The Trial of Henry Kissinger

In 1968, after a decade of fighting in the Vietnam War, the United States was exhausted and bitterly divided. There were riots and protests against its involvement, and the president, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, had become hugely unpopular.

Johnson therefore decided to try and negotiate an agreement between his North Vietnamese enemies and South Vietnamese allies that would end the war. For that purpose, he helped set up “peace talks” in Paris where the deal could be hammered out.

If the talks had been a success, the war could have ended there. Yet it is very likely that one man present – a certain Henry Kissinger – was actively engaged in making them fail.

At the time, Kissinger was working as an expert on Vietnam for the US negotiation team. But although he was working for Johnson’s team, he was also secretly working with Johnson’s political opponent, Republican Richard Nixon. During the talks, Kissinger was feeding Nixon inside information on the progress of the deals. His hope was that, if the talks failed, Nixon would stand a strong chance of winning the next election.

Why did he do this?

Because although Kissinger was guaranteed a job in Johnson’s Democratic administration, he thought he could get a better one working with Nixon.

His sabotage helped the peace talks to fail and Nixon to become president. Thanks to Kissinger’s information, Nixon was able to persuade the South Vietnamese that he could get them a better deal than the Democrats. So they pulled out of the talks – just days before the presidential election. The failure of the talks helped sway the election for Nixon, and his first appointment happened to be his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger.

As a result of Kissinger’s desire for personal gain, the Vietnam War raged on for another seven years, costing the lives of several hundred thousand more people.