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""His own lonely impunity is rank; it smells to heaven. If it is allowed to persist then we shall shamefully vindicate the ancient philosopher Anacharsis, who maintained that laws were like cobwebs; strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong. In the name of innumerable victims known and unknown, it is time for justice to take a hand."" With the detention of Augusto Pinochet, and intense international pressure for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the possibility of international law acting against tyrants around the world is emerging as a reality. Yet, as Christopher Hitchens demonstrates in this compact, incendiary book, the West need not look far to find suitable candidates for the dock. The United States is home to an individual whose record of war crimes bears comparison with the worst dictators of recent history. Please stand, ex-Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Henry A. Kissinger. Weighing the evidence with judicial care, and developing his case with scrupulous parsing of the written record, Hitchens takes the floor as prosecuting counsel. He investigates, in turn, Kissinger's involvement in the war in Indochina, mass murder in Bangladesh, planned assassinations in Santiago, Nicosia and Washington, D.C., and genocide in East Timor. Drawing on first-hand testimony, previously unpublished documentation, and broad sweeps through material released under the Freedom of Information Act, he mounts a devastating indictment of a man whose ambition and ruthlessness have directly resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter.

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This is a disturbing glimpse into the dark side of American power, whose consequences in remote corners of the globe are all too often ignored. Its countless victims have found an impassioned and skilful advocate in Christopher Hitchens. - The Sunday Times An eloquent and devastating indictment of Henry Kissinger's involvement in the war in Indochina, genocide in East Timor and many other acts of indiscriminate murder. - The Village Voice This book is so studiedly defamatory that if Kissinger values his reputation, he really must sue. - Literary Review Hitchens is a brilliant polemicist and a tireless reporter. Both sets of skills are on display throughout this book as he presents damning documentary evidence against Kissinger in case after case. - San Francisco Chronicle I find it contemptible. - Henry Kissinger

This is a disturbing glimpse into the dark side of American power, whose consequences in remote corners of the globe are all too often ignored. Its countless victims have found an impassioned and skillful advocate in Christopher Hitchens. * The Sunday Times [London] * An eloquent and devastating indictment of Henry Kissinger's involvement in the war in Indochina, genocide in East Timor and many other acts of indiscriminate murder. * The Village Voice * Hitchens is a brilliant polemicist and a tireless reporter. Both sets of skills are on display throughout this book as he presents damning documentary evidence against Kissinger in case after case. * San Francisco Chronicle * It is shaming that Harper's and the Guardian excerpted this book. It is so contemptible that it almost makes a case for judicial book-burning. -- Conrad Black * The Spectator *

Sergeant Kissinger was in the OSS team working into Austria; he went on to be Dr Kissinger, professor at Harvard and expert on Metternich; he was then in turn national security adviser and secretary of state under Nixon and Ford; and has a fourth career as columnist, author and elder statesman. Christopher Hitchens cannot abide him, and wrote this book to accuse him, several times over, of complicity in murder. He maintains that in Vietnam 'the truly exorbitant death tolls all occurred on Henry Kissinger's watch, were known and understood by him, were concealed from Congress, the press and the public by him - at any rate to the best of his ability - and were, when questioned, the subject of political and bureaucratic vendettas ordered by him'. Hitchens is convinced that the massacres which attended on the formation of Bangladesh as a state independent of Pakistan were partly Kissinger's responsibility. He suggests that a Chilean general was murdered, virtually at Kissinger's request, during the disturbances that attended on Allende's election as president; and that Kissinger approved Pinochet's atrocities. Chapters on Cyprus and on Timor are equally unsettling. Ford and Kissinger took off from Jakarta airport a few hours before Indonesia invaded East Timor; and maintain to this day that they had not been told of the impending invasion, which was armed with US weapons. Hitchens ends with a side-swipe at Kissinger's commercial activities and a glance at the state of law, which might lay him open to prosecution. The Literary Review remarked of the first editon, 'This book is so studiedly defamatory that if Kissinger values his reputation he really must sue.' So far he has not done so: either he is too proud to take notice of a fellow scholar, or he is too unsure that his defence would stand up in court. Review by Professor M R D Foot (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Christopher Hitchens was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and the author of the best-selling God Is Not Great. His books published by Verso include The Trial of Henry Kissinger, No One Left to Lie To, The Missionary Position, Unacknowledged Legislation, The Parthenon Marbles, Hostage to History, and more.

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