Archiv: Nixon Administration (1969-1974)


07.02.2024 - 17:12 [ Yale University ]

Genocide Studies Program: United States Policy on the Khmer Rouge regime, 1975-1979

2. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger discusses the Khmer Rouge regime with Thailand’s Foreign Minister Chatichai, November 26, 1975

Kissinger: “You should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won’t let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them.”

3. Ford and Kissinger discuss Cambodia with Indonesia’s President Suharto, Jakarta, December 5, 1975

4. Former US National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, on China and the Khmer Rouge, 1979:

“I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him, but China could.” According to Brzezinski, the USA “winked, semi-publicly” at Chinese and Thai aid to the Khmer Rouge.

07.02.2024 - 16:55 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

BBC-Filmreihe “The Trap” (III): Die Freiheit von Berlin oder Der “Kampf der Zivilisationen”

(18. November 2012)

1965 begannen die U.S.A. während des Krieges gegen Nordvietnam ein ebenso mörderisches, wie geheimes Bombardement gegen das neutrale Kambodscha, was bis 1954 Kolonie Frankreichs gewesen war. 2,7 Millionen Tonnen Bomben zwischen 1965 bis 1973 beförderten Kambodscha “zurück in die Steinzeit” und töteten 200.000 Menschen. Den U.S.-Bomberpiloten wurde vom Pentagon sogar verboten, die eigenen Vorgesetzten zu informieren. Die angeblichen Militärstützpunkte Nordvietnams in Kambodscha, wegen denen die Bombardements vermeintlich durchgeführt wurden, existierten nicht.

Was die Tat von Wahnsinnigen war, wurde nachher als “Wahnsinnigen-Theorie” (“Madman-Theory”) verkauft: die U.S.-Regierung unter Präsident Richard Nixon und Außenminister Henry Kissinger (der später den Friedensnobelpreis bekam) behauptete, sie habe sich wahnsinnig benommen, um der Sowjetunion Angst vor einem Atomkrieg zu machen, damit diese Druck auf Nordvietnam ausübe, damit das den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. beende, den die U.S.A. selbst begonnen hatten.

1970 stürzten die U.S.A. die Monarchie unter “Prinz” Sihanouk, installierten ein Proxy-Regime und marschierten in Kambodscha ein. Sihanouk, einst 1941 im Alter von achtzehn Jahren vom französischen Vichy-Regime unter deutscher Besatzung zum neuen König der damaligen französischen Kolonie Kambodscha ernannt, floh ins China Mao Tse Tungs und formierte dort eine kambodschanische “Freiheitsbewegung”. Deren Teil: die Roten Khmer.

1972 besuchte Richard Nixon als erster U.S.-Präsident China und Mao Tse Tung, im Versuch gegen das mit der Sowjetunion verbündete Nordvietnam einen Verbündeten zu finden und die Rivalitäten sowohl zwischen China und Vietnam, als auch zwischen China und der Sowjetunion zu schüren.

Als 1975 in Vietnam die Truppen des Vietkong und Nordvietnams in Saigon einmarschierten und den Krieg gegen die U.S.A. gewannen, marschierten in Kambodscha die Truppen der Roten Khmer – von China unterstützt und traditionell verfeindet mit den vietnamesischen Kommunisten – plötzlich in der Haupstadt Phnom Penh ein. Und setzten Prinz Sihanouk als offizielles Staatsoberhaupt ein.

Von der Schreckensherrschaft Pol Pots, auf dessen Killing Fields Millionen Leichen lagen und dessen Verbündeter Prinz Sihanouk nach wie vor im Land lebte, befreite Kambodscha 1979 nicht etwa die “negative Freiheit” der U.S.A., von Frankreich, oder der U.N.O., sondern die einrückenden Truppen des kommunistischen Vietnams.

Die Mörder der Roten Khmer, die gerade einen Genozid begangen hatten, flohen in Dschungel und begannen dort einen neuen Guerillakrieg – mit Unterstützung der U.S.A. und anderer ehrenwerter westlicher Länder. 1982 formierten die Massenmörder unter Führung Sihanouks eine Exilregierung, die von den U.S.A., der U.N.O und unwichtigen Ländereien Westeuropas anerkannt wurde.

Vizepräsident dieser kambodschanischen Exilregierung: das “Staatsoberhaupt” des Pol Pot Regimes von 1976-1979, Khieu Samphan. Er lebt heute noch. Er sagt, er hätte nichts gewusst.

Pol Pot wurde nie verfolgt. Dafür sorgten die U.S.A..

Neues altes Staatsoberhaupt Kambodschas wurde 1991 Sihanouk, nach dem Abzug der vietnamesischen Truppen. Er starb erst vor wenigen Tagen, am 15. Oktober 2012, in Peking.

07.02.2024 - 16:34 [ Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - eccc.gov.kh ]

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS – “DUCH” TRIAL PUBLIC

(6 April 2009, 0910H)

Q. Still in the political context — of course, we will go back to your detention, speak about your detention a bit later, but you also spoke about the coup d‘etat of 1970, so a coup d‘etat through which Sihanouk was deposed and a republican regime that was set up by Lon Nol was installed.

Can you tell us, you were — can you tell us how this was perceived? In particular, how the declaration of March 1970 was perceived through which Prince Sihanouk asked the Cambodian people to rise up? I‘d like to understand how the CPK, Communist Party of Kampuchea, experienced this period and was there a real union? What happened, in fact?

[10:19:40]

A. Judge Lavergne, I would like to respond to your question based on my political view. Samdech Norodom Sihanouk was the Head of State of Cambodia. His position was the populist to preserve his throne. It was not Norodom Sihanouk. Lon Nol was

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affiliated with the United States, and when he grasped or controlled the Assembly in 1966, he managed to — he really caused the dispute and the uprising in Samlaut at the Sihanoukist side, and the other side is the Communist side which are affiliated with Marxist and Leninist, and these things were mixed up.

I think through my understanding, if Richard Nixon did not be quick to allow Lon Nol to start the coup d‘etat and allowing Khmer Rouge to cooperate with Sihanouk, I think Khmer Rouge would be demolished or otherwise they would never be able to stand up again. But Mr. Kissinger and Richard Nixon weren‘t quick and the Khmer Rouge noted the golden opportunity and King Sihanouk declare from China that all Cambodian people go through the Marxist jungle and then the Khmer Rouge troop will build up from 1970 to 1975.

I think this is the political context and people tried to gain — to have political gain. Lon Nol tried to benefit from politics and then Sihanouk also tried to gain benefit for his side.

07.02.2024 - 16:15 [ Reuters ]

Khmer Rouge jailer says U.S. contributed to Pol Pot rise

(April 6, 2009)

Duch, the first of five Pol Pot cadres to face trial for the 1975-79 reign of terror in which 1.7 million Cambodians died, said the Khmer Rouge would have faded if the U.S. had not got involved in Cambodia.

„Mr Richard Nixon and Kissinger allowed the Khmer Rouge to grasp golden opportunities,“ the 66-year-old former jailer said at the start of the second week of his trial by the joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal.

07.02.2024 - 14:20 [ Sophal Ear / theConversation.com ]

Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge

(November 30, 2023)

To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the title of William Shawcross’ damning book exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973.

During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated 500,000 tons  of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country.

Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was turning against American involvement. The bombing campaign is also considered illegal under international law by many experts.

But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.

It resulted in the direct deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But estimates on the number of deaths range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million.

18.12.2023 - 18:15 [ Le Monde ]

„Operation Condor“ – neue Erkenntnisse über einen schmutzigen Krieg

(11.05.2001)

Erst die zufällige Entdeckung von zwei Tonnen Aktenmaterial aus der Stroessner-Diktatur hat eine erste Rekonstruktion der kriminellen Machenschaften dieses internationalen Netzwerks ermöglicht. Ende Dezember 1992 wurden sie in einer Polizeistation von Lambaré gefunden, einem Vorort der paraguayischen Hauptstadt Asunción. Auf Grund der Freigabe bis dahin als geheim eingestufter CIA-Dokumente über Chile am 13. November 2000 konnte der Inhalt dieser „Akten des Terrors“ überprüft und präzisiert werden.

Seit der panamerikanischen Konferenz von Chapultepec, die im Februar 1945 in Mexiko stattfand, schwören die USA die südamerikanischen Militärs auf den Kampf gegen den Kommunismus ein. In Chapultepec war beschlossen worden, dass das 1942 geschaffene Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) seine Tätigkeiten weiterführen sollte.

DAS aus Offizieren der Unterzeichnerstaaten zusammengesetzte Gremium sollte nach Möglichkeiten suchen, die im Krieg begonnene militärische Zusammenarbeit weiterzuentwickeln. In seinem Rahmen wurden im Jahr 1951 bilaterale Militärhilfeabkommen unterzeichnet: ….

18.12.2023 - 18:02 [ UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) ]

Chile: Operation Condor judgment major win for accountability – Türk

GENEVA (15 December 2023) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today hailed Chile’s Supreme Court judgement on Operation Condor – a notorious campaign coordinated among South America’s dictatorships in the 70s and 80s to persecute political opponents and dissidents – as a major step towards accountability for thousands of victims.

The former dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay implemented Operation Condor to search for, persecute, torture, summarily kill and forcibly disappear people perceived as dissidents across the region. They used a myriad of tactics to eliminate them, including throwing people out of aeroplanes and helicopters.

On 14 December, in a unanimous ruling, Chile’s Supreme Court confirmed the convictions of 22 agents of the dissolved Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) for the kidnappings and qualified homicides of some victims of the Operation Condor, and ordered reparation measures.

11.09.2023 - 18:44 [ George Washington University ]

Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973

(September 11, 1998)

Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile have been actually declassified- -until recently. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.

These documents include:

– Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende‘s election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.

– CIA memoranda and reports on „Project FUBELT“–the codename for covert operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende‘s government. The documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against Allende‘s government

– National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to „destabilize“ Chile economically, and isolate Allende‘s government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.

– State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General Pinochet.

– FBI documents on Operation Condor–the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.

These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain–providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.

11.09.2023 - 18:07 [ Amerika21.de ]

50. Jahrestag des faschistischen Militärputsches in Chile

Am 11. September 2023 jährt sich zum 50. Mal der Tag des faschistischen Militärputsches gegen die demokratisch gewählte Regierung der Unidad Popular unter Salvador Allende in Chile. Diesen Tag wollen wir zum Anlass nehmen, um an den 50. Jahrestag des Putsches zu gedenken.

11.09.2023 - 18:00 [ USA Today ]

‚The other 9/11‘: As US marks attack anniversary, another infamous milestone looms

The other 9/11 happened in 1973, when Chile‘s government was overthrown by a military coup d‘état led by Augusto Pinochet and encouraged by the United States. It was the beginning of a 17-year dictatorship that saw the deaths and disappearances of at least 3,065 people, the brutal torture of thousands more and a child-trafficking system that stole babies from poor mothers and adopted them out in the U.S. and other nations.

09.09.2023 - 17:12 [ Amnesty International ]

ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION: 50 YEARS OF DISPOSSESSION

(June 2017)

For half a century, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip has resulted in systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there.

19.08.2023 - 16:52 [ Bloomberg ]

The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s 41-Year U.S. Debt Secret

(May 31, 2016)

The basic framework was strikingly simple. The U.S. would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and provide the kingdom military aid and equipment. In return, the Saudis would plow billions of their petrodollar revenue back into Treasuries and finance America’s spending.

It took several discreet follow-up meetings to iron out all the details, Parsky said. But at the end of months of negotiations, there remained one small, yet crucial, catch: King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud demanded the country’s Treasury purchases stay “strictly secret,” according to a diplomatic cable obtained by Bloomberg from the National Archives database.

20.06.2023 - 18:33 [ NBC News / Youtube ]

Remembering RFK’s Final Speech 50 Years Later | NBC News

Jun 6, 2018
Shortly after he finished his California primary victory speech on June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot. He died the next day. Here are some key moments from his final speech

07.01.2023 - 19:14 [ Bloomberg ]

The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s 41-Year U.S. Debt Secret

(May 31, 2016)

The basic framework was strikingly simple. The U.S. would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and provide the kingdom military aid and equipment. In return, the Saudis would plow billions of their petrodollar revenue back into Treasuries and finance America’s spending.

It took several discreet follow-up meetings to iron out all the details, Parsky said. But at the end of months of negotiations, there remained one small, yet crucial, catch: King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud demanded the country’s Treasury purchases stay “strictly secret,” according to a diplomatic cable obtained by Bloomberg from the National Archives database.

27.11.2022 - 15:57 [ Freedom of the Press Foundation ]

The extradition of Julian Assange must be condemned by all who believe in press freedom1

(June 17, 2022)

There is some historical irony in the fact that this extradition announcement falls during the anniversary of the Pentagon Papers trial, which began with the Times publication of stories based on the legendary leak on June 13, 1971, and continued through the seminal Supreme Court opinion rejecting prior restraint on June 30, 1971.

In the months and years following that debacle, whistleblower (and FPF co-founder) Daniel Ellsberg became the first journalistic source to be charged under the Espionage Act. What many do not know is that the Nixon administration attempted to prosecute Times reporter Neil Sheehan for receiving the Pentagon Papers as well — under a very similar legal theory the Justice Department is using against Assange.

28.11.2019 - 17:45 [ Democracy Now! / Youtube ]

Operation Condor Trial Tackles Coordinated Campaign By Latin American Dictatorships To Kill Leftists

(07.03.2013)

A historic trial underway in Argentina is set to reveal new details about how Latin American countries coordinated with each other in the 1970s and ‘80s to eliminate political dissidents. The campaign known as „Operation Condor“ involved military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. They worked together to track down, kidnap and kill people they labeled as terrorists: leftist activists, labor organizers, students, priests, journalists, guerilla fighters and their families. The campaign was launched by the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and evidence shows the CIA and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were complicit from its outset.