My Response to Nate Thayer in his Defense of Kissinger

[Kenneth So]

In his article, “In Defense of the War Criminal Henry Kissinger” (http://www.nate-thayer.com/in-defense-of-the-war-criminal-henry-kissinger/), Nate Thayer said that “Kissinger didn’t do it. It was Cambodians who killed Cambodians.” I do not completely disagree with his statement, but I respectfully beg to disagree with his assertion when he said: “Those that suggest otherwise are complicit with mass murderers.”

 

It is very simplistic to blame the war totally on Kissinger and Nixon, because Cambodians were also at fault, but to say that Kissinger and Nixon were not responsible – be it directly or indirectly – for the death of Cambodians is very irresponsible on the part of Thayer.  Was Thayer really serious or did he just want to grab the limelight when he said: “The truth is the collective Cambodian political culture makes the war criminal Henry Kissinger look like Mother Theresa.” Comparing Kissinger, which Thayer called a war criminal, to Mother Theresa, which the world considers as a person of peace and compassion, is sacrilegious to say the least. How can anybody take Thayer seriously when he made that kind of obscene comment?

 

Whom did Thayer talk to when he said that most Cambodians denied Pol Pot’s crime?  To my knowledge, the only people who deny that Pol Pot was responsible for the Cambodian genocide are the Khmer Rouge and its leaders. Thayer must have talked to the Khmer Rouge people only because most of people do not share his opinion.

 

If I understand Thayer well, he seemed to mix the war in Cambodia that involved a broader array of international players with the Cambodian political system that involved local players where he talked about corruption, nepotism, etc. Thayer mixed the past war with the present state of affairs in Cambodia. These are two different issues. Nevertheless, past political maneuvers and corruption by officials were still interrelated with world politics and not completely decoupled as Thayer had suggested.

 

Thayer was incorrect when he said that the U.S. did not start to bomb Cambodia after the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk. Please read my attached article “Mutual Destruction: Khmer Republic and Nixon with Kissinger Left Standing,” showing that the U.S. bombing in Cambodia under covert operations started since the Johnson administration.

 

To Thayer’s credit, he did admit Kissinger is a war criminal. His objection is that Cambodians and/or Cambodian governments blamed the U.S. for the Cambodian genocide. For people who know history, nobody said that Kissinger created the Khmer Rouge as Thayer has suggested. Everybody knows that the Khmer Rouge existed before the coup d’état of 1970. Sihanouk himself coined the words “Khmer Rouge.” Therefore, Thayer’s accusation is misplaced and out of order.

 

Thayer is again wrong when he said that the bombing in Cambodia “was far less than the bombs dropped on neighboring Laos and Vietnam.” Thayer talked without facts to back it up. Please read my attached article showing how erroneous Thayer is.

 

I have followed Thayer’s reporting on Khmer politics over the years and I truly respect his reportage. Of all the people, I thought that Thayer would understand Nixon/Kissinger’s policies toward Cambodia better than anybody else. As he placed the blames squarely on Cambodians, I am sorely disappointed in him for giving Kissinger a free pass concerning his responsibility of widening the war in Cambodia which caused more deaths. Is it all Thayer can say in his defense of Kissinger when he said “It was Cambodians who killed Cambodians.” Of course Kissinger did not go to Cambodia and took a gun to kill Cambodians. If I follow Thayer’s reasoning logically, then I can say Pol Pot did not kill Cambodians, Hitler did not kill Jews, Stalin did not kill Soviet people, and Mao Zedong did not kill Chinese, etc.

 

The Khmer problems in the 1970s cannot be looked at in an isolated way. It must be viewed in a broader context of geopolitics during that period of time. I am submitting to you my own analysis of the Khmer problems, called “Mutual Destruction: Khmer Republic and Nixon with Kissinger Left Standing,” demonstrating that the Khmer problems were intricately entangled with the Nixon/Kissinger’s foreign policies.

Kenneth So

Kenneth So
Aryasatya (Sanskrit)
Chattari Ariyasachchani (Pali)
Chatuk Arei Sachak (Khmer)
The Four Noble Truths (English)
In Steps with Khmer Soul & Khmer Conscience