this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Can someone please explain what he did to be labeled a war criminal?

Genuine question, because I only know this guy as an asshole who suggested Ukraine should give up it’s occupied territories.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

He's got a 6-8 part Behind the Bastard series about him but the article here is a tldr. Basically he is directly responsible for killing about four million people, basically carpet bombed Vietnam and was in Watergate.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

He (and Ford) came to Indonesia during Soeharto's New Order and endorsed invasion of East Timor. That was one day before the invasion happened.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Wow, I’m surprised I’ve never heard this before.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

He drove us policy for decades, especially “the ends justify the means” stuff.

As a partial explanation, not an excuse, y’all have to remember this was the Cold War. A lot of this was accepted as a necessary evil to prevent the big EVIL. If you thought you had to choose between civilization ending WWIII, vs interfering in a third world conflict, the evil may not be as clear cut as y’all think. Kissinger drove the bus but we all went along.

Falling for however much of that was propaganda is all on us.

We also mostly fell for it in Iraq. If you take anything from this diplomat’s life work, DONT FALL FOR THE PROPAGANDA. it’s easy to see the evil with hindsight and in a different world, but we all need to develop the skepticism and questioning to see this for it is when it happens again.

I’m proud of my country but that includes seeing where we’ve failed and it’s all of our duty to see when it’s stepping off the ideal path and do our part to get it back on track