HLee

**Notes** - US afraid of Soviet Union communism influence on Southeast Asia - Resulted in Vietnam war. - sabotaged peace talks in 1968 that dragged the Vietnam war for 4 more years - America was willing to commit whatever resources were needed to incorporate it into the American Empire. - American military believed that Cambodian territory was providing a transportation route from North to South Vietnam and haven where North Vietnam established its headquarters. - Cambodia's use by North Vietnam was becoming a problem. - In 1969, President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry A. Kissinger, unleashed B-52 carpet bombing for over fourteen months against a people who still tilled the soil with water buffalo. - 3500 bombings resulted in 600,000 deaths. - Did not seek the necessary approval from Congress to bomb Cambodia. - Tried to keep it a secret from American public and Congress.

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- Evidence shows that Kissinger sabotaged the 1968 the 1968 Vietnam peace talks which allowed the US involvement in the Vietnam war to drag on for another four years. Three million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans were killed because of this. - Evidence that Kissinger personally persuaded Nixon to extend the war to Cambodia and Laos which led to another million civilian deaths. - "Operation Breakfast" - The raids killed 350,000 civilian in Laos and more than 600,000 in Cambodia.
 * Evidence**

- a lot of unauthorized work - no approval from the Congress - tried to keep the events under cover - trying to undermine and intervene with a country that they shouldn't have - bombing based on hunches, more solid evidence - easily manipulated Nixon into his ideas, he never tried to advise - extended war in vietnam
 * Prosecutor's Side**

Not only sabotaging the peace talks in 1968 that caused the Vietnam War to drag on four more years, but Henry Kissinger manipulated President Nixon into extending the war into Laos and Cambodia hence causing even more deaths than there were necessary. The bombing itself led to 600000 deaths which included not only combatants but civilians who led primitive lives. He clearly led America into a fight that should’ve been smaller. Kissinger willingly manipulated bombing in Cambodia on a hunch that there were enemy base camps and transportation trails that would give North Vietnam an advantage. His involvement in the war had already started prior to his selection as the National Security Advisor to Nixon. He had already infiltrated as consultant on foreign policy to both the White House and the State Department. When Nixon had campaigned for his 1968 presidential election, he went under the slogan that he would bring “peace with honor” and ultimately end the war in Vietnam. After his election in 1969 he appointed Kissinger the National Security Advisor who immediately discarded the goals that Nixon had preached for. The war started to escalate and the conflicts rose even higher with the increasing American involvement in the war. He oversaw secret bombing campaigns that he negotiated with Kissinger. Together they implemented policies that outwardly advocated the gradual retreat of US troops but under cover they managed to kill more civilians than the combatants they had initially believed to be the hiding in Cambodia. It may seem as though Nixon had ordered Kissinger into doing much of what he did, but Kissinger had a lot of say especially in all the foreign policies that he played a significant role in. It was not the first time Kissinger had intervened in foreign affairs and deliberately played the puppeteer in controlling other nation states into what he preferred to see. It can be shown in the conversation between Kissinger and Nixon where they revere their victory in sabotaging the government of Chile because of an assumed fear that the new president would turn communist just because of his pro-Cuban politics.
 * Nixon ** : Nothing new of any importance or is there?
 * Kissinger ** : Nothing of very great consequence. The Chilean thing is getting consolidated and of course the newspapers are bleeding because a pro-Communist government has been overthrown.
 * Nixon ** : Isn't that something. Isn't that something.
 * Kissinger ** : I mean instead of celebrating – in the Eisenhower period we would be heroes.
 * Nixon ** : Well we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one though.
 * Kissinger ** : We didn't do it. I mean we helped them. [garbled] created the conditions as great as possible.
 * Nixon ** : That is right. And that is the way it is going to be played.

Kissinger also kept much of the illegal bombings suspiciously secret, and he even went as far as to contact the editors of newspapers to quietly keep any news of the bombings covered up. Kissinger was so obsessed with his secrecy he didn’t even want the crews who were bombing Cambodia to know what their targets were. He did not want the American public to know that he had //allegedly// violated Cambodia’s declaration of neutrality. This clearly indicated that what he was not only guilty but he overlooked clearly immoral actions. He made sure that places where 1000 of 1640 people were peasants were destroyed, even though any person can be sure that it is a cruel excuse to cause so many casualties. Kissinger purely acted on his obsession to take power rather than consider any humane element in any of his actions. So how could he possibly be innocent?