General Discussion

G_j

(40,367 posts) Fri Sep 27, 2013, 11:31 PM Sep 2013

Asking What Kissinger Thinks–but Not What He Did

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Posted by Peter Hart

On September 22, CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer had a long interview with Henry Kissinger.

Take a look at the intro:

In the long history of America, few men have had the influence of Henry Kissinger. For at least 60 years, powerful people have asked: "What does Henry think?" And he has never been shy about telling them….

Kissinger would go on to be Richard Nixon's national security adviser. He received the Nobel Prize for getting peace talks started on Vietnam, was point man for the opening to China, and guided the effort to forge new arms agreements with the Soviet Union. The media loved him. He became secretary of State and as Watergate exploded, kept American foreign policy together at a time when America had never been more vulnerable.

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A more apt description of Kissinger's record might skip the part about bringing peace to Vietnam and instead reference the massive aerial bombardment of Cambodia–"a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies or anything that moves," as he himself put it (New York Times, 5/27/04)–in addition to the heavy bombings of Vietnam and Laos.

Kissinger's tenure including support for the military coup that overthrew the Allende government in Chile and support for the murderous Indonesian dictator Suharto's policies in East Timor (FAIR Action Alert, 9/1/99).

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It's hard to know what Schieffer means when he says that Kissinger "kept American foreign policy together" at a difficult time. But it's clear that he, like so many others in the media, greatly admires Kissinger. There's no doubt they are aware of his record. Either they find that record laudable, or they think it's best not to talk about. Neither option is journalistically defensible.