Former President Nixon is pretty much universally reviled for his part in attempting to cover up the Watergate break-in. Bad judgement on his part. In my view a small sin overshadowed by his great accomplishment in getting us out of Vietnam. I am no great fan of communism, but I dislike scheming corrupt dictatorships even more, and that's what we were supporting in South Vietnam. Personally, I think those kinds of situations are perfect breeding grounds for communist revolution. Trying to suppress a revolution under those conditions is a waste of time.
Henry Kissinger was President Nixon's Secretary of State. I never liked him, though I can't really say why. Pompous a-hole maybe, but there are lots of people like that. I mean, what do I care? I don't know him personally, I don't have to talk with him. So what if he is a jackass? Still, there is this underlying suspicion that deep down he is just no good, and today in the paper I got a little glimpse of why that might be.
Duch (pronounced "Doik") is on trial in Cambodia for genocide committed when the Khmer Rouge were in power. One of the little bits I found in the AP story in the paper was that, according to Duch, the Khmer Rouge would never have come into power if the US had not backed the military in their Coup d'Etat that over threw Prince Sihanouk. Cambodia had been technically neutral, and the US didn't like that as the North Vietnamese were using parts of Cambodia for their military operations against the US supported South Vietnam.
The Khmer Rouge killed about 2 million people in the four years they were in power. Kissinger is an arrogant jerk.
This paragraph about Operation Condor might explain why I harbor suspicions about Henry. I don't remember hearing about Operation Condor, but who knows?
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