Kissinger In Context
"In 1973, Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate a cease-fire in Vietnam. In the same year, Kissinger helped oust Salvador Allende, the democratically elected president of Chile. The coup led to a brutal military regime which left in its wake thousands of victims, between those assassinated, tortured and forced into exile, and the many more victims by extension, still mourning the family members and friends they lost to the Pinochet government’s repression.
Kissinger’s legacy is thus a complex one, much like the complexity of the Cold War itself. This was an era that, for Cold Warriors on either side, embodied an ultimate conflict between good and evil, humanity and inhumanity, and that therefore justified even the most inhumane measures in the pursuit of victory. It was “cold” only for those at a distance; for those caught in the middle, the Cold War was very real, and absolutely scorching. "
Francisco Letelier Kissinger's War
So what happens after thirty years?
What happens to the survivors and the children?
A lot of different things. Some are hard to get clarity about, others are easier.
I return to the events in Chile and the death of my father over and over again. Understanding that although many of us have found a way to remake our lives and some to live committed to making a better world. Our lives, the lives of our parents, the live of our children have been altered, we have experienced a loss which can never be restored. We can mend and heal, find strength and hope, but the severity of what happened to us, our nation and those we loved can not be diminished or dismissed.
A quote from Henry Kissinger was printed at the end of an obituary written for Augusto Pinochet . It seems that he has chosen this as his best explanation for his involvement in the internal affairs of another nation and his support of the military regime headed by Pinochet.
“Today that the Cold War is over it's easy to forget what the Cold War was like. We thought rightly or wrongly, we were in a life and death struggle with the Soviet Union as a functioning global system. We were not simply engaged in an abstract philosophical debate about the virtues of Communism versus Democracy.
This is an admirable statement, truly vintage doublespeak, it says hey man we did it for you. It was war. but its in the past, thank god. We were doing the best we can and because of that we should not be judged .
To this day Mr Kissinger claims that United States intervention in other countries was justified by the threat that they might follow in Cuba’s footsteps. Think of it, that small island off the coast full of communists. Such a threat.
as many of you know
According to declassified documents that anyone can read on the National Security Archive website, Kissinger, Nixon, and CIA Director Richard Helms ordered a coup even before Allende assumed office. Kissinger and Alexander Haig worked out the details, described in an October 15, 1970, memo. "It is the firm and consistent policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup," wrote CIA Deputy Director of Plans Thomas Karamessines, who coordinated the operation. "We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end utilizing every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG and American hand be well hidden."
They believed there was a threat to Chileans and to the national security of the United States because of the things Allende might do: threaten the press, put people in jail, close Congress. These things never happened. But after Pinochet came to power and these things and more did happen, Mr Kissinger had the following to say to Pinochet when they met
" In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here. "
How do men like this arise in contemporary history and how is it that they manage to use the power of their office to disregard human life in a manner that goes exactly against Mr Kissingers remark that “We were not simply engaged in an abstract philosophical debate about the virtues of Communism versus Democracy.”
Obviously we Chileans and others were abstracted . The thinking had to do with empire, power and resources. It had little (I am being generous) or nothing to do with people, their lives and their feelings.
When you boil it down, history has to do with feelings and emotions, and we live in a time that has tried to makes life and humanity about other things. But after thirty years and after Pinochets death I can tell you honestly that feelings and emotions are what make the world turn.
*“It is what sets us apart and it is what brings us together. We are born feeling, we live feeling and die feeling”
“So bear with me, we know about Mr Kissingers much touted IQ, but what do we know about his EQ? emotional intelligence
how well does he know his emotions? How much at
home is he with them?
What did he do in the past when fear or anger arose. And what does he do today when shame and sadness arise?
Certainly Mr Kissinger can be regarded as emotionally illiterate.
Emotional illiteracy – or a lack of emotional sensitivity, understanding, and savvy – is largely rooted in the historical (and still commonplace) devaluing of emotion relative to cognition.
It is still quite common to view emotions as
being lower or more primitive than reason, muddying objectivity and important thought processes.”
*“Toward Emotional Literacy” Robert Masters
The Crucible of Awakening
Looking back into the policies implemented by Mr Kissinger on a global scale there is a fog. Motivated by fear and power, so many lives were lost and so many people like me turned into abstract pinpoints on a global map. Thinking clearly is often linked to the muting of our emotions; moral decisions are allegedly best made when passion and feeling are either “safely” out of the picture, or kept peripheral to the decision-making process, much like children excluded or kept at a distance from parental discussions.
Perhaps Mr Kissingers famous quote about the democratic process which led to the election of Allende in Chile was based largely on this belief, “"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.”
Today we know that the practice of distancing or dissociating ourselves from our emotions, including darker or more uncomfortable emotions, can seriously disrupt our ability to think clearly and act morally. Research indicates that
an impairment in emotional capacity can actually retard our ability to make sound decisions.
Feelings are needed for making truly rational decisions.
Without emotional intelligence, intellectual intelligence means little.
It's never been precisely clear what Mr Kissinger knew about efforts by the Chilean secret police to silence opponents. He has an unerring ability to dodge hard questions with lapses of recolection. It also unclear what George Bush knew and did while CIA chief in the mid-1970s, when my father Orlando Letelier and his co-worker Ronni Moffitt were assassinated in Washington by Chile's intelligence arm, DINA.
Mr Kissingger did disclose some of his feelings about my father in an interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And on the (Letelier case, you had known him?
HENRY KISSINGER: I knew Letelier. I liked him personally. He was a prisoner in Chile and I intervened on behalf of the Mexicans, of the Mexican government, to let him out and send, to go to Mexico. And I saw him, I think, two or three times when he was in Washington as an exile. I had personally hired a guard for him.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Were you shocked when he was killed in the streets of Washington?
HENRY KISSINGER: I think it was an outrage.
Mr Kissinger never intervened on my father’s behalf for the Mexican Government. Perhaps he did for others. It must be hard to remember. My father was released to Venezuela, not Mexico. I am sure Mr Kissinger might of seen my father on 2 or 3 occasions when we returned to DC in exile, it might have been in photos or across a crowded room. And perhaps he did hire a guard for him. My father certainly never knew about it. One week before he was killed the family had a meeting about the death threats he had received. His friends had urged him to get a guard or to get a gun.
He didnt opt for either.
Perhaps Mr Kissinger was outraged. It would be naïve to assume he was shocked over the loss of a couple of lives, after all, , while disengaging the parts in him that might of questioned the ultimate wisdom of his decisions, he had implemented policy that meant the certain death of countless nameless individuals.
I believe his outrage was over the fact that Pinochet had overstepped his arena of operation, it made for a problematic cleanup and disentanglement from the Chile situation.
Thirty years later the issues concerning his support of Pinochet and his henchmen continue. What a mess.
Yet he still manages a speaking engagement once in a while and even gets appointed to high positions.
Mr. Kissinger, and Richard Nixon lied to Congress, given misleading information and assuring the US played no role in the demise of Chile's democracy.
Mr Kissinger played a role not only in Chile but in Indochina, East Timor, Cyprus, with the Kurds in Iraq, and showed unconditional support of South Africa's Apartheid. The list goes on.
Things take time. It took lots of thinking and resources to bury the truth, to fool the public, to manage the public relations, to place the appropriate articles in the appropriate media sources. and it will take time to undo the myth and institution that is Henry Kissinger.
Oh guilt and shame they are hard opponents.
Feel Henry, feel.
I know that his friend Augusto Pinochet had feelings when he was arrested in London in 1998 for crimes against humanity, when his wife and son were dragged away on corruption charges, and when he was finally stripped of immunity and charged for ordering killings. He died knowing that his place in history would continue to be dismantled and that his name will forever be linked to human rights abuses and corruption. Things take time.
There has been considerable progress in dismantling the myth of Henry Kissinger and it will continue long after his death.
When the knock came on the door, we did not despair
we already knew
all we had was our dignity and truth
and we believed in it.
We did not despair when the lists were published
and we saw the names
When you disappeared we looked for you.
When they killed you we buried you and made promises
When we were interrogated we told them we knew the truth
When our neighbor was an FBI man we weren’t surprised
When the classified documents were published
the truth was in plain sight
transnational and global
Santiago, Managua, Saigon, Beirut,
Jerusalem, New York, Baghdad, feluja
Do not despair
Your only job is to know the truth and speak it in whatever language you can
wear it, be it, give it to as many as you can
Your only job is to know the truth and speak it in whatever language you can
wear it, be it, feel it
give it to as many as you can.
Francisco Letelier
Whittier College, Jan10, 2007
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