Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger “has shown little in the way of a conscience. And because of that, it seems highly likely, history will not easily absolve him,” The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson writes scathingly. Anderson asks if Kissinger has a conscience altogether, putting forward the late Christopher Hitchens’ demands to prosecute Kissinger for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international law. Up until today, there have been “no legal consequences whatsoever to Kissinger for his actions in Chile, where three thousand people were murdered by Pinochet’s thugs, or for those in Vietnam and Cambodia, where he ordered large-scale aerial bombardments that cost the lives of countless civilians,” Anderson says. Following the military coup in Argentina in 1976, Kissinger told the foreign minister there “winkingly,” as Anderson puts it: “We are aware you are in a difficult period. It is a curious time, when political, criminal, and terrorist activities tend to merge without any clear separation. We understand you must establish authority. . . . If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly.”

Reading from declassified documents, “the latest revelations compound a portrait of Kissinger as the ruthless cheerleader, if not the active co-conspirator, of Latin American military regimes engaged in war crimes… Kissinger was shown not only to have been aware of what the military was doing but to have actively encouraged it. “ Anderson contrasts Kissinger’s unremorseful stance and “steadfast support for the American superpower project,” regardless of the cost in lives, to Robert McNamara, the Vietnam War-era Defence Secretary. When asked about McNamara’s expressed remorse near the end of his life, Kissinger “did an extraordinary thing. He began to cry. But no, not real tears. Before my eyes, Henry Kissinger was acting. ‘Boohoo, boohoo,’ Kissinger said, pretending to cry and rub his eyes. ‘He’s still beating his breast, right? Still feeling guilty.’ He spoke in a mocking, singsong voice and patted his heart for emphasis.” Yale has digitized and put online some of the less salacious pages here. (Best viewed on you laptop, but it will work on your iPad reasonably well.)