Nobel winner Henry Kissinger, honored mass murderer of millions, is finally dead 

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This has been a hard week for me.

I thought I had grasped the definition of the verb, “to suffer,” but now I’ve found it means something substantially different from the many notable owies of my life.

Obviously, my readers don’t want to hear boring explanations of why I’ve been so miserable, but my whole perspective really has changed. In fact, I’d now be inclined to include my E.N.T. surgeon as a certified “world terrorist organization.”

One week ago, I blithely trotted into an outpatient surgical clinic to fix my only congenital defect. (Of course, my wife would tell you that I have others, but, for all practical purposes nose-breathing was my only flaw.) Years ago, another E.N.T. had scoped me, determining that no air was passing through my left nostril.

As I’ve aged the condition has worsened. Despite my earnest attempts at a full 8 hours of sleep, my laborious breathing has cut me back to a mere 4.5 hours per night.

So, as a measure to reestablish healthy sleep patterns, I agreed to allow Dr. Eckz Crewshiating Payne to do his best to make me a flawless human specimen.

Dr. Payne was mostly forthcoming. “I will move your septum over so that your blocked nostril can actively participate in your breathing. At the same time, I’ll be resecting the enlarged turbinates so that they no longer interfere with healthy airflow.”

As a matter of limiting his liability for a bad outcome, he made it clear that surgery might not totally correct my breathing problems, and that there would be “some mild discomfort during the recuperative process.”

He never mentioned that the “mild discomfort” would be accompanied by horrific, intractable pain and that suicidal ideation was a likely consequence. The actual surgery-related pain was the least of my concerns. The really bad part was that Dr. Payne allowed the hospital ambulance fleet—and one dump truck—to park with their rear wheels sitting on my sinuses. Even the recent Hamas horrors pale when compared with the brutality of this torture, and I have reported his actions on the International Terrorist Hotline.

To top-off the pain in my week, my little brother, known for his wit, sent me an email noting the death of Henry Kissinger. Typical of “Kid-Bubba,” there was just a hint of humor describing the event—an event for which our nation’s flags are at half-mast and every wannabe, seeking a little press, has gleefully chimed in on the passing of a reportedly great statesman, academic and advisor to multiple U.S. presidencies.

His subject line was “Death of Kiss ….” My response: “It should have read, 'Kiss of Death.'”

And it’s true. The “revered statesman,” political scientist, world-meddler, advisor to multiple U.S. presidents, able negotiator, famous mushroom/toad/wart and, most important, mass-murderer extraordinaire is finally gone after inflicting himself on our world for the past 100 years.

Frankly, he lived exactly 100 years too long and, for the right-to-life extremists who believe a fertilized cell is a human being, you can add another 9 months to his less-than-angelic life.

Unlike some of my younger readers, I was there through the entire time that Kissinger dominated America’s presence on the world diplomatic stage, so I had an understanding of both what he was and what he was not. He was so much less than his uber-fan-worship; not at all worthy of his international leading-man, centerfold photogeneity; not so much a hero when it came to saving his own country’s reputation; and certainly not the go-to guru of international relations.

No matter what final, insincere accolades eulogize him, Kissinger’s legacy is not a pretty one. His crimes against humanity are among the grandest, making the John Wayne Gacys, Jeffrey Dahmers and Ted Bundys virtually insignificant in their meager pursuits of mayhem and death.

Let’s dispense with the semantics: Death has only one meaning; unequivocally, murder is murder. And yet, society seems to have a different way of looking at murders that are part of our country’s political agenda.

We don’t consider the actions of, say, George W. Bush to be in the same category as the rapes and murders of the charming Ted Bundy. One, we like to think, was the twisted mind of a monster. But I find myself forced to consider why—just why?—the two killers are relegated to totally different levels of importance. After considerable, incisive thought, I can come to only one conclusion: Murder can be defined only by substance, not context.

Despite all the ifs, ands, or buts, it can’t be justified by public policy or by a nation’s belief that its god is OK with killing the innocent.

And, like the grandest of the mass-murderers, Kissinger—bright, academic, smugly-wedded to the call of self-importance—was just another moth flying to the call of the spotlights. Whatever grave decisions he would make during his reign of influence, he would cut down millions of lives, all with the nimble grace of a Samurai.

Somehow, in the middle of it all, Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Apparently, Kissinger actually considered returning the prize but, considering his humongous ego and how a quest for glory dominated his life, he kept the prize.

Down deep, he was troubled by the understanding that U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia had been a disastrous mistake. Though the Paris Peace Talks had ended in a cessation of hostilities, there was certainly no glory in the millions of lives that had been lost.

In brief, here’s a summary of Kissinger’s crimes:
—Kissinger claimed that the bombing of Cambodia was necessary to prevent its support of North Vietnam, while he and Nixon lied to the American public. Exact numbers are not known, but around 300,000 were killed, millions displaced, and one-fifth of the country was destroyed—though Cambodia was never a combatant.
—Kissinger and President Gerald Ford gave the green-light for Indonesian dictator Suharto to invade East Timor, throwing the country into a multi-decade civil war (1975-1999) that killed 200,000 or more.
—Kissinger and President Nixon decided that regime change was necessary in Chile. Pres. Salvadore Allende died by suicide, and about 40,000 Chileans were killed—all in the name of protecting South America from communism.
—Kissinger provided U.S. support to the military junta of General Jorge Rafael Videla, which overthrew President Isabel Peron in March of 1976. The so-called “dirty wars” that followed were responsible for the “disappearances” of up to 30,000 Argentinians who were simply never heard of again.
—The 1970 war between East Pakistan and West Pakistan was backed by Kissinger and Nixon. When the war was over, the country of Bangladesh was born. Its cost, according to the Bangladeshi government, may have exceeded 5-million lives.

Add them up, and the Kissinger/Nixon/Ford teams rank high on the list of the world’s most prolific mass-murderers. Was Kissinger a good guy? Unfortunately, his legacy is not much more clouded than others who had the nerve to make decisions that killed, raped and displaced millions of our fellow human beings.

Get ready: The next Nobel Prizes will be awarded on Dec. 10. My guess is that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive the 2023 Nobel Prize for Peace. After all, he could have easily killed over 2 million Palestinians, but (compassionately) left a few standing.

Bravo!

The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and their adorable and ferocious “Poppy.” comments@cityweekly.net