during Kissinger’s time in the White House and Department of State. The revealing “telcons”—over 30,000 pages of daily transcripts of Kissinger’s phone conversations many of which he secretly recorded—were taken by Kissinger as “personal papers” when he left office in 1977 and used, selectively, to write his best-selling memoirs. The National Security Archive forced the U.S. government to recover these official records by preparing a lawsuit that argued that both the State Department and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had inappropriately allowed classified U.S. government documentation to be removed from their control; once they were returned, Archive senior analyst William Burr filed a FOIA request for their declassification. The draft lawsuit—which was never filed—is included in this dossier, since Kissinger’s effort to remove, retain and control these highly informative and revealing historical records should be considered a critical part of his official legacy. This special posting also centralizes links to dozens of previously published collections of documents related to Kissinger’s tenure in government that the Archive, led by the intrepid efforts of William Burr, has identified, pursued, obtained and catalogued over several decades. Together, these collections constitute an accessible, major repository of records on one of the most consequential U.S. foreign policy makers of the 20th century.

IV. KISSINGER AND OPERATION CONDOR Kissinger’s resistance to pressing the Southern Cone military regimes on human rights extended to their international assassination operations known as Operation Condor. In early August 1976, Kissinger was briefed by his deputy on plans, under Condor, “to find and kill terrorists … in their own countries and in Europe.” His aides convinced him to authorize a demarche that would be delivered to General Pinochet in Chile, General Videla in Argentina, and junta officers in Uruguay—the three Condor states most involved in transnational murder operations. But when the U.S. ambassadors to Chile and Uruguay raised objections to delivering the demarche, Kissinger simply rescinded it, ordering that “no further action be taken on this matter.” Five days later, Condor’s boldest and most infamous terrorist attack took place in downtown Washington, D.C., when a car bomb planted by Pinochet’s agents killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his young colleague, Ronni Moffitt. Document 4.1 Department of State, Action Memorandum for Kissinger, “Operation Condor,” SECRET, August 30, 1976 Source National Security Archive FOIA request In his memo to Kissinger dated August 30, 1976, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Harry Shlaudeman advises him on the U.S. position on Condor assassination plots: ”What we are trying to head off is a series of international murders that could do serious damage to the international status and reputation of the countries involved.” Shlaudeman’s memo requests approval from Kissinger to direct the U.S. ambassador to Uruguay, Ernest Siracusa, to proceed to meet with high officials in Montevideo and present the Condor demarche. Document 4.2 Department of State, Cable, “Actions Taken,” CONFIDENTIAL, September 16, 1976 Source Department of State FOIA website In this cable, sent from Lusaka where Kissinger was traveling, the Secretary of State refuses to authorize sending a telegram to U.S. ambassador to Uruguay Ernest Siracusa instructing him to proceed with the Condor demarche. Kissinger then broadens his instructions to cover the delivery of the demarche in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay: ”The Secretary has instructed that no further action be taken on this matter.” These instructions effectively end the State Department initiative to warn the Condor military regimes not to proceed with international assassination operations, since the demarche has not yet been delivered in Chile or Argentina. Five days later, former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his colleague, Ronni Moffitt, are assassinated by a car bomb in Washington, D.C., planted by Chilean secret intelligence operatives.

V. KISSINGER AND THE SOUTH ASIA CRISIS Kissinger’s indifference to human rights extended to what the head of the U.S. Consulate in Dacca, Archer Blood, called “genocide” in East Pakistan, committed by Pakistan’s military dictator, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (Yahya). Estimates of mass murder range as high as three million civilians in East Pakistan in the spring of 1971; but Nixon and Kissinger’s policies tacitly supported Yahya, who played a secret role in the administration’s efforts to negotiate an opening with China. Archive analyst Sajit Gandhi created a comprehensive dossier, “The Tilt and the South Asian Crisis of 1971” that contains dozens of documents recording reports of the genocide and the Nixon/Kissinger policies. The famous “Blood Telegram” and an example of Nixon and Kissinger’s positions are below: Document 5.1 State Department, U.S. Consulate (Dacca) Cable, "Dissent from U.S. Policy Toward East Pakistan," CONFIDENTIAL April 6, 1971 Source NARA, RG 59, SN 70-73 Pol and Def. From: Pol Pak-U.S. To: Pol 17-1 Pak-U.S. Box 2535 In one of the first ”Dissent Cables,” Consul General Archer Blood transmits a message denouncing U.S. policy towards the South Asia crisis. The transmission suggests that the United States is ”bending over backwards to placate the West Pak [sic] dominated government and to lessen likely and deservedly negative international public relations impact against them.” The cable goes on to question U.S. morality at a time when “unfortunately, the overworked term genocide is applicable.” Document 5.2 White House, Memorandum for the President, "Policy Options Toward Pakistan," SECRET, April 28, 1971 Source NARA, Richard Nixon Presidential Materials Project (NPMP), NSC Files, Country Files: Middle East, Box 625 Kissinger presents Nixon with U.S. policy options directed towards the crisis in East Pakistan. Nixon and Kissinger both feel the third option is the best, as Kissinger writes, because it "would have the advantage of making the most of the relationship with Yahya, while engaging in a serious effort to move the situation toward conditions less damaging to US and Pakistani interests." At the end of the last page Nixon writes, "To all hands: Don't squeeze Yahya at this time. “

VI. KISSINGER, SUHARTO AND EAST TIMOR U.S. support for the repressive Indonesian dictatorship of General Suharto and his regime’s murderous invasion of East Timor in December 1975 is another documented example of Kissinger’s polices of indifference to human violations and national sovereignty. The declassified records obtained by the National Security Archive record more than “a tilt” toward Suharto’s aggression; they reveal a clear green light from the highest level of the U.S. Government, given to Suharto only hours before Indonesian troops launched an incursion and occupation that cost an estimated 100,000 to 180,000 Timorese lives. An East Timor Truth Commission report completed years later stated that U.S. “political and military support were fundamental to the Indonesian invasion and occupation.” Document 6.1 State Department, Embassy Jakarta, Telegram, [Text of Ford-Kissinger-Suharto Discussion], SECRET, December 6, 1975 Source Gerald R. Ford Library, Kissinger-Scowcroft Temporary Parallel File, Box A3, Country File, Far East-Indonesia, State Department Telegrams 4/1/75-9/22/76 On the eve of Indonesia’s full-scale invasion of East Timor, Kissinger accompanied President Ford to Jakarta to meet with General Suharto. The meeting focuses on wider U.S.-Indonesian security cooperation. In the middle of a discussion of guerrilla movements in Thailand and Malaysia, Suharto raises the issue of East Timor and his plans to take “rapid or drastic action” against the newly independent former colony of Portugal. This memorandum of conversation records both Ford and Kissinger supporting the invasion. “We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have,” Ford responds. [See pages 8,9, and 10 of the memcon.] Kissinger stresses that “the use of US-made arms could create problems,” but then adds, “It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self-defense or is a foreign operation.” In any case, Kissinger states: “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.” Suharto deploys his troops into East Timor the next day, with an understanding of approval from the Ford White House.

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[1] Url: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cold-war-henry-kissinger/2023-05-25/henry-kissingers-documented-legacy

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