I picked up "Trials of Henry Kissinger" in the bargain bin at Blockbuster.

[KoKo]

and watched it last night. It's based on Christopher Hitchens' book.

It's a Must Watch. Particularly for those of you like me who have a stack of Must Read books that you are trying to read, but want to just sit in front of the tube and sort change.

I don't know why it was in the "bargain bin" but it must be available in your local video store so try to rent it.

I cannot stand Hitchins, and it was hard to look at his boozed face with the cig dangling, but he only appears in a few spots in the documentary.
It's hard to believe that he could write the book this documentary is based on and be the creep Bush supporter he is today...but the documentary is fascinating. Particularly good for DU newbies who don't always know why some of us "oldies" are so crazed about some subjects.

Anyway, here's a clip so you get what it's all about. If any of the rest of you have seen it, or read the book, what do you think happened to Hitchens that he turned to the "dark side." I don't agree with him about Mother Theresa but Kissinger in my memory is as bad or worse than this documentary portrays him. The documentary also shows why "criminals" in government...don't always get punished, particularly when they know which side to play to and where the bodies are buried.

THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER
Tuesday 31 August 2004 10.30pm-11.50pm; Wednesday 1 September 2.50am-4.10am (Tuesday night)


"Henry Kissinger is a war criminal," says firebrand journalist Christopher Hitchens. "He's a liar. And he's personally responsible for murder, for kidnapping, for torture." What is Hitchens on about? He could be talking about the lawsuit currently under way in Washington DC, in which Kissinger is charged with having authorised the assassination of a Chilean general in 1970. Or he could be referring to the secret bombing of Cambodia which, arguably, Kissinger engineered without the knowledge of the US Congress in 1969. Or perhaps Kissinger's involvement in the sale of U.S. weapons to Indonesian President Suharto for use in the massacre of 1/3 of the population of East Timor in 1975.

These and several other recent charges have cast a haunting shadow on the reputation of a man long seen as the most famous diplomat of his age, the Nobel Laureate who secured peace in Vietnam, who secretly opened relations between the US and China, and who now, more than a quarter-century out of office, remains a central player on the world stage, only recently voted the number one public intellectual of the 20th century.

Featuring previously unseen footage, newly declassified US government documents, and revealing interviews with key insiders to the events in question, The Trials of Henry Kissinger examines the charges facing him, shedding light on a career long shrouded in secrecy. In part, it explores how a young boy who fled Nazi Germany grew up to become one of the most powerful men in US history and now, in the autumn of his life, one of its most disputed figures.

It is at once an unauthorised biography and a look at the sparks that fly when an honoured American statesman is charged with war crimes. The film tackles the question of whether principals of international law applied by Americans to their enemies are applicable to Americans, or whether these laws are only written for the losers of conflicts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/fea...

[speedoo]

1. Kissinger is pure evil.

I actually hate him even more than the coWard.

[jonnyblitz]

2. I agreed with him on Mother Theresa. n/t

[KoKo]

3. Really....why? I thought he wrote about her just to make a name for

himself as a "contrarian." He's a weird bird Hitch...I begin to think Kissinger is the only decent thing he's ever done. The drinking brought him down, along with his own ego. :shrug: