On War Crimes Part II: Kissinger, Hitchens, & Pinochet

The bombings in this mission and the subsequent “hot pursuit” by the US across the borders into Laos and Cambodia prove in Hitchen’s mind a flagrant disregard for international law, specifically of non-intervention. Between March 1969 and May 1970 there were 3,630 such raids into Cambodia alone. The question is whether this constituted a breach of international humanitarian law or not?

Kissinger has often publicly refused to directly answer these questions or to even speak with Mr. Hitchens. But in an Interview with MSNBC’s Brian Williams, Kissinger answers Hitchens general accusations. “Yeah, I, I-- yeah, you know, I, I, I know the - these charges, and I'm not going to deal with Christopher Hitchens. He's collected everything that's ever been said--; has given it his own-- twist; he's a man who has attacked Mother Teresa, Jackie Kennedy, he said the Holocaust never existed, and I'm not going to do him the favor of getting into a debate with him,” said Kissinger.

While there may exist some evidence to implicate someone like Kissinger as a war criminal most agree that it is not to be found in Hitchens' book.

In an article looking at Hitchens and another book (Larry Berman's No Peace, No Honor:), author and former ambassador to the USSR and Czechoslovakia Jack F. Matlock Jr. writes that Hitchens' thesis, "is a phillippic pure and simple, a propaganda screed devoid not only of balance but also of proper recognition of the distinction between domestic criminal law and international law."

Up to now Kissinger has been safe under the protection of diplomatic immunity. But that may have changed in 1999 when a Spanish magistrate asked the British courts to prevent the former leader of Chile, General Augusto Pinochet, from leaving the nation. The Spanish Court has argued that Pinochet should be tried for genocide, terrorism, and torture of citizens of Spain and other nations.

Pinochet is a polarizing figure. Over his 17-year rule in Chile (1973-1990) he is consistently linked or connected to the death and torture of as many as 3,000 citizens. Pinochet has claimed that he is a great patriot who saved his nation from chaos and communism. Now courts in France and Chile want to speak with Kissinger to ask him questions about the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. So far Kissinger has resisted any questioning.

The problem with all of this, of Hitchens claims, of the Spanish

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