Magnificent. Required Listening.

A magnificently scornful and depressingly accurate resume of Dr Kissinger's actions and our collective acceptance of/falling for the dodgy dealing required by "realpolitik". Tom Lehrer reportedly gave up on satire when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. What surprises me about the catalogue of horrors is that while specific instances eg East Timor, were news to me; overall, to quote Joan Didion of Charles Manson "I wish that I could say I was surprised". I was a child (8, 9 or 10 years old) when the Paris peace talks on Vietnam stalled and I do remember wondering if the USA Presidential election/internal USA politics were why they stalled - the names Nixon and Kissinger meant nothing to me then of course. I do recall wondering how Dr K. managed to dodge the Watergate Bullet? But that was years later of course. That Dr K. has successfully dodged overall retribution is a tribute to the degree of grovelling that power attracts in our society. He won't be bagged now.

Required listening - particularly if, like me, you grew up through the era via TV News and Documentaries. The UK ringside seat for the Vietnam War. What a price was paid for Nixon and China? Sparked many thoughts in my mind, recollections. Made me think about what is going on today with The Ukraine and the realpolitik that led up to it. The unintended consequences we all now face following Chancellor Merkel's rapprochement with the USSR/Putin? I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this reading.

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Some stories must be told, and this is one

A shameful man in a shameful series of self-serving tragedies. Listening should be mandatory for all Americans. forget your QAnon nonsense, the truth is often worse than such fictions.

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An eye-opener

I was always aware of questions about Henry Kissinger but never imagined it covered such a wide range of countries. If 50% of what Christopher Hitchens has written is true the American political system has much to answer for - I found this to be an eye-opening experience.

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Justice/Injustice

As Hitch22 this work was also "Brilliant" in it's narrative & compelling delivery 👏

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Hitchens #1

Sharp, insightful. The inimitable Christopher Hitchens. So sadly missed. Expertly read, as always, by Simon Pebble.

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Well produced and interesting

The narration is very good and perfectly suited to the material. It's an interesting book and has lots of good insights - including a lot of things that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. Well worth a listen.

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behind the mask

gripping account of one of history 's pre-eminent statesmen and his skullduggery hitherto unknown .

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Meticulous demolition of a career

Hitchens and Dorfman’s research and arguments, at times overwhelm with detail, but the case against Kissinger is painstakingly constructed.

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A compelling case that shames the USA

Hitchens meticulously deconstructs the record of Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger. The charges laid before Kissinger are extensive and heinous. The extension of the Vietnamese war by four years, the expansion of that war into the neutral counties of Laos and Cambodia, the support of the Indonesian dictator Suharto in the annexing of East Timor (including the genocide of 1/3rd of the Timorese people) and support for the Greek junta in the invasion of Cyprus. Add to this Kissingers involvement in the death of Chile's democratically-elected president Salvador Allende, his support for the muderous General Pinochet and his repeated lies to Congress and the Senete - wow! This is a book worth reading.

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History and Politics.

Excellent writing, as you would expect from Christopher Hitches.
I had been wishing to read this book and this was made easy by having the audio version.
Detailed and well argued. Some things were new to me, for example, the chapter on Greece and Cypress. There are chapters on Chile, East Timor, Angola, and Vietnam, all of which told me numerous facts and details of which I had not known, meticulously collected and well presented.
It presents facts and figures which are truly horrifying, although nothing that forced me to stop reading in the way that I had to put away one of Chomsky's books for example, and my feeling was anger that Kissinger has not yet been brought to justice, rather than fear that I'll have nightmares. That's important to say because I would have read the book sooner knowing this.
This version has a good bit of new information added since the first edition. For example, from documents since released.
The book is well named. It is necessary because of the fact that Kissinger has never been tried for his crimes. Surely, surely, Kissinger would have sued Hitchens for this book if he had had any grounds to do so.
I am thankful indeed for journalists who work so hard to bring us the truth.

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