There has almost been too much to read since Henry Kissinger, the former national security adviser and secretary of state who served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died on Wednesday.
These bombings, which destabilized the country, played a role in the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, who went on to kill approximately 2 million people during his four-year stint in power.
Kissinger was also an architect of the U.S. effort to undermine the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile.
In the wake of the 1973 coup d’état that installed Gen. Augusto Pinochet at the head of a military dictatorship, Kissinger also pushed the United States to back the new regime, which killed, tortured or imprisoned tens of thousands of Chileans.
“I think we should understand our policy — that however unpleasant they act, this government is better for us than Allende was,” Kissinger said to his deputies, according to declassified transcripts, in the weeks after the coup.
Persons:
Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Kissinger, ”, Pol Pot, Salvador Allende, Augusto Pinochet, Allende, ” Kissinger, Pinochet
Organizations:
Communist
Locations:
Cambodia, United States, Khmer, U.S, Chile