The left wasted little time vilifying former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who died Wednesday at the age of 100.
Various leftists argued that the Nobel Peace Prize recipient’s death should not be mourned because of his direct involvement in “war crimes,” including the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War and his support for the military overthrow of various governments in Latin America. (RELATED: Former Secretary Of State Henry Kissinger Dead At 100)
Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern wrote on Twitter that Kissinger should not be remembered fondly.
“Remembering all the lives Henry Kissinger destroyed with the terrible violence he unleashed in countries like Chile, Vietnam, Argentina, East Timor, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. I never understood why people revered him. I will never forgive or forget,” McGovern tweeted.
New York Times best-selling author Xiran Jay Zhao gloated that the former secretary of state and national security advisor, who served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, lived to witness the United States’ decline as a global superpower.
“Kind of happy Kissinger got to see the American empire decay before he died,” the author tweeted.
Democratic Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly argued that Kissinger was indifferent to the loss of life that his policies produced.
“Henry Kissinger has passed at 100. His legacy badly needs reassessment. He unleashed some of the worst violence of the last fifty years in Chile, Cambodia, Iran & Vietnam – just to name a few. His indifference to human suffering will forever tarnish his name and shape his legacy,” Connolly tweeted.
Protestors cheer upon learning Henry Kissinger died pic.twitter.com/lTkBuAJO0P
— katie smith (@probablyreadit) November 30, 2023
Content creator Anica Seelie claimed that celebration of Kissinger’s death correlates positively with … other desirable characteristics.
“[P]ay attention to who celebrates Kissinger’s death; anyone that delights in the passing of such an influential statesman knows how to party, has a perfect ass, and undoubtedly fucks good,” she tweeted.
Left-wing media personality and college professor Marc Lemont Hill slammed the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for posting a tribute lauding Kissinger as a “refugee from Nazi Germany” who “was unapologetic about his [Jewish] heritage.”
“Kissinger was a war criminal. He is responsible for the deaths of millions, along with fomenting various forms of civil unrest and violence around the world. And he was NOT unapologetic about his heritage. Instead, he comforted unabashedly antisemitic leaders by promising that he was ‘different’ or ‘one of the good ones.’ This tribute is gross,” Hill tweeted.
Left-wing New York state Sen. Julia Salazar argued that Kissinger’s defenders are the same people who support the “murder” of Palestinians.
“The overlap between individuals or orgs whitewashing Kissinger‘s war criminal record and the individuals or orgs who are justifying the state-sanctioned murder of Palestinian civilians is a circle,” Salazar tweeted.
Rolling Stone called Kissinger a “war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class.”
Kissinger’s death has drawn attention to his complex foreign policy legacy. Critics of Kissinger note that he spearheaded a mass-bombing campaign of Cambodia, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, and helped facilitate the overthrow of left-wing Latin American governments in Chile and Bolivia.
His defenders argue that Kissinger was an exemplar of “realist” foreign policy. He also played a large role in “opening China to the Western world and was the primary voice of détente with the Soviet Union that lowered tensions during the Cold War,” according to his website. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam.