The Trial of Henry Kissinger

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Trial of Henry Kissinger
LC Class
E840.8.K58 H58 2001

The Trial of Henry Kissinger is a 2001 book by

U.S. Secretary of State for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Acting in the role of prosecutor, Hitchens presents Kissinger's involvement in a series of alleged war crimes in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus and East Timor
.

Summary

In the words of Hitchens, Kissinger deserves prosecution "for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture."[1] He further calls him "a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory."[2]

The book takes the form of a prosecutorial document, as Hitchens limits his critique to such charges as he believes might stand up in an international court of law following precedents set at Nuremberg and elsewhere. These link Kissinger to war casualties in Vietnam, massacres in Bangladesh and Timor, and assassinations in Chile, Cyprus, and Washington, D.C.

The book takes a very negative view of Kissinger, calling for Americans to not ignore Kissinger's record. In the author's words, "They can either persist in averting their gaze from the egregious impunity enjoyed by a notorious war criminal and lawbreaker, or they can become seized by the exalted standards to which they continually hold everyone else."[3]

Publication history

Highlights from the book were serialized in Harper's Magazine in February and March 2001.[4]

The book was re-issued in 2012 by

No One Left to Lie To, a criticism of the political maneuvering and personal character of President Bill Clinton.[5]

Reception

Tim Walker of

polemicist and a tireless reporter. Both sets of skills are on display throughout this book as he presents damning documentary evidence against Kissinger in case after case."[6] Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch praised the book, saying it "persuasively marshals the long-known, as well as the recently declassified, evidence" of Kissinger's involvement in things such as the 1973 Chile coup and the bombing of Indochina.[7]

Vietnam War whistleblower

invasion of East Timor in 1975."[10]

A month after Hitchens' death, John R. MacArthur of Harper's Magazine, while criticizing Hitchens's interventionism after the September 11 attacks, referred to The Trial of Henry Kissinger as a "landmark book".[11]

Conversely, in a review for The Daily Telegraph, author George Jonas accused Hitchens of using devices improper to nonfiction, arguing that in one passage the author "admits he is guessing, but this does not prevent him from starting the paragraph by placing 'a tremor of anxiety'—ie, a consciousness of guilt—into Dr Kissinger's mind. This device might be acceptable in a novel—except this is not a novel."[12]

Kissinger biographer Niall Ferguson regarded the book as "deeply flawed [and] based on very thin research".[13]

Documentary film

The book inspired the 2002 documentary film The Trials of Henry Kissinger, which was co-written by Hitchens and fellow writer/director, Alex Gibney.[14] Hitchens makes an appearance in the film, being interviewed about Kissinger. The documentary also features film of Kissinger but only in archive footage.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ results, search (17 June 2002). "The Trial of Henry Kissinger". Verso – via Amazon.
  2. ISBN 9781859843987
    .
  3. ISBN 9781859843987
    .
  4. ^ "R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens - Harper's Magazine". Harper's magazine.
  5. ^ "3 books by Hitchens to be reissued in April". The Washington Times.
  6. ^ Walker, Tim (May 11, 2001). "Book Review: Readings". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  7. ^ Brody, Reed. "Review of The Trial of Henry Kissinger". Human Rights Watch.
  8. ^ "Wanted". May 18, 2001. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  9. ^ "The Trial of Henry Kissinger - Christopher Hitchens - Book Review". Onion Inc. April 19, 2002. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  10. ^ Cohen, Warren I. (June 3, 2001). "Is This Man Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  11. ^ MacArthur, John R. (January 18, 2012). "How Christopher Hitchens Flip-flopped and Fell From Grace". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  12. ^ Jonas, George (May 4, 2001). "Is this man a war criminal?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  13. ^ Ferguson, Niall (12 October 2015). "Niall Ferguson webchat – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  14. ^ a b Howard Schumann (7 May 2003). "The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002)". IMDb.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Trial_of_Henry_Kissinger&oldid=1217578584"