Q&A is Sunday Dec. 3, 8-9pmET; Kissinger the Democracy Destroyer

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On the occasion of the death of Henry Kissinger, here is my May 2023 post that discusses his role in destroying democracy in Chile by backing and enabling the 1973 coup. I often think of how Kissinger fled Nazi Germany as a young man, only to help millions lose their freedoms and their lives.

To encourage Nixon to step up his involvement in Chile, Kissinger claimed that Chilean President Salvador Allende, a non-aligned Socialist, was another Hitler who intended to establish a “one-party state.” Thus the Chilean coup could be justified as defeating not just Communism but Fascism as well.

When today’s despots say they are acting in service to freedom (Putin recently depicted himself as a freedom fighter, and Trump and the GOP argue that Jan. 6 was a attempt to save American liberty) they echo a long tradition of authoritarian propaganda which Kissinger helped to shape.

Henry Kissinger on the cover of TIME, Feb. 7, 1972.