Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. London: Verso, 2001.
159 pages.
Fifteen years ago, before the end of the Cold War and the erosion
of national sovereignty, the title of this book would have seemed strange.
Then a funny thing happened on the way to globalization -- an emerging
international consensus began holding individuals accountable for gross
violations of human rights. A judge in Spain goes after Augusto Pinochet
in Britain, as Yugoslavians stand trial at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague.
Though Kissinger is in little danger, perhaps he thinks twice now about
traveling. Soon after this book was published, a French judge sent
officials to the Ritz hotel in Paris, where Kissinger was staying, and
invited him to appear and answer questions about U.S. involvement in the
coup in Chile. Kissinger declined and went on his merry way. But the
next time something like this happens, the judge may be even bolder.
Hitchens is an excellent writer and researcher. Various chapters
discuss aspects of Kissinger's career in light of commonly-accepted
criteria for judging culpability. The book begins in Indochina, and
continues with Bangladesh in 1971, Chile in the 1970s, Cyprus in 1974,
East Timor in 1975, and the Greek junta that targeted a U.S. activist for
assassination. The next time Ted Koppel brown-noses for the good Doctor,
remind yourself that the jury is still out on Kissinger's place in history.
ISBN 1-85984-631-9
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